Cover not available

Article published In: Babel
Vol. 69:1 (2023) ► pp.76–98

Get fulltext from our e-platform
JBE logo with link
PDF logo with download linkDownload PDF
EPUB logo with download linkDownload EPUB
authorization required

A deficient presence

Translating Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL for edutainment

 | Hong Kong Shue Yan University
Published online: 20 January 2023
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/babel.00308.cha
Abstract
The collaboration between the visual and textual narrative in comics, richly loaded with cultural codes and background, leads to challenges in translation. Cultural transference in comics is inevitably obstructed and distorted. Even readers who understand both the source and target language may need help comprehending the entire narrative, not to mention monolingual readers. In an international city like Hong Kong, where cultures coexist independently yet interrelatedly, the incomprehensiveness of the translated version of Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL (Wong, Ze 王澤. 2012. Laofuzi xiaoxue chengyu 老夫子笑學成語 [Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL], vols. 2, 5, 7, and 81. Hong Kong: Ng Hing Kee Book and Newspaper Agency.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) is instantly recognized by bilingual Chinese-English readers. A problematic transposition of semiotic and cultural knowledge and a disrupted interplay between the textual and visual narratives causes incomprehension. The translation of this comic series becomes even more challenging to achieve the clear intent of edutainment. This article will argue that translated comics will appear deficient to monolingual and bilingual readers even if they are equipped with the semiotic knowledge of the source and target language. The translation of multimodal texts is considerably constrained by a chain effect triggered by posting changes to any element in comics – a syncretic semiotic environment.
Résumé
La synergie entre les narrations visuelle et textuelle dans les bandes dessinées, richement chargée de codes et de contextes culturels, pose des problèmes de traduction. Le transfert culturel dans les bandes dessinées est inévitablement obstrué et déformé. Même les lecteurs qui comprennent à la fois la langue source et la langue cible peuvent ne pas être en mesure de comprendre l’intégralité du récit, sans parler des lecteurs monolingues. À Hong Kong, où les cultures coexistent de manière indépendante mais néanmoins corrélée, les lecteurs bilingues chinois-anglais ont instantanément reconnu que la version traduite de Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL (Wong, Ze 王澤. 2012. Laofuzi xiaoxue chengyu 老夫子笑學成語 [Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL], vols. 2, 5, 7, and 81. Hong Kong: Ng Hing Kee Book and Newspaper Agency.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar) était incompréhensible. Cette incompréhension est causée par une transposition problématique des connaissances sémiotiques et culturelles, ainsi que par une perturbation de l’interaction entre les récits textuels et visuels. La traduction de cette série de bandes dessinées devient encore plus difficile étant donnée son intention claire d’en faire un texte ludoéducatif. Cet article soutient que les bandes dessinées traduites apparaissent comme un produit déficient pour les lecteurs monolingues et bilingues, même s’ils sont équipés des connaissances sémiotiques des langues source et cible. La traduction de textes multimodaux est considérablement limitée par la réaction en chaîne qui peut être déclenchée par les changements apportés à n’importe lequel des élément dans cet environnement sémiotique syncrétique.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.What is edutainment?
  • 3.Translating cultural codes in the image-text narration
  • 4.Translating “edutainment” in Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL
  • 5.Conclusion
  • Notes
  • References
References (26)
References
Asimakoulas, Dimitris. 2004. “Towards a Model of Describing Humour Translation: A Case Study of the Greek Subtitled Versions of Airplaine! and Naked Gun.” Meta 49 (4): 822–842. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. Rewriting Humour in Comic Books. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Borodo, Michal. 2015. “Multimodality, Translation and Comics.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 23 (1): 22–41. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Boria, Monica, and Marcus Tomalin. 2019. “Introduction.” In Translation and Multimodality: Beyond Words, edited by Monica Boria, Ángeles Carreres, María Noriega-Sánchez, and Marcus Tomalin, 1–23. London and New York: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Buckingham, David, and Margaret Scanlon. 2003. Education, Entertainment and Learning in the Home. Buckingham, Philadelphia: Open University Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2007. Beyond Technology: Children’s Learning in the Age of Digital Culture. Cambridge: Polity Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chute, Hillary, and Marianne Dekoven. 2012. “Comic Books and Graphic Novels.” In Cambridge Companion to Popular Fiction, edited by David Glover and Scott McCracken, 175–195. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Celotti, Nadine. 2008. “The Translator of Comics as a Semiotic Investigation.” In Comic in Translation, edited by Federico Zanettin, 33–49. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
