Tintin- Now in China!!

Posted by Alex on January 15, 2010 under Translation | Be the First to Comment

If not for translation, how many of us would have been able to appreciate the work of various genius writers across the globe? A handful of us in all probability. China today is all set to thank Wang Bingdong who has translated the adventures of Tintin, the popular Belgian comic reporter in Chinese and has given him a makeover in China.

The translations have been done using the original French publication and deemed to be as close to original in context as possible. The incompetent detectives Dupond and Dupont are Dubang and Dupang, while Captain Huddock’s insults are also made over. “Ten thousand thundering typhoons!” now becomes “Tian da lei pi!” or “May the Heavens punish you and thunder strike you down!

China, which happens to be the only country that Tintin visited twice during his adventures is more than thrilled with this. All the Tintin fans in China are excited with this book as this will help them follow all the adventures of their hero more closely.

Inspite of the fanfare, Tintin faced a number of hurdles while entering China. Tintin made his first appearance in China in the 1980s, when some his stories were published in a ‘little book’ format. The first official set of books however, came out in 2001 and only about 2 billion copies got sold much in a large country like China. This was because of the translation that was far from perfect as it was done from English and not the original French.

This underscores the importance of translation. This further proves that apt translation/localization does wonders in making literature/technology popular across the globe.