Found in translation

Li Feng / China Daily

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A small army of amateur translators are putting Mandarin subtitles on English-language television usually ignored by Chinese viewers. But what started as a bit of fun is having a far bigger impact than they could ever have imagined. Liu Wei reports.

Web editor Li Wending, 30, inadvertently found himself in the middle of a major international news story in October. He had shared on social media a clip from the US talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, in which Kimmel led several children in a discussion about international politics. When asked how to tackle the US' $1.3 trillion debt to China, a boy said: "Kill everyone in China." Kimmel later asked him again about whether to allow Chinese to live. Li released the video with Chinese subtitles he had written himself, on weibo, the Chinese equivalent to Twitter.

More than 300 netizens reposted the clip, including the official account of Sina, China's largest news portal. Tens of thousands more reposted the Sina version.

Chinese netizens condemned the US comedian and ABC, the TV network that broadcasts the show. In the United States, Chinese-American organizations initiated a nationwide protest.

Both ABC and Kimmel apologized for the program at the end of October, which surprised Li.

"Personally I did not believe the joke was meant to hurt Chinese people's feelings," he says in a telephone interview. "I would rather think the controversy results from the lack of understanding between the two countries. Many Chinese do not know about the nature of late-night talk shows, while the Americans did not realize Chinese could be very sensitive about some subjects."

Li has been presenting netizens with elements of Western culture rarely portrayed in Chinese media for almost a year.

"But it is not education or preaching. It is, first of all, for fun," he says. "I cannot imagine a dull person doing this."