Unveiling the tech-savvy side of non-professional subtitlers: A survey study on fansub groups in China

Abstract

Este artículo explora los perfiles y la conciencia tecnológica de los subtituladores no profesionales en China. Utilizando un cuestionario, el estudio retrata sus perfiles demográficos y obtiene perspectivas sobre sus actitudes hacia la adopción de tecnologías a partir de 356 encuestados. Los perfiles muestran que las comunidades de

This paper explores the profiles and technology awareness of non-professional subtitlers in China. Using a questionnaire, the study established the demographic profiles of 356 correspondents and obtained insights into their attitudes towards the adoption of technologies. The profiles show that Chinese fansub communities are dominated by Generation Z. Almost half of respondents have prior experience in translation training and identify themselves as 'lead users' of technologies. The main findings reveal that the non-professional subtitlers favour subtitling freeware and view technical skills as essential, with a general openness to adopting specialised subtitling technologies in the future. Although non-professional subtitlers exhibit optimism regarding the future use of language technologies, they find the current quality of machine translation (MT) and automatic speech recognition (ASR) inadequate. These insights contribute to a refined understanding of the Chinese fansub community and underscore the need for further improvements in subtitling technologies.