A Multimodal Perspective on Subtitle Translation of Documentaries: A Case Study of Masters in the Forbidden City

Abstract

As a distinctive audiovisual genre, cultural documentaries serve as both a carrier of national heritage and a bridge for cross-cultural communication. Masters in the Forbidden City, a critically acclaimed Chinese documentary on cultural relic restorers in the Palace Museum, achieved remarkable domestic and overseas success, largely owing to its well-crafted English subtitles. Despite its exemplary status, scholarly attention to its subtitle translation remains scarce, with existing studies predominantly confined to linguistic equivalence while overlooking the dynamic semiotic interplay of verbal, visual and auditory modes. Based on Christopher Taylor’s multimodal text analytical framework, this paper investigates the subtitle translation of Masters in the Forbidden City from narrative, linguistic, semiotic, and cultural considerations. Through a qualitative case analysis of representative subtitle excerpts, it examines how the translator achieves multimodal cohesion through strategic adoption of translation strategies including free translation, omission, specification and explanatory compensation. The findings reveal that effective documentary subtitle translation requires a shift from text-bound translation to screen-aware practice, wherein visual images, soundtracks, and narrative contexts dynamically constrain and enable translator decision-making. This study enriches the multimodal perspective on the subtitle translation of cultural documentaries and offers practical reference for audiovisual translation research and practice.