Chinese, in all of its forms, is one of our most popular languages for translation projects at Alpha Omega Translations.

There is a great need now for Chinese translation services thanks to the immense growth we have seen in the Chinese economy. This growth has brought on a digital expansion in China with increased use of social media marketing and e-commerce. There are now approximately 688 million people using the Internet in China, which is about half of the country’s population.

We have Chinese translators who work exclusively with their particular native dialect or specific regions like Taiwan or Shanghai. This ensures there is never an issue with terms that are specific to one dialect and will be regionally appropriate for the culture.

The majority of Chinese speakers live in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, though there are many found in southeast Asia, most notably in Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore. Cantonese is the language that most of us are most familiar with, as it is the language of Chinese immigrants who settled in North America, and is the official language of Hong Kong and Macau. Mandarin is the official language of both Taiwan and the People’s Republic of China, as well as being one of the four official languages of Singapore.

No matter what type of Chinese it is, there are two basic ways of writing it: Simplified Chinese or Traditional Chinese.

Simplified Chinese came to be around 40 years ago, when the People’s Republic of China decided to take Traditional Chinese and make it easier and simpler. This was done in order to aid in the process of creating a society that was as literate as possible. Traditional Chinese is still used, however, and so it is necessary for any Chinese linguist to know both systems. Native speakers have no trouble telling the two apart. You will find Simplified Chinese used mostly in the People’s Republic of China as well as in Singapore.

Traditional Chinese is dominant in Malaysia, Taiwan, and Hong Kong. There are two main ways in which Simplified Chinese differs from Traditional Chinese: less strokes per character and less characters used overall. Simplified Chinese has made its way into Hong Kong television thanks to a wave of immigrants from mainland China.

We have Chinese translators who work exclusively with their native dialect or variety of Russian, so there is never an issue with terms that are specific to one dialect but not even used in another. This also ensures all Chinese translations will be culturally appropriate to your region or market.