On the Domestication of the English-Chinese Subtitle Translation with the Big Bang Theory as a Case

In the context of cultural globalization, many American dramas have been introduced to China and have attracted widespread attention from the Chinese people due to their unique cultural background. The American sitcom The Big Bang Theory is a big hit in China, and its subtitle translation plays an important role as a medium between the audience and the content of the sitcom. The subtitling team has used a lot of strategies of domestication in order to give Chinese viewers the same aesthetic experience and feel the American humour. For translators, they should capture the current hotspots in time so as to meet the needs of Chinese audiences; for English learners, they should be good at thinking about the differences between Chinese and Western cultures so as to better realize cross-cultural communication. This paper attempts to take some English-Chinese subtitles in The Big Bang Theory as cases, by analyzing the three strategies of quoting idioms and Internet buzzwords in the subtitles, as well as the localized translation.