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Translation and Foreign Language Learning

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ArticleTranslation Theories and Skills http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.09.005

Ideological Mediation in the Subtitle Translation of Local Cultural Promotional Videos: A Pedagogical Approach

Lingqian Zheng*, Junying Yu

College of Foreign Languages, Minjiang University, Fuzhou 350108, Fujian, China.

*Corresponding author: Lingqian Zheng

This research was supported by the Project of Moral Education in the Course of Sight Translation and Language Service Practices, a Special Project on Course-based Ideological and Moral Education, Minjiang University Research Base of Fujian Research Center for Xi Jinping Thought on Socialism with Chinese Characteristics for the New Era (No. YJJD202402C).
Published: September 30,2025

Abstract

This study, grounded in the attitude system of the Appraisal Theory, investigates how students engage in ideological mediation when subtitling local cultural short promotional videos, focusing on the balance between cultural confidence and intercultural awareness for effective communication. The findings reveal three main challenges. Within the subdomain of appreciation, students tend to reinforce cultural expression by adding explicit cultural labels or using elevated rhetoric, whereas embedding cultural connotations more naturally enhances audience resonance. Within the subdomain of affect, students magnify emotions through exaggerated vocabulary, which can be addressed by moderating lexical intensity to maintain the light and pleasant tone of the source text. Within the subdomain of judgment, students pursue poetic effects through excessive rhetorical choices, while concise expressions consistent with the style of the source text better convey authentic imagery. The study shows that integrating the attitude system into audiovisual translation pedagogy fosters students’ ability to balance cultural confidence with intercultural sensitivity, thereby enabling the production of subtitles for local cultural promotional videos with natural expression, communicative effectiveness and value resonance.

Keywords

Ideological mediation; Appraisal theory; Local cultural promotion; Subtitle trans-lation

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How to cite this paper

Ideological Mediation in the Subtitle Translation of Local Cultural Promotional Videos: A Pedagogical Approach

How to cite this paper: Lingqian Zheng, Junying Yu. (2025). Ideological Mediation in the Subtitle Translation of Local Cultural Promotional Videos: A Pedagogical Approach. Translation and Foreign Language Learning1(2), 257-262.

DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.26855/tfll.2025.09.005