Chen Chunge (R), a.k.a. "Gu Da Bai Hua," poses with Zhao Jiamin, cofounder and CEO of Yeeyan.com, during a break at the Advanced Seminar on Building China's Language and Translation Abilities, themed "Translation and Communication of Chinese Culturem" in Beijing, May 17, 2014. [Photo by Zhang Rui / China.org.cn]

 

The English teacher single-handedly changed the landscape of U.S. talk show popularity in China. Chen worked on the videos alone from time to time, due to his busy work schedule, but his efforts, especially his lovely and very localized translations, paid off as he himself rose to fame and China's public, especially the younger generations, seems to grow fonder of the U.S. shows and hosts.

"I feel like I have achieved something," he said, "At least from the feedback I get, it seems more and more people love watching these U.S. talk shows. That makes me grateful. "

Of course Chen has to select shows to do the translated subtitles of, "I will not do the shows that are complicated and cannot be easily understood. I also will not touch upon politically sensitive shows and those that are not funny enough."

When asked about copyright issues, Chen admitted to having his concerns. Many video sites in China have to delete his videos due to copyright claims, but meanwhile even some major China's TV networks will sometimes happily use his translation without mentioning his name whenever a hot topic comes along.

"This is a gray area, though I'm worried whether I have violated any copyrights of the shows," he said, "But if you look at the opposite side, actually my works have helped U.S. talk shows get more popular in China."

He added, "For example, even Jon Stewart used my translated clips in his show and that video got 3 million hits in China, much more than the TV ratings they got for the program in the United States. Jon himself joked, like 'I should be doing a program in China,' so you cannot do it without me. They should pay me the promotional fee for all I have done for them instead. Haha!"