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InfoMail,
Q3-2006
GlobalVision International, Inc.
Localizing into Chinese?
Have you ever been
asked to perform product localization or localize your product into Chinese? At almost $9 trillion in
2005, China's GDP is second only to the United States', and continues to
grow at a healthy double-digit pace. If you have not been asked yet and
you work for an international company, get ready the question will
soon be asked.
There is often
confusion about Chinese scripts and dialects among non-Chinese speaking
people. You've heard of Mandarin and Cantonese. If you are involved in
technical translation services, you've also heard of Traditional and Simplified Chinese.
This article will demystify these terms in simplified English.
While Mandarin and
Cantonese are two spoken dialects, Traditional and Simplified Chinese
are two written scripts. Unlike phonetic or alphabet-based scripts (such
as Latin, Greek, Cyrillic, Arabic, or English), written Chinese is a
symbol-based script requiring the use of thousands of unique symbols.
The written form of Chinese in the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) is
referred to as Simplified Chinese. Singapore, and Malaysia also use the
simplified script. The Traditional Chinese script is currently used on
the islands of Taiwan and Hong Kong.
Cantonese and Mandarin
are dialects spoken by Chinese people in the PRC, Hong Kong, Singapore,
Taiwan, and Malaysia. Cantonese is the main dialect spoken in Hong Kong
and in some southern parts of the PRC. Mandarin, however, is the
official dialect of the PRC and Taiwan, and should be used for
voice/audio recordings (such as movies or Flash).
The dialects are
irrelevant to the written script. People who speak either of the
dialects may read Chinese in its simplified or traditional form,
depending on where they live or come from. People from the PRC may read
the simplified script, regardless of the dialect they speak. People from
Taiwan and Hong Kong may read the traditional script, also regardless of
the dialect they speak.
The PRC adopted the
simplified script in the 1950's to promote literacy by simplifying the
traditional script. Prior to that, they used the traditional script,
which many still can read. If you are targeting the PRC with your
product today, Simplified Chinese should be the form of script used to
localize your product .
Taiwan, on the other
hand, bans Simplified Chinese in governmental and civil publications. To
be politically correct, you will need to support the traditional script
if your product is to be sold on that island. The simplified script was
never officially introduced or used in Taiwan, so most Taiwanese people
are not familiar with it.
In Hong Kong,
traditional Chinese characters are officially and customarily used. Even
nearly 10 years after the PRC's takeover, textbooks, official
statements, and newspapers still do not show signs of moving to the
simplified script. But the increasing influence of the PRC on Hong Kong
has increased the use of simplified characters, and you now often see
them in Hong Kong's tourist areas.
If you want to
target Hong Kong with your product, you should use the traditional
script for the short term. In the long term, the influence that the PRC
brings to the island may make Simplified Chinese the official script.
Lastly, since there is
a large Chinese community in North America, many companies are now
localizing their products to target this growing market. Dominance is
now emerging from PRC expatriates due to their sheer number, making the
simplified Chinese script the script of choice for Chinese readers in
the USA and Canada.
When measuring the
market opportunity of your product in Chinese, consider this: The
simplified script opens market doors for you not only in mainland China
(PRC), but also in Singapore, Malaysia, North America, and possibly Hong
Kong in a few more years! So, the actual GDP for consumers consuming in
the simplified script easily exceeds the $9 trillion figure, making it
the clear choice after English for your product.
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