탄막(彈幕)을 활용한 중국 팬 자막 영상의 곁텍스트 분석

Abstract

This study examines the concept of paratext in media content by focusing on danmu (bullet screens)—real-time viewer comments that appear directly over video—and investigates their paratextual functions in shaping Chinese viewers’ reception of fan-subtitled videos. The analysis draws on danmu comments from fan-subtitled Korean dramas uploaded to Bilibili, China’s leading user-generated content platform. Building on Batchelor’s (2018) function-based criterion of paratexts in audiovisual translation, this study proposes four revised criteria suited to danmu: meta-communicative, informative, hermeneutic-instructive, and commercial functions. Considering multiple features such as color, display mode, timing of appearance, and user input time, the study presents detailed case analyses of how danmu fulfills these paratextual functions. In the absence of a comprehensive typology for paratexts in media content, danmu offers a more contemporary model that can illuminate media reception practices in Asia—examples that could complement the Euro-centric focus of earlier studies. Despite its growing relevance, danmu has not yet been systematically examined from a paratextual perspective. Addressing this gap, the study explores danmu in the context of fan-subtitled videos to demonstrate its analytical potential. Furthermore, by analyzing how Chinese viewers engage with fan-subtitled videos through danmu under conditions of state censorship and regulatory constraints, the study provides a sociologically grounded insight into translation reception within China’s unique sociocultural environment.