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JUNE/JULY The Linguist 15
FEATURES
Why classical Chinese literature takes centre stage in the nation's video
games and what this means for translators. By Dariush Robertson
C
hina's video game market has now
become the largest in the world,
worth US$27.5bn.
1
Over the past few
years, an increasing number of Chinese video
games have been translated into English, and
then into other languages using English as a
relay language. This rapid growth has created
an increasing demand for Chinese-to-English
video game translators, who, with the right
skills and mind-set, can expect to receive a
number of such projects a year. Each project
can involve tens – if not hundreds – of
thousands of characters.
However, Chinese games can be very
different from the games typically played in
the West, presenting some unusual translation
challenges. Therefore, any budding Chinese-
to-English games translator cannot rely solely
on Chinese language skills and a knowledge
of Western video games to succeed.
The journey begins
When I started freelancing in 2011, I was
surprised to find an advert for a Chinese-to-
English video game translation project. While
I had always been passionate about gaming,
I did not know much about Chinese video
games. Most games published in the West
tend to be from Western developers such as
Activision Blizzard (US) and Ubisoft (France), or
Japanese developers including Nintendo and
Square Enix. Yet I was confident that my
experience of video games and translation
would be sufficient. My career as a Chinese-to-
English video game translator, however, did
not begin until I had passed a series of tests.
The standard way of entering this industry is
by registering with localisation agencies. This
typically involves email correspondence,
informal online interviews and then translation
tests. Most agencies have several tests on
different genres, from massive multiplayer
online games (MMORPGs) to casual puzzle
games for tablets and smart phones.
Freelancers decide which tests to take, each
containing around 300-500 characters, and
are usually given one or two days. Once
accepted, the freelancer is asked to sign a
non-disclosure agreement (NDA), placed on
a register and contacted when required.
MMORPG translation forms the mainstay
of work for Chinese-English games translators,
amounting to around half the video games I
work on. Not only are there a lot of them, but
they also tend to contain a high volume of
text, so one MMORPG can contain as much
text as several games from other genres.
Reliving the classics
The first thing that struck me about the
majority of Chinese video games, was how
Getting
China's game
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