The Moralities of Intellectual Property: Subtitle Groups as Cultural Brokers in China

Abstract

This study investigates the moralities of intellectual property developed in the context of an underground network of Internet-based amateur translators in China. These translators are dedicated to unofficially subtitling and disseminating unauthorised US television programs and movies to Chinese audiences. I examine how translators have developed new moralities through their subtitling practices in the terrain of media technology. I explore how the subtitle community exists as a moral enterprise and how morality is constructed through subtitlers' disciplined practice, volunteer work and devotion to the media programs. I argue that regardless of their different opinions, subtitlers moralise their activities based on the conviction that Chinese youth and young adults want more knowledge, in spite of the state's media monopoly, and that fulfilling this need is a public good. Such a morality honours an unofficial moral code that is parallel to official state policy.

Keywords:

• China
• Chinese Youth and Young Adults
• Morality
• Intellectual Property
• Subtitling

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank Elinor Ochs, Hongyin Tao, Yunxiang Yan and Candy Goodwin for their endless support. I would also like to thank Hadi N. Deeb and two anonymous reviewers for their invaluable suggestions and critiques. I am also grateful to faculty and students for comments on earlier versions of this article that was presented at the UCLA Discourse Laboratory.

Funding

Funding for this research was provided by the US National Science Foundation (Award number 1153595), the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the University of California Pacific Rim Research Program, the UCLA Center for Language, Interaction and Culture, the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies and Academia Sinica (Taiwan). Any mistakes and omissions are my own.

Notes

[1] Article 2 states that works of foreigners and stateless persons are protected by this law. Works include ‘audiovisual works, meaning works fixed on a certain medium, composed of a series of images with accompanying sound or without accompanying sound, and screened with the help of technological equipment or disseminated in other ways’. Moreover, Article 11 states that copyright includes the rights of reproduction and distribution and ‘the right of publication, being the right to decide whether or not to make the work known to the public’.

[2] Some subtitlers continue to participate in the subtitle community after leaving school. They may be too busy to do any actual translating, but they contribute material support drawn from their new places of employment. For example, those working in computer companies donate secondhand equipment or free software, and those employed by advertising agencies might get some of their clients to support their group's website.

[3] English lessons are compulsory for pupils in China's primary and junior high schools. Generally speaking, undergraduates have basic English proficiency. Aspiring subtitlers who pass the subtitle groups’ ‘entrance examination’ are supposed to have the capacity, to varying degrees, to translate English into Chinese.

[4] Farrar (2009) quotes Henry Luk, Asia-Pacific regional director for the Economist Group, who takes this position in an email interview with CNN: ‘While there is still an issue on the translation right, we also take a broader view to look at its impacts on other parties such as [that] it's providing a platform for a Chinese audience who would otherwise not be able to understand or access The Economist content’.

[5] The reform program provided economic incentives for private investment in China, created special economic zones along China's southern coastline and offered preferential treatment to joint ventures. Foreign companies found that it was most cost-effective to manufacture their products in China (and elsewhere in East Asia), because an abundant and cheap labour supply, low-cost land, quick turnaround times and a huge consumer market attracted transnational investment and capital flows.

Additional information

Funding

Funding: Funding for this research was provided by the US National Science Foundation (Award number 1153595), the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research, the University of California Pacific Rim Research Program, the UCLA Center for Language, Interaction and Culture, the UCLA Center for Chinese Studies and Academia Sinica (Taiwan). Any mistakes and omissions are my own.