During the Spring Festival holiday some time ago, did you have such an experience: finally had your own time, hid back in the room with snacks, found a comfortable position to lie down, and prepared to watch a beautiful **, but always felt that ** was wrong.
Oh, it turned out that I forgot to turn on the subtitles. Click on the subtitle button and watch the lines of white text appear on the screen at the bottom of the screen - finally comfortable.
Subtitles have become an inseparable existence when we watch **, even if it is Chinese content. Many people find that in foreign film and television works, if the language is the native language of the country's people, there are generally no subtitles. It seems that only Chinese viewers are particularly reliant on subtitles?
But in fact, viewers in other countries are feeling more and more strongly the problem of "I can't really hear it without subtitles". So why did the demand of the Chinese audience "awaken" so early? Is there anything special about Chinese?
Can't do without subtitles, because Chinese is too unique
As for why Chinese audiences seem to need subtitles, one of the most popular opinions on the Internet is that Chinese has more homonyms than other languages, which is why we need subtitles to distinguish between lines.
Without subtitles, we might listen to "Mom has been walking for ten years" as "Ants have been walking for ten years", and "Good for yourself" as "rat tail juice".
But what this statement doesn't explain is that whether it's our daily conversations, or audio programs such as radio and podcasts, there is never a shortage of homonyms that can cause confusion, but we always have less trouble understanding the content without the help of subtitles.
Audio programs often don't have subtitles, but we can still understand the content of the picture worm creative
And, while there are many homonyms in Chinese, don't forget that in modern Chinese, the basic unit of meaning is usually a word made up of two or more Chinese characters. At this level, homonyms are greatly reduced.
According to previous studies, the average proportion of homonyms in various languages around the world is about 4% [1], and Chinese is estimated to be between 7% and 12% [2], which is comparable to English. However, the writing system is similar to that of Chinese, and the Japanese language, which also contains a large number of homonyms, did not give rise to a "subtitle culture".
Another explanation is that as users of Chinese, the ideogram, Chinese audiences are more able to obtain information from the visual medium of subtitles, while for users of English and other phonetic scripts, it is more difficult to keep up with subtitles at the same time.
However, the fact is that studies have shown that English readers are also able to extract semantic information from text quite "silkily" and quickly[3], and their reading speed is not much slower than that of Chinese readers[4].
Chinese characters evolved from oracle bone inscriptions, and as an ideogram, their glyphs and structures have rich connotations of Tuworm creativity
If subtitling is regarded as an act of reading, native English speakers may not be less efficient at extracting information from subtitles than Chinese audiences, and there will be no situation where they abandon subtitles and emphasize sound effects because they "can't keep up with subtitles".
As for the higher entropy of Chinese information (which can be understood as the greater amount of information conveyed by a single word), so it can convey richer meanings through shorter texts, which may explain the popularity of danmaku ** in China to some extent.
But considering that Japan, which is also popular with barrage, does not use subtitles on a large scale as China, the credibility of this argument seems to be diminished.
Look at subtitles, a cultural habit of the new era
It is not so much that the characteristics of Chinese and Chinese characters have brought about the rigid need of subtitles, and Chinese audiences are uncomfortable watching ** without subtitles, I am afraid it is more because the new generation of audiences has developed the cultural habit of reading subtitles in the process of growing up.
In fact, most mainland film and television dramas have standard subtitles, which is only considered an "innate" phenomenon for the majority of post-90s and post-00s.
Foreign movies rarely have native language subtitles Kung Fu Panda stills.
If we go to watch the old versions of the four famous TV series, and even the "Journey to the West Continuation" filmed in the new century, it is difficult to find a trace of subtitles. Most of the occasional subtitles are also focused on the poems and songs recited by the characters.
In this respect, Hong Kong is much earlier than the mainland. Classic Hong Kong films of the last century are often not only equipped with Chinese subtitles, but also have corresponding English translation subtitles. It is said that this ** was a law promulgated by the British authorities in Hong Kong in 1963, according to the regulations, Hong Kong films must be submitted for review with Chinese and English subtitles.
It has also been verified that such a law does not exist, and the purpose of the issuer is to meet the needs of developing domestic and foreign markets[5].
Regardless of the starting point, the result is that as early as the 60s, Cantonese dialogues and Chinese-English subtitles became the "factory settings" of Hong Kong film and television dramas. This not only facilitates overseas distribution, but also removes the most important obstacles for mainland audiences who do not know Cantonese.
In fact, this also reflects the major role that subtitles play in the dissemination of film and television works - lowering the language threshold. In China, which has a vast territory and many dialects, the existence of this cultural bridge has a value that cannot be ignored.
