Modern Social Science Research

In the strategic context of "going out" of Chinese culture, documentary films have become an important vehicle for cross-cultural communication. It is therefore essential to improve the quality of the translation of documentary films. This paper focuses on the translation of the Chinese and Chinese subtitles of the documentary film Aerial China（Jiangxi）. Using the guidance of the ecological translation theory of three-dimensional transformations, it selected the subtitle text of "Aerial photographs of China" as a study subject and analyzed its Chinese-English translation strategy from three dimensions of language, culture and communication. The study found that translators optimize vocabulary niche, reconstruct syntax ecological chains (split long sentences to adaptation English logic), and dynamically adapt cultural dimensions (such as "stool dragons" to translate cultural annotations). It effectively balanced translation accuracy with cultural communication effect, further validated the feasibility of 3D transformation theory, and demonstrated the advantages of interdisciplinary collaborative translation. This study provides a theoretical reference for the subtitle translation of geographical and cultural documentaries and helps the international spread of Chinese culture.

Documentary; Aerial China(Jiangxi); Eco-Translatology; Three-dimensional transformations; Cultural communication