Introduction: Material Transformation

The material turn emphasizes the influence of material power on daily life in humanities and social sciences research, focuses on the materiality of non-human beings, and explores the dialectical relationship between material and culture. Material research should go beyond quantitative analysis of objects and be examined within the material cultural system. The interactive relationship between people and things is the core of material transformation, such as Hodder's concept of "entanglement" and Latour's theory of actor networks. Translation research should focus on the material aspects, such as text carriers, media, etc., as well as the ontological and epistemological crises of translation. The exploration of the materiality of translation helps to deepen the understanding of the essence of translation, bridge the gap between humans and objects, and promote communication within the translation discipline and with other disciplines.

The materiality of translation: meaning, medium, and relationship

In depth exploration of the concept of materiality in translation was conducted, and it was pointed out that the academic discussion on this topic is not yet sufficient. The article reviews Anthony Pym's views on "material transfer" and the different perspectives of scholars such as Hertberg, Cronin, Kane, Michel, Litau, Li Zhongqing, Kleiberk, O'Connor, and Shang Rensen on the materiality of translation. These studies involve economic, symbolic, epistemological transfer, the materiality of language, the relationship between translation and tools, the perspective of material culture, the role of coding in translation, the materiality of communication, and the influence of publishing and version studies on the materiality of translation.

3 Changes in Media: Translation Practice of Shanghai Cinemas in the Republic of China

In the first half of the 20th century, when translating Western films, the Shanghai film industry experienced changes in translation media such as instruction manuals, skills, film novels, subtitles, and translation styles. As an aid in understanding the text of a movie, the translation method of the instruction manual is not strictly translation, but the textualization of the visual art of the movie, reflecting the dependence on paper media. As a practice of supplementing visual media with print media, the level of detail and circulation of content in both literary and film novels have an impact on the production and circulation of translation. The development of subtitle technology, such as glass plate projection method, film copying method, etc., although there have been changes, the old and new technologies often complement each other. Subtitle translation technology has given birth to new business formats and national identity symbols, and also promoted the development of emerging professions. The Yiyifeng technology achieves simultaneous interpretation through wired communication, changing the translation practice that relies on paper media. It introduces voice participation in the translation process, allowing the audience to more actively participate in watching movies. At the same time, it adjusts the gender composition of translation industry practitioners and emphasizes the functional standards of translation expression.

4 Conclusion

Through the three key words of "meaning," "medium," and "relationship," a deep exploration of the materiality of translation was conducted, clarifying its research scope and predicting future development directions. The study focuses on the translation practices of Shanghai cinemas during the Republican era, revealing the important role of material factors in the translation process. The translation of Shanghai cinemas does not pursue the faithful transmission of the meaning of the source text, but regards the film itself as the translation object, reflecting the characteristics of cross media translation. With the advancement of material technology, translation forms and circulation methods have changed, and new translation professions and audience consumption patterns have also emerged. The study proposes a "meaning medium relationship" framework, which helps to comprehensively understand the interaction between material and non-material factors in translation activities and deepen the understanding of the complexity of translation behavior.