BLOGS
Choosing the Right Chinese Language Variants for Your Global Business
August 4, 2023
How can you choose the right Chinese language variant when your global company operates in Chinese-speaking markets?
It's important to understand that Chinese is not a single, homogenized language. Rather, it is a family of languages with various dialects and writing systems. While some are mutually intelligible, others are not.
When you are localizing your company's content for a Chinese-speaking audience, you first need to identify which variants suit your target markets. And it's not all about language differences. You also have to consider cultural and political sensitivities.
By making the right decisions about Chinese language variants, you can ensure you get a good return on investment from your localization.
Here's how to choose the right Chinese language variants for you…
Navigating the intricacies of Chinese language variants
The Chinese language broadly encompasses a family of languages, dialects, and writing systems.
We have previously written about the writing systems in our article on Traditional vs Simplified Chinese.
Choosing language variants for localization can be complex. The intricacies of the decision often become apparent when you decide to support a specific version of Chinese for your website and product content.
One of our clients at Rubric was trying to decide whether they would get an adequate return on investment (ROI) by localizing their website and [product information management system][RCPIM] into both traditional and simplified Chinese script.
The company was targeting both mainland China (the People's Republic of China) and Taiwan, a common situation for global companies. The in-country team in Taiwan wasn't sure if the customers in the market needed traditional Chinese script, even though this is the standard form in Taiwan.
We will follow their decision below…
Can all Chinese speakers understand each other?
Whilst there are two written variants of Chinese, as explained above, there are many more spoken dialects. If you are localizing audio content for your global content, you may need to consider which spoken variants you choose. Even if the written Chinese is the same in two markets, the spoken language may vary.
For example, the two most commonly spoken variants are Mandarin (with 836 million speakers worldwide) and Wu (with 77 million speakers). Being in mainland China, both are written with simplified Chinese.
The spoken Chinese language can differ largely based on the geographic location and domain in which they are used.
Mandarin, or Standard Chinese, is widely comprehended and used throughout the Chinese-speaking world. However, it is not spoken by everyone. There is no mutual intelligibility between Mandarin – the predominant spoken language in Mainland China – and Cantonese, the predominant spoken language in Hong Kong and Guangzhou province (formerly 'Canton')
Accounting for cultural and political sensitivities in content localization
A common concern for companies localizing into Chinese is making unintended cultural mistakes. There are various political and cultural sensitivities that you may need to navigate.
One of the most well-known political tensions is that between Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. Politically, mainland China sees Taiwan as a breakaway province, whereas Taiwan views itself as distinct with its own constitution and democratically-elected leaders.
If you are localizing for Taiwan, you may have to consider this tension. For example, both markets use different writing systems – traditional script in Taiwan and simplified script in mainland China.
Politics aside, there are also many cultural differences. For example, both Taiwan and Hong Kong use traditional Chinese script. But the culture of both markets is very different and they both speak different variants of the language. The written content may need to reflect these differences.
Understanding these cultural and political sensitivities is crucial when localizing content for Chinese-speaking markets. Choosing one Chinese language variant over another may carry connotations of political allegiance or cultural identity.
10 questions to ask yourself to choose the right Chinese language variants
When you are trying to choose particular Chinese language variants, it can be helpful to assess your situation with your team.
Here are 10 questions you can think about as you try to choose between language variants:
- Which Chinese-speaking markets are we targeting? — Identify the different markets and decide which products and services you will target at them.
- How are sales and marketing done in that market for our industry? — Consider customer preferences and other factors that will affect sales and marketing. Buying preferences in Taiwan, for example, will be different from those in mainland China
- What is the revenue importance of each target market? — Does the budget you will spend on localization reflect the return you expect to get?
- What are the dominant Chinese language variants? — Look at your chosen markets and determine which variants are most prevalent.
- What types of content are we localizing? — It's important to be strategic when localizing content. If a particular market doesn't use printed product manuals, for example, it makes little sense to localize that content.
- Are there legal or official language requirements? — Some markets will have particular legal requirements for translations.
- What variants do our competitors support? — If your competitors support a particular Chinese language variant, it could make sense to support it too. A lack of support could suggest no need for that variant or it could suggest a gap in the market.
- Are there political factors we need to take into account? — Identify any political factors that could affect your content. This might not be obvious, so it's worth consulting with an expert.
- What cultural factors are important for the content? — When you are localizing for multiple Chinese-speaking markets, treat each separately when you are looking for factors like consumer buying preferences.
- What do our local representatives in the markets say? — Finally, make sure you are listening to your in-country representatives. They will have useful experience and knowledge.
What to consider when creating global content in Chinese
When you are creating content for Chinese-speaking markets, it's essential to understand the differences between written and spoken the language variants and between markets.
A helpful practice is to track usage data of all your content across all your markets. Compare these periodically to note trends.
The Rubric client mentioned above was worried because they were seeing underwhelming website traffic in Taiwan. The company's team in Taiwan felt that the website didn't need to be translated into traditional Chinese (the script usually used). They felt the simplified Chinese used in mainland China was enough.
We dug deeper into what might be going on. One question we asked them was how sales are done in Taiwan for their industry — low website traffic might still turn into sales.
Such intricacies are often not obvious from the start. But with a better understanding of the different variants of Chinese, you can make the right decisions for your business.