Photo: IC

An avid fan of Western culture, pirated DVDs were Shi Shengjun's main window into the West back when she was a college student. However, her understanding of Western culture expanded even further when she discovered TV shows like Prison Break and Supernatural were available for her on fansub website. As time went on and a large number of foreign shows became available on streaming sites in China, she was overjoyed.

However, recent changes have her thinking about going back to buying pirated DVDs.

"I either can't find the content I want through legitimate means or it's too expensive. I'm left with no choice," Shi told the Global Times.

She isn't alone in her feelings. A large number of Chinese viewers have started to worry whether they will still be able to enjoy the Western shows they love.

This concern came after the shutdown of two major fansub sites: yyets.cn, a notable fansub group that provides Chinese subtitles and downloads for foreign shows, and shooters.cn, another well-known group whose shutdown came as a particular surprise as it only provides subtitles.

According to Tencent news, the shutdown was due to copyright regulations at both the nation and provincial levels. As the news of the shutdown spread across the Internet, fans of foreign shows in China began mourning what they claim is "the end of an era."

Dedicated group

Fansub groups can take much of the credit for broadening the horizons of TV watchers in China. For years these dedicated volunteers have created Chinese subtitles for Western TV shows - sometimes within the space of just a few hours after a show is broadcast - completely free of charge. 

"This is the true significance of fansub groups," movie critic Yuan Dengyu told the Global Times, adding that he believes the contributions of these fansub groups have helped improve Chinese moviegoers' tastes in films.

"The ability of Chinese moviegoers cultivated by these fansub groups to appreciate film is far ahead of the Chinese movies industry."

 Most of these groups were founded by fans of foreign shows who chose to use their knowledge of foreign languages to provide a means for other people in China to share in their enjoyment of foreign movies and TV series. For instance, YYETS was started by overseas Chinese students in Canada in 2004. Brought together through their common interests in TV and movies, members of the group spent long hours producing high quality subtitles without any financial compensation.

From classic movies to the latest films, TV shows legally available in China and those that are not, talk shows, comedies, even ceremonies like the Academy Awards and the Grammys, almost everything can be found on fansub websites.

Fansub groups in China have even expanded their coverage to other languages besides English, like Japanese, Korean and Spanish. The Tianxiang fansub group is a well-known group that has provided subtitles for Japanese TV shows and anime for nearly a decade.

However, since most of the content provided by these fansub group websites was provided illegally, controversies over copyright laws have always been a major issue with these sites.

For instance, the sources for movies usually come from group members overseas who buy a DVD or blue-ray, transfer it into digital format and put it up on the Internet for free download.

Lao Yang (pseudonym), a member of the group since the beginning of 2013, revealed that originally one of their sources were Japanese who recorded and uploaded shows for everyone to download, but this source dried up a few years ago due to the Japanese Government's fight against piracy. Now the group has been forced to ask members living in Japan to buy the necessary equipment to record shows for the group's private use.

While this group has jumped through quite a lot of hoops to get shows to people in China, like many large fansub groups, they aren't looking for any type of financial award.

"We don't care about the number of downloads," said Lao Yang in an interview with the Global Times.

"As long as I find it interesting, I don't find it troublesome at all. It's like volunteer work, I'm happy to do it even though I don't make any money," said a member of Tianxiang who goes by the screen name Xuancaobing.

The variety of foreign shows covered by fansub groups has also expanded over the years. Due to the efforts of these groups many Chinese viewers were able to become familiar with talk shows like Late Night with Conan O'Brien long before it began officially streaming in China.

Although piracy is an issue, not all the fansubs available are about entertainment. Guan Xin, a popular independent subtitle producer with more than 220,000 followers on Sina Weibo, has dedicated himself to translating videos of a more educational nature, such as Parliament debates in the UK, State of the Union addresses by Barack Obama and presidential election coverage in the US. According to Guan, all the materials he uses for his videos belong to the public domain and can be downloaded through official government websites.

Guan feels his work helps people who want to learn more about foreign culture, current affairs or simply want to improve their English.

"It's not about how good I translate, these videos are here because people are really interested and it's not easy for them to access this content themselves. And even if they manage to find this content on their own, they may find some of the references difficult to understand," Guan told the Global Times.

Many subtitle producers like Guan do more than just translate, when it comes to allusions, slang and even the punchlines for jokes they provide explanations alongside the subtitles to help viewers understand the culture behind the language. These insightful notes are yet another reason why fansubs are so appreciated.

Rise and fall

While the shutdown of shooter.cn and YYETS was very high profile, it really is nothing new.

Guan used to work for a fansub group many years ago. He recalled that in order to remain operational the site had to shift servers to different regions all the time.

Over the years numerous sites have been shut down for piracy, yet new ones seem to pop up as soon as others are shut down.

Yuan believes that these sites keep on existing because they provide a much desired service.

"If we had more options to choose from, then there wouldn't be much room left for pirates," said Yuan, explaining that he feels that fansub groups became so popular because domestic viewers' massive demand for content could not be met through legitimate means.

Fansub groups mainly rose to prominence during a time when there were few imported movies in China. And even if a film managed to come to China it was usually six months or more after its release.

Of course things are changing. As Internet speeds increase and more shows can be found through legitimate streaming sites, an increasing number of viewers are turning to official streaming sites instead of downloading movies and TV shows illegally.

However a number of official regulations taking aim at foreign shows on streaming sites, especially a series of regulations issued this year, have led many wondering just how long streaming sites will remain a viable option.