China’s transformation opens up huge business opportunities

With over 1.3 billion people – that’s a quarter of the world's population – and 9% growth per annum (source: Barclays), China’s emergence as an economic giant represents a major market opportunity for Western companies.

By 2005 imports are predicted to reach $1.5 trillion, according to Sun Zhenyu, Vice-Minister of the Ministry of Foreign Trade and Economic Cooperation (MOFTEC). And foreign direct investment is forecast to surpass all countries except the United States in 2004 (source: Foreign Affairs magazine).

Fuelled by this influx of investment and unencumbered by legacy infrastructure, China is reaping the advantages of new products and technologies. It is now one of the largest and fastest growing mobile phone and personal computer markets in the world and has the second largest Internet population after the United States.

Lloyd International, one of Europe’s leading specialist technical translation companies, has experienced China’s rapid expansion at first hand. Whereas 10 years ago there was little demand from clients for Chinese translation, in 2004 Lloyd International expects to translate more than 500,000 words into Chinese for clients throughout Europe and the United States in a wide range of industries, from IT and Telecomms to inkjet printers and construction.

Going to China, however, presents unique technical and linguistic challenges. Successful navigation requires knowledge of:

	the different written language forms
	cultural and political sensitivities
	the software engineering issues

It is essential firstly to understand how the language is written and spoken. The Chinese language has more than 20 spoken dialects (including the most commonly used ‘business languages’ Mandarin and Cantonese, which are as different as English and Spanish), and two distinct written forms – Simplified and Traditional. Mandarin may be written in either Simplified or Traditional forms.

The Traditional form of Chinese comprises some 50,000 intricate characters. Simplified Chinese, as the name suggests, is based on Traditional, but has fewer character strokes. It was created by the Chinese Government in the early 1950s to improve literacy levels. As a general rule, Simplified Chinese is used in Mainland China (PRC), whereas Traditional Chinese is used in Taiwan and throughout the rest of the Chinese-speaking world. So, for example, people in Taiwan and in Mainland China may both be able to speak Mandarin, but they write very differently, using two different character sets.

There are also grammatical and stylistic differences in the written language across the major cities and latitudes, especially in Beijing, Shanghai and the Southern Economic Zone.

For Chinese translation and localization, therefore, it is essential to specify whether you need Traditional Chinese, Simplified Chinese, or both. And to know which area of China is your target market.

Lloyd International is highly experienced in translating from English (and other languages) into Simplified and Traditional Chinese, using mother tongue professional translators in China and Taiwan. By using in-country translators we ensure we address political and cultural sensitivities and make documents fully compliant with local customs. Paying respect to these intricacies and nuances is essential in this part of the world where, despite rapid modernisation, ways of doing business are guided by centuries of history and tradition. We can also put our local translators directly in touch with your local representatives to speed up the process of working across time zones.

As well as being fully conversant with the target language and cultural conventions, Lloyd International’s translators are selected for their specialist knowledge in the subject area being translated. We have experience of translating a wide range of technical and commercial material into Simplified and Traditional Chinese, from installation and operating procedures to sales and marketing literature. Recent examples include user guides for lighting instrumentation and manuals for drilling equipment. We also provide web and software localization.

When localising software for Chinese there are many issues to be considered such as re-engineering the software to be able to use multibyte characters or Unicode encoding in order to handle a character set of more than 13,000 characters. Lloyd International is well versed in these technicalities and our engineers can work together with your software development teams, to ensure that the finished product works correctly.

Lloyd International can provide all the language solutions needed to translate documents and localise software or websites into Chinese quickly and cost-effectively:

	print-ready documents in EPS or PDF format, if documents have been created using software such as QuarkXPress or PageMaker which require a Chinese software version and operating system
	translation memory software to reduce cost and increase speed, accuracy and consistency
	mother tongue professional translators in China and Taiwan
	local validation
	in-house Chinese language support
	ISO 9001 quality assurance systems
	a secure gateway to the firm’s project management system, enabling clients to track progress, anywhere and anytime

If China is your target market, call us for more information on +44 (0)1829 730050 or email us: mail@lloyd.co.uk

Contact: Jill Fifoot, Sales & Marketing Director

Back to top