Sunken Subs

After operating in legal limbo for nearly two decades, fansub groups – or online collectives that translate pirated foreign shows and movies on the Chinese internet – are getting cut from the scene

“It's the end of an era,” said Zou Qiqi, a 29-year-old web editor after learning that Renren Yingshi, China's largest and most well-known fansub group, was shutting down.

Fansub groups are online groups that crowd-translate, subtitle and share video content from abroad, from films, TV and animation to documentaries, open courses and instructional videos. Most are fans who volunteer their time and share for free.

“If it weren't for fansub groups, especially Renren Yingshi, what a bleak wasteland my world would've been,” Zou told Newschina.

With more than eight million registered users, Renren Yingshi (formerly YYETS) was the most influential fansub group in China. On February 3, the website fell under an official crackdown on copyright infringement. After a three-month investigation, Shanghai police arrested 14 people who ran the website and app. The group was accused of pirating more than 20,000 foreign TV shows and movies and making 16 million yuan (US$2.47M) from selling ads, subscription fees and hard drives containing pirated content.

The website's downfall sparked heated discussions on social media. While many called it significant progress for copyright protection, others lamented the website's demise as well as other closed fansub groups. Many said the groups had broadened their outlook by providing them with cultural content from around the world.

With official restrictions and quotas on imported content, millennials have little access to the pop cultures of other countries. Fansub groups provided a rare outlet to uncensored, pirated content. Due to their efforts, movies and TV shows from all over the world – particularly the US, UK, Japan and South Korea – spread in China.

But as Chinese authorities tighten controls on copyright, fansub groups, which have developed and grown over two decades, may have reached their final season.

Modern Prometheus

On February 3, after news spread of Renren Yingshi's fate, hundreds of thousands posted their condolences and expressed their gratitude to all the fansub groups that once “opened a new world” to millions of Chinese millennials.

“Thanks to all the fansub groups, big and small. Because of your efforts, though thousands of miles apart, it's no longer an extravagant dream for us to go whale watching in the Atlantic or view the moon from the top of Mount Kilimanjaro,” wrote Weibo user “Andy,” whose post was forwarded 160,000 times and received 310,000 likes.

“I've benefited from [Renren Yingshi] so much,” Wang Kaixi, 30, an English teacher in Shenzhen, told Newschina. “Through foreign movies, TV shows, documentaries and open courses, they showed me the world and changed my life. I still remember how Yale's open course Death completely changed my view of death. I am not alone. I really appreciate the fire they stole for us just as Prometheus once did for humanity.”

Yan Feng, a Chinese professor at Fudan University in Shanghai, argued that fansub groups promote cross-cultural communication.

“There were four waves of translation that had tremendous impacts on Chinese culture,” he posted to Sina Weibo on February 3. The professor likens fansubbers to the Buddhist monks Kumarajiva (343413) and Xuanzang (602-664) who translated sutras from Sanskrit to Chinese, translators such as Yan Fu and Lin Shu who introduced Western classics and culture to China in the early 20th century, and the extensive work by publishing houses which translated Western humanities and social science classics following the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976).

“The fourth wave came in the early 21st century as grass-roots fansub groups voluntarily translated and shared large amounts of foreign TV shows, movies and other cultural content,” Yan wrote.

In a 2014 interview with Boke Tianxia magazine, Yan said: “China's entire modernization process is closely related to translation. In the past, this was done by a small number of cultural elites, professionals and publishing houses.

Today, unofficial fansub groups fill that role. The amount, diversity and scope of translated content has reached a new level... Anyone can find what they need. Such influence is unprecedented.”

However, these achievements are somewhat overshadowed by legal issues as copyright laws threaten their existence.

“According to the forthcoming amended Copyright Law of China, the act of translating and subtitling a work is totally legal,” Zhu Bao, a partner with Beijing-based Dentons Law Firm, told Newschina. “Also, translators have the rights to authorship, reproduction and distribution over their work. However, uploading and distributing unauthorized video content is indeed in violation of the law.” The law is due to come into force on June 1.

Rise and Fall

Ever since China joined the World Trade Organization in November 2001, Chinese millennials craved knowledge about the world's cultures. Tech-savvy youngsters turned to the internet to share foreign shows and movies.

The American sitcom Friends tremendously influenced a generation of Chinese youth. In 2002, a small group of fans started the online forum Friends6 (F6), the first of its kind in China. They translated and subtitled the entire series and provided free downloads online.

Their efforts meant Friends became one of the most popular American TV shows in China and an important learning tool for English learners. F6 lasted more than 15 years before shutting down on October 7, 2014.

More fansub groups popped up in the early 2000s. Among them, fans considered YYETS, YDY (Garden of Eden), Ragbear and FRM as the “Top Four.” YYETS, which was started in 2003 by a ChineseCanadian student, was the most influential. The group formed an independent online video-sharing forum in 2006 and was renamed Renren Yingshi in 2007.

