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An Analysis of the Chinese Subtitle Translation in the Drama ≪Bon Appétit, Your Majesty≫ — Focusing on the Translation of Historical Drama Dialogue

  • The Journal of Study on Language and Culture of Korea and China
  • Abbr : JSLCKC
  • 2026, (81), pp.33~68
  • DOI : 10.16874/jslckc.2026..81.002
  • Publisher : Korean Society of Study on Chinese Languge and Culture
  • Research Area : Humanities > Chinese Language and Literature
  • Received : July 10, 2026
  • Accepted : August 20, 2026
  • Published : August 31, 2026

Fan, Yun Xiu 1,  LEEKUNSEOK 2

1충남대학교 중어중문학과 통번역대학원
2충남대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

This study analyzes the official Chinese subtitles of the Korean historical drama The Tyrant’s Chef to examine how culture-specific elements of Korean sageuk are translated into Chinese and to propose improved translation strategies. Combining modern Korean with historical speech styles and featuring numerous court, institutional, and cultural expressions from the Joseon dynasty, the drama provides a valuable corpus for investigating historical drama translation. Focusing on four categories—terms of address and honorifics, official titles and administrative offices, institutional and cultural terminology, and idiomatic expressions—this study compares the Simplified Chinese subtitles (TT1) and Traditional Chinese subtitles (TT2) and proposes revised translations (TT3). The findings indicate that, despite Korea and China sharing a common Sinographic cultural tradition, literal translation often fails to convey the semantic and pragmatic functions of Korean historical expressions because identical Chinese characters may represent different institutions, hierarchies, and cultural meanings. To address this issue, the study identifies four effective translation strategies: domestication, which recontextualizes the Joseon hierarchy for Chinese audiences; functional equivalence, which replaces Korean official titles with Chinese counterparts of comparable function and status; explicitation, which clarifies culturally embedded meanings; and idiomatic equivalence, which adopts conventional expressions from Chinese historical dramas. This study contributes to the relatively underexplored field of Chinese translation of Korean historical dramas by proposing practical translation strategies and providing a foundation for the development of a Korean–Chinese glossary of sageuk terminology and translation guidelines for future subtitle production.

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