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【Abstract】A good subtitling helps to transmit cultural values and contributes to the building of national identities and stereotypes. However research on it is far from being adequate and is mainly about subtitling among Western languages， without involving Chinese. This study compares two of the most popular versions of the subtitling of an American moive The Shawshank Redemption， revealing that neither version is proper in all cases， and that Functional Equivalence Theory is the indispensable theoretical underpinning for successful subtitling practice.
【Key words】Subtitling； functional equivalence theory
【作者簡介】章成成（1985.10-），女，三亚学院，讲师，研究方向：跨文化交际，中外文化比较。
1. Introduction
Subtitling is defined as the translation of the spoken （or written） source text of an audiovisual product into a written target text which is added onto the images of the original product， usually at the bottom of the screen （Gottlieb， 1994）. There are two types of subtitling that are widely known， namely intralingual subtitling and interlingual subtitling. Subtitling in the paper hereby is used to refer to interlingual subtitling， unless otherwise stated.
A good subtitling helps to transmit cultural values and contributes to the building of national identities and stereotypes. However there is a startling imbalance between research on it and its immense impact due to the fact that subtitling is a newly-emerging area in translation studies， with a history of no more than half a century.
This study takes the American moive The Shawshank Redemption as an example. Under the theoretical guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory of Eugene Nida， the paper compares two of the most popular versions of subtitling， trying to shed some light on strategies for proper subtitling practice and its theoretical framework.
2. Literature Review
Qian in China has defined subtitling as being listenable， integrated， transient， popularized， and un-annotated； and that subtitling should be as “expressive” as possible （Qian， 2000）. The process involves addressing verbal and non-verbal components and switching from spoken text into written mode， which may result in plenty of linguistic challenges. All of the above might get more difficult when the restrictions of both time and space are brought into consideration， or as Gottlieb put it， “the famous and infamous time and space constraints” （Gottlieb， 2004： 219）.
Despite all the difficulties there have been relentless effort striving to frame subtitling practice under certain constructive theoretical underpinnings. Karamitroglou （2000） tried to deal with audiovisual translation research from the perspective of norms and poly-system theory， using examples of Greek subtitles though. Yet he ended up with the conclusion that “norms in AVT are much more complex than merely technical limitations” （McLoughlin
【Key words】Subtitling； functional equivalence theory
【作者簡介】章成成（1985.10-），女，三亚学院，讲师，研究方向：跨文化交际，中外文化比较。
1. Introduction
Subtitling is defined as the translation of the spoken （or written） source text of an audiovisual product into a written target text which is added onto the images of the original product， usually at the bottom of the screen （Gottlieb， 1994）. There are two types of subtitling that are widely known， namely intralingual subtitling and interlingual subtitling. Subtitling in the paper hereby is used to refer to interlingual subtitling， unless otherwise stated.
A good subtitling helps to transmit cultural values and contributes to the building of national identities and stereotypes. However there is a startling imbalance between research on it and its immense impact due to the fact that subtitling is a newly-emerging area in translation studies， with a history of no more than half a century.
This study takes the American moive The Shawshank Redemption as an example. Under the theoretical guidance of Functional Equivalence Theory of Eugene Nida， the paper compares two of the most popular versions of subtitling， trying to shed some light on strategies for proper subtitling practice and its theoretical framework.
2. Literature Review
Qian in China has defined subtitling as being listenable， integrated， transient， popularized， and un-annotated； and that subtitling should be as “expressive” as possible （Qian， 2000）. The process involves addressing verbal and non-verbal components and switching from spoken text into written mode， which may result in plenty of linguistic challenges. All of the above might get more difficult when the restrictions of both time and space are brought into consideration， or as Gottlieb put it， “the famous and infamous time and space constraints” （Gottlieb， 2004： 219）.
Despite all the difficulties there have been relentless effort striving to frame subtitling practice under certain constructive theoretical underpinnings. Karamitroglou （2000） tried to deal with audiovisual translation research from the perspective of norms and poly-system theory， using examples of Greek subtitles though. Yet he ended up with the conclusion that “norms in AVT are much more complex than merely technical limitations” （McLoughlin