Fansubbing and Xianxia Media Culture: 'Eternal Love' on Viki

Abstract

Fansubbing, initially associated with Japanese anime, now spans a wide range of media, from American and British TV shows to Chinese TV dramas and Korean pop culture. In the recent decade, fansubbing Chinese TV dramas has surged internationally, with the xianxia (immortal heroes) genre standing out. Xianxia, a subgenre of Chinese fantasy, draws upon “the repository of Daoist alchemy in particular and Chinese religion and culture in general to build an imaginary world in which cultivators pursue immortality through rigorous self-training, fierce competition with rivals, and strenuous fighting against monsters” (Ni 2020a, 2). This research focuses on how fans participate in constructing xianxia media culture through the translation of xianxia dramas, specifically examining fansubbing practices on Viki - a video streaming company delivering East Asian dramas globally and hail fans to subtitle the dramas on its website. Drawing upon Henry Jenkins’ notions - “participatory culture” (1992) and “convergence culture” (2006a), I conceptualise and contextualise xianxia fansubbing as a “bottom-up” community practice that constitutes part of xianxia media culture. Analysis of interviews of fan translators and archival data from Viki.com reveals that xianxia fansubbing on Viki fosters an affective community and knowledge community, which has the potential to shape the transnational and transcultural flow of xianxia media content and influence its reception among broader audiences. While Viki’s push for rapid subtitling challenges xianxia fansubbing ethos, it also fosters a participatory and interest-driven community disseminating xianxia media content. Furthermore, my research unveils how xianxia fansubbers navigate knowledge in the (re)construction of xianxia “storyworlds” (Herman 2002, 2005, 2009) through translations of paratexts of xianxia dramas, thereby breaking cultural barriers and facilitating their fansubbing work; however, fansubbers are still confronted with difficulties translating xianxia dramas due to the complexity of ancient Chinese cosmology interwoven in narratives. Lastly, a comparative analysis of the fansubbed xianxia drama Eternal Love (2017) on Viki and its professionally translated counterpart on Netflix shows that xianxia fansubbers on Viki prioritize literal and informative translations catering for their like-minded fans within the community, and also make full use of “fill-in-gap” translations (the translations of the drama’s original soundtracks, or other extra or non-diegetic textual translations on Viki that are absent from Netflix’s professionally translated version) for self-expression, mutual recognition and social connections in the community. Thus, I argue that xianxia fansubbing on Viki represents a form of “vernacular creativity” (Burgess 2006, 2007) - ‘ordinary’ but indigenous practices of cultural knowledge production; it also embodies “relational aesthetics” (Bourriaud 2002) - emotional and cultural values that connect with some fans’ identities, bringing together like-minded fans with shared interests and agendas to disseminate xianxia media content.

This research on xianxia fansubbing on Viki expands the scope of fansubbing studies beyond Anglophone, American and Japanese contexts. By showcasing its distinct fansubbing model, and fans’ creative translation endeavours, this research reveals the dynamics of xianxia fansubbing in the spread of transcultural media content; it also fills a gap in audiovisual translation studies by employing interdisciplinary theories to explore the dissemination of xianxia media culture by transnational xianxia fandom and the wider impact of fan translations on xianxia media culture.