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Localising Culture

An effective localisation should take into account cultural preferences in colours, symbols, numbers, and societal norms and beliefs. For example, consider the phrase “Stocks are in the red, is it time to sell?”. Whilst the colour red means danger in Western society, it also represents luck in Chinese culture. A good translator will understand this and will make it clear to the reader that the stocks are falling.

Localising Numbers

Where large numbers are broken down by thousands and millions in English, the Chinese counts in a metric called Wàn which represents “ten thousand”. For example, one hundred thousand is localised as ten Wàn, and one million is localised as one hundred Wàn. As you can imagine, it is common to find conversion errors when localising numbers to Chinese.

Localising Currency

When localising your documents to Chinese, it is important to convert the currency to RMB or CNY. China’s official currency is the Renminbi (RMB), and the Chinese Yuan (CNY) is the unit of measurement. Both the Renminbi and the Yuan are often used interchangeably.

One of the most common questions we receive from clients, is whether they should translate their documents to Mandarin or Cantonese. This is technically incorrect as Mandarin and Cantonese are spoken languages. The written forms of Chinese are Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese.

Between 1950 to 1960, the government of China promoted the use of a simplified version of Chinese characters to boost literacy. As the name implies, Simplified Chinese is written with fewer strokes, making them easier to write compared to Traditional Chinese.

The introduction of Simplified Chinese characters faced strong resistance from the public and academics. Since then, Simplified Chinese has been officially used in Mainland China, Malaysia, and Singapore. Whereas Hong Kong, Macau, and Taiwan have continued to use Traditional Chinese characters.

Generally speaking, Chinese people can read both Simplified and Traditional Chinese. However, there are many expressions and terminologies that are used differently, so it is important to select the correct variant when translating your documents to Chinese.

Contrary to popular belief, Chinese is not a single language but instead, a group of languages spoken by the ethnic Han Chinese majority and other Chinese minority ethnic groups.

It is estimated that there are seven to thirteen major groups of Chinese languages, each of which has its own variations and dialects. Mandarin, as the official language of China, is the most widely spoken with approximately 800 million speakers. This is followed by Min, Wu (Shanghainese), and Yue (Cantonese) with 75 million, 74 million, and 68 million speakers, respectively.

• Chinese is the most widely spoken language in the world with more than 1.3 billion speakers.
• Chinese is one of the oldest languages in the world. Oracle bone inscriptions dated to 1250 BC are the earliest records of written Chinese.
• Chinese became an official language of the United Nations in 1946. It is one of the six official languages, along with Arabic, English, French, Russian and Spanish.

Appearance

Unsurprisingly, the biggest and most obvious difference is the appearance. Whilst English uses alphabets to help readers pronounce words, Chinese uses Hànzì which are written symbols that cannot be sounded out. Chinese characters do have components called radicals however, which can sometimes give advanced readers a rough idea of the meaning.

Tone

Chinese is a tonal language. This means that it uses pitch to distinguish word choice. In English, changes in pitch are used to emphasize or express emotion, but in Chinese, pitch represents meaning. Mandarin has four basic tones and Cantonese has nine basic tones.

Sentence Structure

It is common to use long sentences in English to express ideas since it adds flair, rhythm, and poetic power to writing. Chinese, on the other hand, does not depend on sentence structure for expression. Instead, it divides long sentences into shorter phrases separated by commas, leaving the use of Chéngyǔ (four-character idiomatic expressions) to bring life to the language.

Below are some of the most commonly searched for phrases in English and their Chinese translations.

Guanxi (Relationships)

A word you may often hear when doing business in China is “guanxi”. Many agree that this roughly means “relationships”, but a more literal translation is “to go through the back door”. It is an exchange of personal or business favour through relationships. Often misunderstood by Western counterparts as unethical behaviour or corruption, it is a core part of doing business in China which can often help open doors.

Politics

When it comes to doing business in China, it is important to understand the political views of the Chinese people. Whilst it is acceptable in the UK and other parts of the world to openly challenge or criticise government, the Chinese do not feel comfortable doing the same. In general, topics which are off-limits, include China’s territorial borders, Tibet and the Dalai Lama, Xinjiang, Tiananmen Square, Taiwan, Chairman Mao, and the Cultural Revolution.

Mianzi (Face)

Mianzi in Chinese culture is a metaphorical expression of preventing a loss of face. The Chinese will go through great lengths to save face, even if it means telling an outright lie, denial, or feigning ignorance. In a business setting, it is expected that both parties would be able to read between the lines instead of openly disagreeing or making criticisms.