Abstract

This study examines how subtitlers in underground subtitle groups in China perform skills and display competence in applying the rules around which annotations are built. I argue that by annotating, the act of creating notes, representing information not linguistically coded in the original US TV programs, subtitlers engage in a performative act in concert. Annotations reveal not only subtitlers’ stances toward the contents being translated, but also their meta­thinking on these contents. The analysis shows that two contradictory forces provide the impetus for annotations. On the one hand, the desire for objectivity refers to subtitlers’ attempts to represent a professional and organized account of how Chinese subtitles are produced in the process of explicating knowledge. On the other hand, the desire for authenticity is implicit in the subtitlers’ narrative of what they actually experience when translating US TV programs.