Introduction: From VCDs to online viewing
An article published in June 2014 by Taiwan’s Wealth Magazine, with the sensational title “China
takes over your eyes: Predicting the demise of the TV industry,” describes how Chinese video web-
sites have displaced the role of TV and become the most important and influential platform for
everyday viewing in China and Taiwan (Huang 2014). According to this report, one of the main
advantages of Chinese video websites is their almost immediate updating of numerous recent pro-
grams from the United States, Japan, and Korea with Chinese subtitles. (The websites were also rec-
ognized for offering an extensive variety of Chinese language programs made in China, Taiwan, and
Hong Kong.) The article notes that the rate at which TVs are switched on in Beijing has decreased
to 30 percent of its former level. From a Taiwanese standpoint, the writer argues that despite the
long-term, serious problems of over-competition, low-ratings, and low-cost production in the
Taiwanese TV industry, it is Chinese video websites that have threatened the industry’s survival.
The Taiwanese magazine report is significant in that it identifies online viewing as the domi-
nant format among audiences seeking audio-visual resources on the Internet, not only in main-
land China, but also in Taiwan and Hong Kong, where Chinese video websites have a strong
presence. The convenient and mostly free services provided by Chinese video websites satisfy
the needs of online Chinese-speaking audiences and shifts their viewing habits from the TV to
the computer and the Internet. However, the success of the Chinese online video sites should
be understood in the context of their complicated and ambivalent relationship with Chinese
subtitle groups, which has evolved significantly over the last fifteen years.
What are Chinese subtitle groups? They are online communities comprised mainly of young
members of the Chinese Internet generation who work on digitized Chinese translations—and
other related subtitle work—of foreign audio-visual programs. Chinese subtitle groups emerged
as early as 2001, gradually becoming a popular cultural phenomenon with the advent of peer-
to-peer (P2P) sharing technologies such as BitTorrent, which had become a prevalent fix-
ture on the Internet by 2004. Each group has its own niche, such as “American TV dramas,”
“Japanese TV dramas,” “Korean variety TV shows,” “Thai TV dramas,” etc., usually categorized
by nationality, the media form, and the genre. Bypassing copyright laws, the groups obtain
unauthorized programs and volunteer to produce Chinese subtitles without any profit-making