In 2006, the American television series Prison Break became hugely popular in China after subtitled versions from several fansub groups circulated on the Chinese internet. The phenomenal popularity of Prison Break heralded a golden age for fansub groups.

In 2009, the then State Administration of Radio, Film and Televi

sion (SARFT) issued a regulation that banned the dissemination of pirated movies and TV shows on the Chinese internet. By the end of the year, 111 online streaming websites and fansub groups, including YDY and Btchina, were shut down.

To survive, Renren Yingshi turned to a new strategy: sharing open courses offered by prestigious universities.

Since 2010, translators with Renren Yingshi have subtitled open courses from Harvard and Yale, such as Tal Ben-shahar's 2006 course on positive psychology, Michael Sandel's exploration of justice from 2008, Ben Polak's lectures on game theory and Craig Wright's course on music appreciation.

Millions watched their open course translations. In 2011, the State media People’s Daily lauded the website as “a preacher of knowledge in the internet age.”

However, the website eventually returned to sharing pirated content. After it was temporarily closed in 2014, Renren Yingshi, previously a non-profit organization, began selling ads, subscriptions and hard drives that contained pirated content.

Renren Yingshi was not singled out. More than 20 influential fansub groups were shut down in the last five years.

Authorities kicked off a harsh crackdown on piracy in June 2020. By year's end, police had closed 2,884 websites and apps offering pirated content and deleted 3.23 million download links.

On December 12, 2019, police in Shanxi Province took down SCG (Shengchenggroup), a fansub group founded in 2005. With more than two million registered users, SCG subtitled and shared smash TV shows including Friends, The Big Bang Theory, Two Broke Girls, as well as The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter film series.

Zhu Xing, 33, a member of fansub group Ragbear from 2008 to 2009, told Newschina: “I don't have any friends willing to volunteer to translate for fansub groups anymore. Most of us were university students at the time and had lots of energy and passion. But now we have to feed our families and have no time for it. Also, as the country's control over copyright strengthens, more people are unwilling to set foot in that gray area.”

“Fansub groups belong to a particular period of history, just as swordsmen only existed in ancient times and Batman only appears in Gotham. The history of the internet will judge the fansub groups fairly,” Zhu added.

Problem Unsettled

Since 2011, China's video sharing websites such as iqiyi, Tencent Video and Youku vied to acquire regional rights to foreign movies and TV programs. Quality American and British TV shows proved a major draw for paying users. Among them, TV Sohu was the most popular platform for authorized American television series.

TV Sohu imported popular American television series including The Vampire Diaries, The Big Bang Theory, Nikita and House of Cards. According to market research agency iresearch, TV Sohu purchased the regional rights to nearly 2,000 American television programs and had three million paying users in 2013.

TV Sohu's American shows channel topped the industry in catalogue size, paying user base, subtitle quality, frequency of updates and number of Emmy Award-winning shows.

As fans of American shows were perceived to be more educated and have stronger spending power than those of domestic television programs, American television became a way for streaming platforms to attract advertising from luxury brands and carmakers.

However, while fans of foreign shows were willing to shell out cash for authorized access, many were turned off by the platforms' censorship practices.

“The censorship process for imported foreign television programs is way easier than for domestic dramas. With domestic television, censors examine it scene by scene and word for word. But when it comes to foreign shows... they just cut entire scenes they feel are inappropriate. If the show is considered too sensitive, they won't buy it at all,” Zhong Hong, who works for an online streaming platform, told Newschina. He said violent or graphic sex scenes in many American shows are often not essential to the main plot, which makes deleting them easier.

But for some American shows such as Boardwalk Empire, Game of Thrones and Spartacus, explicit scenes often contain important plot points. To delete bloody and violent scenes from zombie-filled The Walking Dead or the gladiator battles of Spartacus would almost deprive the series of their essence.

“I totally understand the authorities' resolve to clamp down on piracy. But please give us proper access to watch the authorized version,” Shen Wei, a 25-year-old English teacher and film buff, said. “One time I wanted to watch the movie Roma (2018) and found that iqiyi has bought it. I paid to watch it but discovered that iqiyi had deleted a nude scene where a man brandishes a sword while totally naked. That scene is important to the story, and they just cut it out. What a disappointment. I felt like I was watching a castrated version and it was a waste of my money.”

“People naturally expect that authorized shows on video platforms are butchered. Even though these versions are legal, people might still seek out the pirated copy rather than watch an incomplete work,” said Zhong Hong, the video platform employee.

Moreover, regulators can pull authorized foreign movies and shows offline for unpredictable reasons. In 2014, four American shows – The Big Bang Theory, The Good Wife, NCIS and The Practice – were taken down from TV Sohu, Youku and Tencent Video for unclear “policy reasons.” These surprises mean losses for the platforms that have already paid high licence fees.

“We never take pride in watching pirated content, but where can we access a proper authorized one?” said Zhu Xing, the former member of Ragbear.

“Shutting down fansub groups is not a permanent solution to the piracy problem. As fansub groups exit the stage, even if we are very willing to pay for legal copies, where do we get them?” Zhu added.