Reframing queer pop through media paratexts: translation of Chinese TV drama World of Honor in cyberspace

ABSTRACT

World of Honor, a danmei-adapted Chinese TV drama, was one of the most-watched TV series in China in 2021. Conceptualizing translation as a rewriting practice, based on a theoretical framework drawn from paratext studies and media studies, this article investigates how audience-created paratexts reframe queer pop in the translation of World of Honor in cyberspace. The research shows that comments and fanvids, as audience-created paratexts on YouTube, serve to render the implicit male-male romance between the two main characters in the TV drama more explicit in the streaming media. The comments help to interpret the homoerotic subtexts in the translation of subtitles and bridge cultural gaps for international audiences, while fanvids direct the storyline towards a danmei theme with the interplay of music and televisual footage. These media paratexts provide a communal space for audiences to interpret, communicate and participate, and enhance our understanding of danmei subculture within online communications.

KEYWORDS:

• World of Honor
• audience-created paratexts
• translational fandom
• queer pop
• participatory culture
• collective intelligence

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Beautiful Mess on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2nxl9pB06Ok.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FRG Project of Macau University of Science and Technology Foundation [grant number FRG-21-005-UIC].

Notes on contributors

Xi Chen

Xi Chen is an Assistant Professor in University International College at Macau University of Science and Technology. Her research interests are in multimodal discourse analysis, picturebook translation and cross-cultural studies. Her recent publications include “Representing cultures through language and image: a multimodal approach to translations of the Chinese classic Mulan” (2018) in Perspectives, “When the classic speaks for children: retranslation of Bob Dylan’s songs in bilingual picture books” (2020) in Babel, and “Exploring the translation-development interactions from an emergent semiotic perspective: a case study of the Greater Bay Area, China” (2022) in Linguistica Antverpiensia, New Series: Themes in Translation Studies.