The China trip and livestreams from American YouTuber and streamer IShowSpeed generated some of the hottest topics on social platforms, both Chinese and global. However, one topic caught the eyes of Chinese netizens: the misunderstanding that came out of the mistranslation by translators accompanying IShowSpeed.
Netizens feel that some of the mistranslations are too much to be considered errors, so the translators either didn’t get what was being said or deliberately created a misunderstanding. The translator in Beijing is an influencer himself. When Speed visited a barber shop, the hairdresser said that he didn’t know what to do with the dreadlocks, but the translator told Speed that they didn’t want to do it because his hair was too raggedy. Speed then asked for a second opinion from a member of his team. The team member gave a closer translation, but the official translator tried to put him down, saying, “I did a direct translation”.
Another case concerns the translator in Henan. After Speed’s kung fu lessons, he tried to pay the master to show gratitude, but the master said that China and the US are friends, and he wouldn’t take money from a friend, but Speed could buy some sweets for the children at the school as a gesture. The translator, however, said the government had already paid the master for his troubles, and there was no need for Speed’s payment.
On Weibo, China’s Twitter equivalent, the topic “IShowSpeed translator” reached number 15 on the Hot Search list with 10.06 million views. Chinese netizens feel that the translators showed arrogance towards the locals and deliberately tried to stir up drama with IShowSpeed. Commentators believe that since these individuals’ primary job is influencing rather than translating, it made moments like these inevitable.
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