(Ecns.cn)--In China there is no ViKi, a popular online translator community with ties to broadcasters and media producers all over the world. However, there are a growing number of groups that volunteer to translate subtitles for foreign TV series, movies and cartoons into Chinese, resulting in a massive grey market for mainland entertainment.
For the past three years, a girl with the online name Jin Zhengu who lives in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province, and her subtitling team have translated numerous TV series for online viewers.
Almost every Saturday morning, Jin rolls out of bed and meets with her team members via online chat, while their modems download the latest episodes of TV shows from the United States.
Once they have the shows, the team spends the rest of the day creating Chinese subtitles for them before putting the shows back online. Currently, dozens of groups like this exist here.
Most of them volunteer to translate media in bulk, from books and magazines to TV series and movies. The translated products are mainly for audiences whose primary means of accessing foreign entertainment is the Internet.
Members of online translation groups often participate out of a desire to improve their English. But for many, there is also a passionate interest in overseas content and a desire to make it accessible to other Chinese people, who have far fewer opportunities to legally watch imported entertainment than many developed countries.
Censorship from the government is strict, which means that much media content, especially TV shows, is inaccessible to many viewers here.
"I think Chinese people need to learn something different, to see how foreigners think about life and love, and this is a way to fulfill your life and do something you are interested in," said one translator when interviewed by CNN.
The first group to provide such a service, called "The Planet," was established to translate subtitles for Japanese cartoons, but shut down in 2000. "Before 2000, there were no subtitle translation groups for foreign TV series, especially for currently popular American TV shows," said Jing Jing, a former member of group.
After abandoning "The Planet," Jing Jing and other members formed a new group for cartoon subtitle translation, which was seen as the first subtitle translation group in China. Not long after, more volunteers began forming their own teams to translate foreign media content.
It has been over 10 years since that first subtitle group was formed, and the efforts made by the groups have been warmly welcomed. For almost all young people who use the Internet, subtitling groups have become integral to their daily lives.
Currently in China there are several famous subtitle groups like Fengruan, YYeTs group and Yi Dianyuan. Some have hundreds of volunteers who can translate as many as 40 TV shows a week, which means that almost all the programming produced by Fox, ABC and NBC can been translated for Chinese people and kept relatively up to date.
TV shows can be watched directly from a Web site or by downloading from a translation group site. Clips can also be downloaded through BitTorrent, using file-sharing sites such as Xunlei.
Though lauded and relied upon by Chinese viewers, the industry must nevertheless keep a low profile. Insiders acknowledge that what they are doing is less than legal and worry that someday they may be forced to shut down. "We are living in a grey area," said a group founder. "It is not legal, but at the same time nobody can live without is."
Keeping a low tone and using nicknames online are ways they protect themselves, and so far it seems to be working, since no group of this kind has been required to shut down in China.
Yet many international media companies have also expressed concerns that the groups are eroding potential profit margins by illegally making the content available for free. For most subtitling groups, although the translation rights remain a problem, they tend to use a broader way to look at the issue: "This is a way to provide people with a new perspective and to see the world," said one insider.
And as the groups gain popularity, their members are not limited to the Chinese mainland. As more overseas students join the cause, resources become even more advanced and timely; translations can be done at the same time the shows are broadcast, for example.
Though there are problems, the groups will probably be in China for a long time to come, said a former member of a translation group.
