Abstract
In Audiovisual Translation, translator’s notes are seldom used mainly because of spatial and
temporal limitations. While this paper will focus on a large amount of use of translator’s
notes, especially on culture-specific items, in 『歩歩驚心』, a Chinese TV drama which takes
a background of Qing Dynasty. In Functionalist Translation Theory, it is thought that the
choice of translation strategies is decided by the intended function (also known as ‘skopos’)
of TT(target text)s. Thus in this paper, an analysis will be made on how the translator’s notes
are used in the TT and what kind of effects they have brought to it, and then the relationship
between the use of translator’s notes and the ‘skopos’ will be explored. Regardless, the heavy
usage of notes, especially on culture-specific items, would be seen as a strong position of the
translator in cross-cultural communication.