De Assis, Érico Gonçalves. 2016. “The Concept of Fidelity in Comic Translation.” TransUlturAl 8 (2): 8–23. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Fraser, Benjamin. 2019. “On Polysemiotic Interactions, Visual Paratexts and Image- Specific Translation in Comics: The Case of Rodolfo Santullo and Matías Bergara’s Dengue.” Studies in Comics 10 (2): 277–293. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Groensteen, Thierry, and Ann Miller. 2013. Comic and Narration. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Grun, Maria, and Cay Dollerup. 2003. “‘Loss’ and ‘Gain’ in Comics.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 11 (3): 197–216. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Jüngst, Heike Elisabeth. 2008. “Translating Educational Comics.” In Comics in Translation, edited by Federico Zanettin, 172–199. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kaindl, Klaus. 2004. “Multimodality in the Translation of Humour in Comics.” In Perspectives on Multimodality, edited by Eija Ventola, Cassily Charles, and Martin Kaltenbacher, 173–192. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins Publishing Company. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Multimodality and Translation.” In The Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies, edited by Carmen Millán and Francesca Bartrina, 257–269. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2019. “A Theoretical Framework for a Multimodal Conception of Translation.” In Translation and Multimodality: Beyond Words, edited by Monica Boria, Ángeles Carreres, María Noriega-Sánchez, and Marcus Tomalin, 49–70. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Katan, David. 2019. “In Defence of the Cultural Other: Foreignisation or Mindful Essentialism?” In Contact and Contrast in Educational Context and Translation, edited by Barbara Lewandowska-Tomaszczyk, 119–142. Cham: Springer. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kress, Gunther, and Theo van Leeuwen. 1996. Reading Images: The Grammar of Visual Design. London: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Mayoral, Roberto, Dorothy Kelly and Natividad Gallardo. 1988. “Concept of Constrained Translation. Non-Linguistic Perspectives of Translation.” Meta 33 (3): 356–367. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
McCloud, Scott. 1993. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. Northampton, MA: Kitchen Sink Press.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Skwarzyński, Jerzy. 2019. “Reading Images. Comics and its Multimodality in Cultural Communication, Interpretation and Translation.” New Horizon in English Studies 41: 102–117. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, Ze 王澤. 2012. Laofuzi xiaoxue chengyu 老夫子笑學成語 [Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL], vols. 2, 5, 7, and 81. Hong Kong: Ng Hing Kee Book and Newspaper Agency.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wong, Ze. 2013. Old Master Q Chinese Idioms LOL, vols. 2, 5, 7, and 81. Hong Kong: Ng Hing Kee Book & Newspaper Agency.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zabalbeascoa, Patrick. 2008. “The Nature of the Audiovisual Text and its Parameters.” In Didactic of Audiovisual Translation, edited by Jorge Díaz-Cintas, 21–37. Amsterdam and Philadelphia: John Benjamins. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zanettin, Federico. 2010. “Humour in Translated Cartoons and Comics.” In Translation, Humour and the Media, edited by Delia Chiaro, 34–52. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2014. “Comics in Translation: An Overview.” In Comic in Translation, edited by Federico Zanettin, 1–32. Manchester: St. Jerome.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (1)

Cited by one other publication

Liu, Bilin (Belen)
2025. Self‐Consumption Translation: Exploring Interlingual Translation Within Multilingual (mainland) China. International Journal of Applied Linguistics DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 2 december 2025. Please note that it may not be complete. Sources presented here have been supplied by the respective publishers. Any errors therein should be reported to them.

Mobile Menu Logo with link to supplementary files background Layer 1 prag Twitter_Logo_Blue