Chinese translation guide

Mandarin, Cantonese, Simplified characters, Traditional characters…

Can someone explain what all this means and why this is of importance when selecting the kind of Chinese translation I will need?

Much akin to English, with its US, British, Canadian, Australian, South African, New Zealand and numerous other variants, Chinese, the language of some 1.3 billion people worldwide, has its own set of variations and intricacies. This all must be considered when deciding on translation styles and formats.

Neon Chinese characters on black background

Chinese character sets and dialects

Many translation houses will simply refer to the task at hand as “Cantonese dialect” or “Mandarin dialect”. This is a vast oversimplification, which can lead to selection of the wrong format or style.

Chinese, in its written form, is a pictographic language – each character represents a word rather than a sound. With only a modest amount of exceptions, the characters have the same meaning for all readers, despite having a different pronunciation in each dialect. Until the founding of the People’s Republic, there was only one syllabary or character set for the written form of the language. In the late 1950s, the Chinese government undertook a reform of the written language, creating a simplified character set and making its use mandatory across the country. Singapore followed suit in 1976. As a result, there now exist two characters sets:

Simplified, used in mainland China, Singapore, to a growing extent in Malaysia, and, increasingly, across the Chinese diaspora.

Traditional, used in Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan as well as to still a significant but decreasing extent in other Southeast Asian countries with sizeable Chinese populations and by overseas Chinese communities in the rest of the world. Despite being a misnomer, many translation agencies refer to Simplified as “Mandarin” and Traditional as “Cantonese”. Simplified is also called GB, the technical name for the encoding of the typeset, while the name for Traditional in such cases is BIG5.

When to use Simplified and when to use Traditional:

Simplified Chinese:

China (mainland)

Singapore

Communications between governments, especially those at an international level (except when an agency in Taiwan is the sender or the recipient of the communication)

UN and UN agency documents

Traditional Chinese:

Hong Kong

Macau

Taiwan

Malaysia¹

Southeast Asian countries (other than Singapore)

Overseas Chinese communities²

1 – No standard has been formally set in Malaysia. Among the country’s four leading Chinese newspapers, three are printed using Traditional. Yet, due to the proximity of Singapore, the use of both typesets is acceptable in this market. Check closely as to whom will be the readers of your translated content when selecting the character set for this market.

2 – Despite traditional Chinese characters having been the form adopted in most overseas Chinese communities, the pronounced immigration from mainland China into these communities over the last twenty years is having an ever growing effect. Several provincial and state governments have begun issuing their announcements and other content in both Simplified and Traditional or even switching over to only Simplified. If your text is directed at a Chinese audience outside of Greater China, determine which character set is more commonly used by the demographic you have targeted.

Writing styles

When instructing or discussing the translation task with your translation provider, the writing styles of the different areas where Chinese is used must be taken into consideration. Similar to English, with its American, Australian, British, Canadian and other variants, the style of written Chinese varies widely from region to region. The different political structures in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan have only helped to broaden the divergence. The writing styles are also impacted by the dialect of Chinese spoken in each region. When selecting a translation provider, ensure that they can deliver the translation in the style of the targeted demographic or region.

Writing styles can be categorized into five types: China, Taiwan, Hong Kong (including Macao), Singapore (and, by extension, neighboring Malaysia) and Overseas Chinese. The Overseas Chinese (also referred to as “International”) written style is the one generally adopted in North American and European Chinese communities – this is style to choose when translating a circular or text to be distributed by a US state or Canadian province government office where the recipients of the message are the Chinese-speaking residents of that state or province.

If you are unsure about the style to choose, please let us help you determine the appropriate style and character set based on the target audience.

Chinese translation guide

Mandarin, Cantonese, Simplified characters, Traditional characters…

Chinese character sets and dialects

Writing styles

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