The film Personal Tailor is a Chinese comedy film directed by Feng Xiaogang and starring by Ge You, Bai Baihe, Li Xiaolu and Zheng Kai. This film emphasizes particularly on the phenomenon existing in today’s modern society in China. But the culture vacancy will still be the barrier for the foreigners to appreciate this film. That is the reason why this paper makes an attempt to investigate the translation of culture vacancy in film- Personal Tailor.

This thesis consists four chapters. Chapter one makes an introduction to the background under which the present study is carried out. Chapter two reviews the previous research on subtitle translation and previous studies on the culture vacancy. Chapter three analyzes the translation of culture vacancy from four aspects which are the material culture vacancy, the social culture vacancy, the religious culture vacancy and the linguistic culture vacancy. Chapter four is the conclusion of the whole paper.

2. Literature Review

Due to the widespread of globalization, communication becomes more and more necessary for common people. The film, as a “reflector” of the culture of its society, has promoted the culture communication and interaction between nations of different cultures. European scholars are the pioneers in this research. Chinese scholars like Li Yunxing, Zhang Chunbo, Qian Shaochang have already focused their researches on the principles and strategies of subtitle translation. I will review previous study from two perspectives: previous review on subtitle translation and previous study on culture vacancy.源[自*751^`论\文"网·www.751com.cn/

2.1 Previous Studies on Subtitle Translation

There are numerous translated novels, poems and articles. A lot of studies on both literary and scientific translation have been conducted, which result in a mature and systematic theory foundation. However, subtitle translation is a new research field. As one of the main components in audiovisual translation, subtitle translation is gaining a growing attention nowadays for its pivotal role in culture exchange.

The researches on subtitle translation began with the development of film industry in the western countries, especially in European countries and the United States, and numerous European scholars have paid many efforts in it. European scholars take the lead in the studies of subtitle translation.