Cover not available

Article published In: Translation, Cognition & Behavior
Vol. 3:2 (2020) ► pp.165–188

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

Researching the motivation of Spanish to Chinese fansubbers

A case study on collaborative translation in China

ORCiD logo with link | Beijing Foreign Studies University
Published online: 10 November 2020
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/tcb.00039.mor
Abstract
In recent years, the motivation of translators has attracted attention from TS scholars but there is a clear gap about the Chinese context. This paper explores the motivating factors of a Spanish-Chinese fansubbing group of volunteer translators that constitute a community nicknamed The Burrow. It probes into their perceptions in relation to their task and the public, and hints at the possible link between motivation, collaborative translation, and audiovisual content production by fans. A netnographical method was adopted for data gathering, via two questionnaires, a self-designed open-probe survey (OPS) and a modified version of the Volunteer Function Inventory (VFI) proposed by Clary, E. Gil, Mark Snyder, Robert D. Ridge, John Copeland, Arthur A. Stukas, Julie Haugen, and Peter Miene. 1998. “Understanding and Assessing the Motivations of Volunteers: A functional approach.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (6): 1516–1530. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar. Most fan translators think of themselves as consumers-producers and show traits similar to those of their readers. They believe producing content by themselves is related to higher motivation and also consider a relation between collaborative translation and higher motivation to exist. Self-determination theory was used for the analysis of motivations, and the emerging key motivating factors were understanding, enhancement and values. Passion and attaining experience were the two most important motivators before starting to fansub, and finding friends and having a volunteering platform were the two key motivating factors after becoming fansubbers.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Methodology
  • 3.Results and discussion
    • 3.1Profile of The Burrow fansubbers
    • 3.2Motivations of The Burrow volunteer translatorsxs
      • Motivations to start volunteering
      • Motivations to volunteer in a fansub
      • Motivations to prosume
      • Motivations for being a Spanish–Chinese fansub volunteer translator
    • 3.3Perceptions of volunteer translators
      • Fansubbing as collaborative translation
      • State of Spanish content in mainland China
      • Relationship between translated content and watched content
      • Collaborative translation and higher levels of motivation
      • Volunteer translator perceptions about the public
    • 3.4Results of VFI survey
    • 3.5Results of outcome function survey
  • 4.Conclusion
  • References
References (56)
References
Al Sukaini, Ali Khalaf M., Jing Zhang, and Ahmed Ghanim Z. Albazooni. 2015. “Mobile Crowdsourcing: Intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors influencing online communities in China.” Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness 9 (1): 129–145. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Cámara de la Fuente, Lidia. 2015. “Motivation for Collaboration in TED Open Translation.” International Journal of Web-Based Communication 11 (2): 210–229. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Chu, Donna. 2013. “Fanatical Labor and Serious Leisure. A case of fansubbing in China.” In Frontiers in New Media Research. Edited by F. L. F. Lee, L. Leung, J. L. Qiu and D. Chu, 259–277. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Clary, E. Gil, Mark Snyder, Robert D. Ridge, John Copeland, Arthur A. Stukas, Julie Haugen, and Peter Miene. 1998. “Understanding and Assessing the Motivations of Volunteers: A functional approach.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology 74 (6): 1516–1530. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cronin, Michael. 2010. “The Translation Crowd.” Tradumática: Tecnologies de la traducció 81. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deci, Edward L. 1975. Intrinsic Motivation. New York: Plenum. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
1992. “Article Commentary: On the nature and functions of motivation theories.” Psychological Science 3 (3): 167–171. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Deriemaeker, Jen. 2014. “Power of the Crowd: Assessing crowd translation quality of tourist literature.” MA Thesis, Universiteit Ghent, Belgium.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Desilets, Alain, and Japp Van der Meer. 2011. “Co-Creating a Repository of Best-Practices for Collaborative Translation.” Linguistica Antverpiensia 101: 11–27. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Díaz Cintas, Jorge, and Pablo Muñoz Sánchez. 2006. “Fansubs: Audiovisual translation in an amateur environment.” The Journal for Specialised Translation 61: 37–52. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Dombek, Magdalena. 2013. A Study into the Motivations of Internet Users Contributing to Translation Crowdsourcing: The Case of Polish Facebook User-Translators. PhD diss., Dublin City University.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Esmond, Judy, and Patrick Dunlop. 2004. Developing the Volunteer Motivation Inventory to Assess the Underlying Motivational Drives of Volunteers in Western Australia. Perth: Clan Wa.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Farrar, Laura. 2009. “Found in Translation: China’s volunteer online army.” CNN Shanghai News. Accessed 25 June 2018. [URL]
Fernández Costales, Alberto. 2012. “Collaborative Translation Revisited: Exploring the rationale and the motivation for volunteer translation.” Forum—International journal of translation 101: 115–142. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Gambier, Yves. 2012. “Denial of Translation and Desire to Translate.” Vertimo Studijos 5 (5): 9–29. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Instituto Cervantes. 2017. “El español en el mundo: Anuario del Instituto Cervantes.” Alcalá de Henares: Instituto Cervantes. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Jiménez Crespo, Miguel A. 2014. “Beyond Prescription: What empirical studies are telling us about localization crowdsourcing.” Translating and The Computer 361: 27–35. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Kelly, Natally, Rebecca Ray, and Donald A. DePalma. 2011. “From Crawling to Sprinting: Community translation goes mainstream.” Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series-TTS 101: 75–94.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kozinets, Robert V. 1998. “On Netnography: Initial reflections on consumer research investigations of cyberculture.” In NA—Advances in Consumer Research Volume 25. Edited by J. W. Alba and J. W. Hutchinson, 366–371. Provo UT: Association for Consumer Research.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
