AUTHOR=Zhang Jiadong , Zou Deyan TITLE=Understanding the multi-sign communication system: A study on Peking Opera stage translation JOURNAL=Frontiers in Communication VOLUME=8 YEAR=2023 URL=https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/communication/articles/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1072581 DOI=10.3389/fcomm.2023.1072581 ISSN=2297-900X ABSTRACT=

Peking Opera is an artist-centered art rather than a director-centered one, and its true significance lies in its stage performance. However, the realization of the meaning of the “Performance Text” is the result of the joint action of different sign systems. Therefore, translators engaged in the stage translation of Peking Opera must understand the meaning and operation mechanism of this multi-sign system. From the perspective of semiotics of theater and drama, this paper deconstructs the Peking Opera sign system and divides them into several subsystems, describes in detail the characteristics of each secondary system, especially their semiotization process, their manners of meaning transmission, the rules of interaction among them, and finally presents the meaning generation and communication mechanism of this “Performance Text”. On this basis, the paper clarifies that the main tasks and challenges faced by translators engaged in Peking Opera stage translation which are they should not only translate the language but also need to find time and space to realize the transformation of the meaning of the non-verbal sign system.