The Research on the Situation and Advice About Translation of Chinese Net—Games

龚磊

1. Introduction

In the process of internationalization， China's national games enterprises faced many challenges. The President of Perfect World Zhu Qi pointed out that “cultural differences between east and west is the biggest challenges facing such cultural products like online games into overseas market.” How to cross cultural boundary and how to pass Chinese culture in games well to the foreign players is undoubtedly the first problem these enterprises face before they exploit overseas market. After all， China's net-games enterprises not only “output” products， but also “output” culture. As a key link in culture output， translation undoubtedly play an important role in expanding influence of national games in the overseas market and transferring the Chinese culture.

2. Translation is the guarantee for the internationalization of net-games industry.

Given the different observation and understanding among various nationalities and their different perspectives， focuses and emotion， as a result， there will be different words being used in various width， depth and judgment to the same things and concepts， it is also the same case in “The Journey”①. For example， the “ancient drug”， “ancient medicine”， “ancient pill”， the word “medicine， drug， pill” inside has different meanings with the same words in the west. “Medicine” here refers to an ancient Chinese herbal medicine， namely “herbal medicine”. By contrast， the word “medicine” generally covers “traditional Chinese medicine and western medicine”， and “Drug” can be referred to as “drugs”， which also refer to the “heroin” or things like that.

In addition， the mindset and the way of thinking among different nations will produce different effects to language expression . “JX 3”②， for example. In this game， the underline terms in the following two sentences refer to the speaker， namely “me”.

（1）“小女子本不該打扰阁下，但是没有别的办法了。”

（2）“从贫僧身旁的台子一直顺着柱子往上跳，直至跳上第一个平台。”

These “小女子” and “贫僧” both mean the speaker's modesty， which reflect the Chinese culture and show advocating principles of interpersonal communication： “Modest words are for myself， which show modesty， respectful words are for others， which show respect”. If the translator does not understand this and translates these into “little women” and “poor monk” literally， which will be a big mistake. Therefore， in the process of the internationalization of China's national games the translation need to introduce Chinese culture to western players， however， irresponsible translation not only cause the misunderstanding among western players， but also bring the loss of the Chinese culture.

3. The situation of translation of Chinese net-games

（1） disorder in words choosing

“Disorder”is the first impression from lots of people about online games translation. In fact， this is mainly originated from that about the same Chinese terms or words and in the context of the same or similar there are several different English translations， which apparently lack of criteria.

For instance， in the English translation of “JX 3”， this can be found in names of persons， places， organizations， items and equipment. Examples are in the following graph：

Chinese Type1 Type2 Type 3 Type 4

浩气盟 Nobel League Nobel Spirit League Haoqi Gang Haoqi League

恶人谷 Devil Valley Valley of Chaos Bully Valley Evil Valley

塔林 Pagoda Forest Tower Forest Tower Grave Shrine Grave

江湖 Underground world Underworld Union Traits World

叶姑娘 Sister Ye Miss Ye Ms.Ye Lady Ye

王老爷 Lord Wang Master Wang Mr.Wang Wang Laoye

幽冥草 Nether Weed Hell Grass Youming Grass Youming Weed

無底缸 Leaking vat Bottomless jar Leaking jar Bottomless vat

镖局 Bodyguard agency Guard Office Escort Biaoju

罚恶剑 Justice Sword Punishers Sword Sword of Punishment Sword to punish

（2） mistake and omit in translation and crude translation

Mistake and omit in translation and crude translation are also big problems in online game translation. the English translation of “The Journey” have such problems， which lead to the deviation from the truth of the original work and ，in turn， misguide foreign players.

（3） Cultural Aphasia（Cultural Loss）

The phenomenon of “cultural aphasia” in this research refers to that the interpreter in the online games translation has not been able to use English correctly and fully to express the Chinese culture. Jin Huikang pointed out in the “cross-cultural communication translation”that“... Comparing culture with the iceberg， the visible part of it mainly is the language， it is just the tip of the iceberg， under which there is a large underwater body， such as values， social norms， traditions， and customs， etc.” As the interpreter does not understand Chinese culture exactly and sufficiently as well as differences between Chinese and western culture， therefore， they only finished translation at the language level but ignore the cultural information inside.

4. advice for translation of Chinese net-games

（1） Establish the national standards for translation of Chinese net-games

Given the Chinese online game industry originated in western agent and imitated their games， so English-Chinese translation has developed more than 10 years. Chinese-English translation of online games， however， has just started， front-line translators lack of formal training and experience in this field. In particular， the online game industry fail to pay enough attention to translation of online games. At present， online games industry lack of authority and national standard about online games translation. In current practice， translators only adopt some of the most popular and accepted translation criteria for online games. Translation of these terms in games is not unified and regulate and perfect authorities are necessary.

（2） Establish professional translator team

First of all， they should establish a professional translation team. The translators should have a solid language foundation of language and professional knowledge about net-games and strong sense of responsibility. Secondly， to encourage the translator to communicate with game designers and players and understand the content and characteristics of online games and know online games from the angle of players. Finally， to offer a good training for translators about the online game content， characteristics， cultural connotation and other aspects. Online game companies， of course， can also establish a cooperative relationship with some powerful， experienced translation companies. But， it is necessary to strictly control their quality of the translation.

（3） Be professional and skillful in translation practice

A. Culture

The principle of “culture” refers to that translators should try their best to make sure the transmission cultural information of source language to the target language with minimum reduction. To obtain this， translators should use transliteration， literal translation， free translation and other translation methods flexibly.

B. Concision

The principle of “concision” refers to that the translator to try to keep the simpleness and the oral style of the source language， which would be easy for the players to obtain as much information as possible in shortest time， therefore，words choosing and sentences choosing in the target language is needed to be as concise as possible.

C. Creativity

The principle of “creativity” means that in online games there is a large vocabulary far from the real life， translators， in conventional way， are unable to transfer or express the information of source language， they can give full play to their creativity and imagination on the basis of faithfulness and adopt techniques such as creating new words.

5. Conclusion

To develop and spread national net-games successfully in overseas market， translators still have a long way to go. Online games translators need to be serious about the translation quality and need the sense of responsibility about China's online games industry， furthermore， it needs both the deep attention of the relevant department of the government and the effective practice of online games industry. In this way， not only national games will be opened to the overseas market， but also Chinese culture to the world.

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