In the mid-to-late 80s to mid-90s of the last century, Hong Kong films entered their heyday. This period coincided with the early days of reform and opening up, and Hong Kong films began to lead the trend in the mainland. At the same time, Hong Kong and the mainland have also entered a "honeymoon period" of co-productions, which have not only begun to become the main force of the mainland box office, but also brought about the production and distribution of Hong Kong films.
With the popularity of Hong Kong films, subtitles have naturally become the "standard" for movies in the hearts of many people [6].
Hong Kong films in the nineties have already adopted bilingual subtitles Stills from the Hong Kong film "Joyful".
In addition, around 2005, ** began to rise in China. The "subtitle group", which provides film and television resource sharing through various ways while translating subtitles, has also become the "eternal god" in the hearts of a generation [7]. As a result, the audio-visual habits of Chinese people have been shaped and solidified again, and the demand for subtitles has gradually expanded from foreign languages such as English, Japanese, and Korean to their own mother tongue, that is, Chinese.
The generation that grew up under the influence of Hong Kong films, Japanese and Korean dramas, and British and American dramas will naturally feel quite uncomfortable when they see "bare" film and television works without subtitles - even if it is Chinese that reaches the ears.
I can't hear clearly, but the technology is advancing
In fact, although many countries do not have embedded subtitles for most film and television works like in China, foreign audiences are no strangers to subtitles. In Japan, the United States, and other countries, viewers have the option to turn on "closed caption" (CC), whether by streaming** or through TV***.
As the name suggests, this is a type of subtitle that can be turned on or off according to the viewer's preference, and it is usually displayed at the bottom of the screen to meet the needs of the hearing impaired***. In addition to showing dialogue and narration, closed captions sometimes describe the scene to which the sound is directing, such as "playing sounds", "footsteps", and so on.
TED Talks, although there are no subtitles, there is an option to automatically generate subtitles for TED Talks.
However, foreign viewers with completely normal hearing are also gradually discovering that subtitles are becoming more and more a necessity. According to a survey conducted by Vox, as many as 57% of respondents use subtitles because they "can't hear clearly", and only 12% of respondents say they "don't use subtitles at all"[7].
Audiences around the world are becoming more and more inseparable from subtitles, mainly because the sound itself in film and television works has indeed changed a bit.
First of all, the way actors speak is changing. In the early days of sound films, microphones on set were often large and could only be placed in a fixed position.
Due to the limitations of radio equipment, the actor must control the volume, direction and even tone of his speech, and "shout" at the microphone to ensure a good sound effect. But in this way, the sounds that are actually included are clear and loud, and can be easily distinguished.
When the radio equipment is limited, the actor needs to adjust the volume and tone of his speech to ensure that the radio is visual
At a time when audio technology is much more advanced than it was back then, actors can speak in a more natural way, in scenes where the ambient sound is more noisy and chaotic, without worrying that the voice will not be recorded, but this can also lead to more muffled voices [8].
In addition, the development of technology has made the production of film and television works more and more sophisticated and complex, and the same is true for sound effects. The "mix" made by the sound engineer combining multiple channels of voices, ** voices, background sounds, etc., may have a good effect in a movie theater with dense speakers, but it may not be the case when put on your computer, tablet, and mobile phone**.
The tools for sound effects are becoming more and more complex, and when multiple channels are mixed together, the vocals become less prominent.
Especially in a "blockbuster" with a complex scene and a loud noise from time to time, the voice of people speaking is more likely to be muffled. That's why sometimes, when you switch to a device with better sound quality (like headphones, a soundbar with surround sound), you'll feel like you're talking a lot clearer. Sometimes turning on the "Vocal Enhancement Mode" can have a similar effect [9].
Some film and television companies will use the voice of dialogue as the "anchor" in their production, and adjust the "loudness" of other sounds, but this is not an industry norm that can bind all film and television content producers [10]. Sometimes, they also know that the audience will not hear clearly, but they don't care.
In this regard, the great director Nolan can be called "notorious", Nolan's beloved IMAX camera can shoot shocking visual effects, but it also has the disadvantages of loud noise and "no sound insulation". Nolan also rejects the use of automatic dialogue reset (ADR) technology, which can "fix" dialogue to some extent through post-recording.
As a result, there are times in his films where even native speakers can't understand the actors' mouths when they see them moving. "Oppenheimer" will be re-screened in theaters on March 1, and you can experience it "in person" at that time.
Many of Nolan's films were shot with IMAX cameras, and while they had great visuals, it was sometimes difficult to hear the actors' lines in Inception stills.
It can be said that in the chaotic world of sound, subtitles are a way to help us get back to order.
And in addition to playing its own role, subtitles also bring some benefits that people may not have thought of at first - such as when you go to work, you can use subtitles to fish happily, even if the sound is turned on. For non-native speakers, they can also achieve better learning outcomes with the help of subtitles [12].
Let's say, thanks for the subtitles.