Simplified vs Traditional Chinese Subtitles: Which Should You Use?

Where each script is used

Simplified Chinese

Mainland China, Singapore and Malaysia. Introduced in mainland China in the 1950s and 1960s to make reading and writing easier.

Traditional Chinese

Taiwan, Hong Kong and Macau, and many older overseas Chinese communities. The older forms, with more strokes in many characters.

If your audience is mainly in mainland China or Singapore, use Simplified. For Taiwan or Hong Kong, use Traditional. For a global Chinese-reading audience, you may need both.

Language codes for subtitle files

Video platforms and players identify subtitle languages with codes. The common ones:

• zh-Hans (Simplified) and zh-Hant (Traditional), which name the script.
• zh-CN (mainland China), zh-TW (Taiwan) and zh-HK (Hong Kong), which name the region.

YouTube and many platforms list Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional) separately, sometimes with regional variants. Use the script codes when you can, and the regional ones when a platform asks for them. Subtitle file naming covers how to put the code in file names.

More than characters: vocabulary differences

Converting characters isn't enough, because mainland and Taiwanese usage differ in vocabulary too, much like British and American English. A few well-known examples:

• Software: 软件 in mainland usage, 軟體 in Taiwan.
• Video: 视频 in mainland usage, 影片 in Taiwan.
• Information: 信息 in mainland usage, 資訊 in Taiwan.

Hong Kong adds another layer: people speak Cantonese, and Hong Kong subtitles are typically in Traditional characters following standard written Chinese, sometimes with Cantonese expressions. For a Hong Kong audience, a native reviewer is especially valuable.

Converting between Simplified and Traditional

Automatic converters change character forms quickly. The open-source OpenCC project is widely used and can also apply regional vocabulary, such as Taiwan phrasing. Conversion works well for most text, but:

• Some Simplified characters map to more than one Traditional character, depending on meaning, so converters occasionally pick the wrong one.
• Vocabulary conversion covers common terms, not everything.
• Names and brand terms may have established regional forms.

A good approach: convert, then have a native reader of the target region check the subtitles, especially names and technical terms. Subtitles show strange characters covers encoding problems, since Chinese subtitle files must be saved as UTF-8.

Chinese subtitles with mydubly

mydubly translates into Simplified Chinese. Upload a video to the subtitle generator, choose Chinese as the target and download SRT and VTT files in Simplified characters, along with translated transcripts. Translated subtitles cost 1 credit per minute, the same as a transcript. For a Traditional Chinese audience, convert the Simplified file and review it as described above; the Chinese subtitle generator page covers the details. When the video itself is in Mandarin, the transcript in the spoken language may use either script, so if your audience needs one consistently, translate or convert to it.

The same upload can carry other languages: run the video again with Japanese, Korean or Spanish as the target for more subtitle tracks, each at the same per-minute price. If you'd rather Chinese viewers hear the video than read it, a dubbed Chinese version voices each speaker in a copy of their own voice in Mandarin. The how to translate a video guide covers the full process, including reviewing translations with a native speaker before publishing.

Choosing for a mixed audience

Many channels and companies serve Chinese readers everywhere at once. Some practical rules:

• Start with your analytics. If most Chinese-reading viewers are in Taiwan or Hong Kong, Traditional comes first, whatever the global numbers say.
• If you can only do one, Simplified reaches the largest number of readers, but Taiwanese and Hong Kong viewers notice.
• Doing both costs little extra once you have one: convert and review, rather than translating twice.
• Label tracks clearly so viewers pick the right one.

Regional differences go beyond script, too. Product names, units, examples and humour may need local adaptation; translating video for regional audiences covers that broader question, and right-to-left video localization shows how script choices affect layout in other languages.

Limits and things to watch

• mydubly doesn't produce Traditional Chinese directly; plan a conversion and review step for Taiwan and Hong Kong.
• Subtitle line length: Chinese packs more meaning per character, so lines are shorter on screen than in English; subtitle readability covers reading speed, which is often measured in characters per second.
• Fonts: make sure your player or burned-in subtitle font includes the characters for the script you use.
• Cantonese speech is a different case from Mandarin; check the language list before relying on automatic transcription.