What Language Should I Make My Chinese-Focused Book In?

[agfreesafety]

I've come across quite a few individuals from China that are interested in potentially buying residential real estate here in the metro Detroit area.

To help them make well-informed decisions (and reduce risk), I want to put together a free eBook that will give them all of the information I've gathered from being an investor in this area over the last 10 years or so.

What I'm seeking your opinion on, is the language that I should make the book in.

Should I:

1. Make the book in English, and leave it to the investors who download the book to use a tool that can translate it into Chinese?

Or

2. Is it better to create it in English and pay someone to translate it to Chinese?

Even if the book is "published" in Chinese, there's different "types" of Chinese, such as Mandarin, for example, from what I've learned, so I'm confused on how to move forward with this.

I'm open to any and all constructive feedback on this issue. Thanks so much in advance for your assistance!

[renzhe]

If the book is published in Chinese, it will be in standard written Chinese, which is essentially the same everywhere, and minor differences are easily understood. Dialects are rarely written, and most written material published in the last 100 years follows consistent vocabulary and grammar.

The only major question is whether to use simplified or traditional Characters, which is somewhat like choosing between British or American spelling. Most native speakers can read both relatively comfortably, but if you're going for Mainland Chinese, I'd go for simplified. If you're aiming for buyers from Taiwan, Hong Kong or Macao, traditional are a better choice.

If in doubt, you can always ask the translator to provide both -- the character conversion is a very minor step compared to the actual translation so it shouldn't drive the price up too much.

[agfreesafety]

Thanks, that reply has been a big help.

With deciding between traditional or simplified, it's a little tough for me to decide between the two, because my target market is going to be from.

I say that, because our target market is going to be from cities that are both parts of Mainland China, as well as those apart from Mainland, such as Hong Kong.

What would you suggest in this instance, as far as deciding between traditional or simplified?

[anonymoose]

This is a non-issue really. You can run it through software that will change it from simplified to traditional or v.v. in a fraction of a second. Then all you need is a native speaker to proof-read it.

Once you have the initial translation, providing both simplified and traditional is not a big extra step.

[Lu]

It's already been said, but I'd like to second that advice. Find a good translator (someone who speaks Chinese natively and has good English, and preferably also some knowledge of the field) and have it translated. Translation software is useful in getting the gist of a text, but not for actually reading the text comfortably, so if you want your e-book to be read and used, a good translation is indispensable.

As mentioned, converting from traditional to simplified (or vice versa) is not difficult. Make sure a native speaker proofreads the converted version, because mistakes do happen and are easy to fix. Then you can send your customers a version in the language they're most comfortable reading.

Good luck! It certainly is a growing market.