Deanna Gao, China Film Festival in Paris founder and chairwoman. [Photo provided to chinadaily.com.cn]

Quality translation goes a long way

Deanna Gao, China Film Festival in Paris founder and chairwoman, said the first step is to make Chinese stories more accessible. "If you want foreign audience to like Chinese films, you need to provide access for people to see them."

Founded in 2004, the China Film Festival in Paris features various Chinese motions pictures. "To most French people, China is still a nation very far away. But through movies, audiences in France are able to understand and appreciate Chinese culture."

"Compared with music and fine arts, film and TV shows most directly reflect Chinese people's life. Like a bridge, these works connect people's hearts across different cultural backgrounds," Gao said.

Gao said that one key element for non-English-speaking audiences to fall in love with Chinese film is translation. "A good, sincere story certainly can travel abroad. However, it won't happen if the translation is far from satisfactory."

"Because of a large group of translation professionals, Chinese audiences can easily understand American films," Gao said. "Subtitle translation is an art form. Every project needs to appropriate a budget specifically for foreign language translation."