2010. Netnography: Doing ethnographic research online. Sage Publications. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Kung, Szu-Wen. 2016. “Audienceship and Community of Practice: an exploratory study of Chinese fansubbing communities.” Asia Pacific Translation and Intercultural Studies 3 (3): 252–266. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Leahey, Thomas H. 2004. A History of Psychology: Main currents in psychological thought. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Lee, Hye-Kyung. 2009. “Between Fan Culture and Copyright Infringement: Manga Scanlation.” Media, Culture & Society 31 (6): 1011–1022. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Li, Wenjing. 2015. “Crowdsourcing Translation in China: Features and implications.” In Translation and Academic Journals: The evolving landscape of scholarly publishing. Edited by Y. Sun, 149–164. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Luczaj, Kamil, Magdalena Holy-Luczaj, and Karolina Cwiek-Rogalska. 2014. “Fansubbers. The case of the Czech Republic and Poland.” COMPASO 5 (2): 175–198. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
McDonough-Dolmaya, Julie. 2012. “Analyzing the Crowdsourcing Model and its Impact on Public Perceptions of Translation.” The Translator 18 (2): 167–191. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Nord, Christiane. 1991. Text Analysis in Translation. Theory, methodology and didactic application of a model for translation-oriented text analysis. Amsterdam: Rodopi.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon. 2011. “Collaborative Translation.” In Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies. Edited by C. Millán, and F. Bartrina, 17–20. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
O’Brien, Sharon, and Reinhard Schäler. 2010. “Next Generation Translation and Localization: Users are taking charge.” In Translating and the Computer 321: 18–19. London. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
O’Hagan, Minako. 2008. “Fan Translation Networks: An accidental translator training environment?” In Translator and Interpreter Training: Issues, methods and debates. Edited by J. Kearns, 159–183. London: Continuum.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2009. “Evolution of User-generated Translation: Fansubs, translation hacking and crowdsourcing.” The Journal of Internationalization and Localization 11: 94–121. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2011. Translating as a Social Activity: Community translation 2.0. Bruxelles: ASP.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Olohan, Maeve. 2012a. “Scientific and Technical Translation.” In Routledge Handbook of Translation Studies. Edited by C. Millán, and F. Bartrina, 443–455. London: Routledge. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2012b. “Volunteer Translation and Altruism in the Context of a Nineteenth-century Scientific Journal.” The Translator 18 (2): 193–215. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2013. “Why do you Translate? Motivation to Volunteer and TED translation.” Perspectives: Studies in Translatology 7 (1): 17–33. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Orrego Carmona, David. 2015. The Reception of (Non)professional Subtitling. PhD Diss., Universitat Rovira i Virgili. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Perrino, Saverio. 2009. “User-generated Translation: The future of translation in a Web 2.0 environment.” The Journal of Specialized Translation 111. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Rembert-Lang, LaToya D. 2010. “Reinforcing the Tower of Babel: The impact of copyright law on fansubbing.” Intellectual Property Brief 2 (2): 21–33. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Rojo López, Ana M. 2017. “The Role of Emotions.” The Handbook of Translation and Cognition. Edited by J. W. Schweiter and A. Ferreira, 369–385. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rojo López, Ana M., Marina Ramos Caro, and Javier Valenzuela Manzanares. 2014. “The Emotional Impact of Translation: A heart rate study.” Journal of Pragmatics 71 (1): 31–44. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Rojo López, Ana M., and Marina Ramos Caro. 2016. “Can Emotion Stir Translation Skill? Defining the impact of positive and negative emotions on translation performance.” Reembedding Translation Process Research: 107–130. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Ryan, Richard M., and Edward L. Deci. 2000. “The Darker and Brighter Sides of Human Existence: Basic psychological needs as a unifying concept.” Psychological Inquiry 11 (4): 319–338. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
. 2017. Self-determination Theory: Basic psychological needs in motivation, development, and wellness. New York: The Guilford Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Sánchez Cartagena, Víctor M., and Juan Antonio Pérez Ortiz. 2010. “Tradubi: Open-source social translation for the Apertium machine translation platform.” The Prague Bulletin of Mathematical Linguistics 93 (1): 47–56. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Tong, Ying. 2016. Fanyi dongji de shehui fuhaoxue quanshi [A Social Semiotic Interpretation of Translation Motivation]. Journal of PLA University of Foreign Languages 39 (5): 19–25.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wei, Rining and Jinzhi Shu. 2012. The Statistics of English in China: An analysis of the best available data from government sources. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Wenger, Etienne, Richard, McDermott, and William Snyder. 2002. Cultivating Communities of Practice: A guide to managing knowledge. Boston, MA: Harvard Business School.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Xu, Jun. 2004. Fanyi dongji, fanyi guannian yu fanyi huodong [Translation Motivation, Translation Concepts and Translation Activities]. Foreign Languages Research 831: 51–55.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Yang, Ling. 2009. “All for Love: the Corn fandom, prosumers, and the Chinese way of creating a superstar.” International Journal of Cultural Studies 12 (5): 527–543. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Weiyu. 2018. The Internet & New Social Formation in China. Fandom publics in the making. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Xiaochun. 2013. Fansubbing in China. MultiLingual 24 (5): 30–37.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zhang, Letician Tian, and Daniel Cassany. 2017. “Fansubbing from Spanish to Chinese: Organization, roles and norms in collaborative writing.” BiD: textos universitaris de biblioteconomia i documentació 371. Accessed 20 June 2018. [URL]
Zhang, Weiyu, and Mao Chengting. 2013. “Fan Activism Sustained and Challenged: Participatory culture in Chinese online translation communities.” Chinese Journal of Communication 6 (1): 45–61. Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Zheng, Shujiu. 2015. Quanguo gaodengyuanxiao xibanyayu jiaoyu yanjiu [Spanish Education and Research in Chinese National Universities]. Beijing: Waiguo jiaoxue yu yanjiu chubanshe.Google Scholar logo with link to Google Scholar
Cited by (7)

Cited by seven other publications

Huang, Boyi
2025. Self-Determined Participation (SDP). Translation Spaces DOI logo
Mao, Junyi & Binghan Zheng
2025. How personality and motivation affect translators’ extra-role behaviors. Translation, Cognition & Behavior DOI logo
Li, Yizhu & Youlan Tao
2024. Exploring the motivations of student volunteer translators in Chinese queer activism. Target. International Journal of Translation Studies 36:1 ► pp. 112 ff. DOI logo
Jiménez-Crespo, Miguel A.
2023. A Missing Link?. In Translaboration in Analogue and Digital Practice [Transkulturalität – Translation – Transfer, 57], ► pp. 25 ff. DOI logo
Moreno García, Luis Damián
2023. Fan indirect subtitling of Cdramas by women in Latin America and the Caribbean. Translation Spaces 12:2 ► pp. 177 ff. DOI logo
Ogie, R.I., S. O'Brien & F.M. Federici
2022. Towards using agent-based modelling for collaborative translation of crisis information: A systematic literature review to identify the underlying attributes, behaviours, interactions, and environment of agents. International Journal of Disaster Risk Reduction 68 ► pp. 102717 ff. DOI logo
Wang, Xiaochen, Fei Sun, Qikai Wang & Xinyu Li
2022. Motivation and affordance: A study of graduate students majoring in translation in China. Frontiers in Education 7 DOI logo

This list is based on CrossRef data as of 5 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