Translate a .NET app into Simplified Chinese

What changes when a .NET UI goes into Chinese

Simplified Chinese is written in hanzi, with no spaces between words and full-width punctuation. A value such as File name: becomes 文件名：, the wide colon being part of the string. The ellipsis is written …… and quotation marks are “ ”.

In character count, the text is two to three times shorter. Each character is wider and taller than a Latin letter, though, so the space taken on screen changes little. A button sized for Save easily holds 保存, but a long single-line label gains almost nothing.

Plurals disappear. Chinese has a single CLDR category, other: {0} file(s) becomes {0} 个文件, with a measure word (个) between the number and the noun. If your code picks between FileCount_One and FileCount_Other, both keys get the same form, which is correct.

Word order also shifts, often moving the placeholder to the middle or end of the sentence. That is why strings should stay complete composite formats rather than fragments joined in code.

What Manuce returns, and what it does not do

In a .resx file, Manuce translates the content of the data/value elements. comment elements are not translated: they are used as context, which is where you can say whether Open is a button verb or a status. Non-text resources are left untouched.

You get the same file back: indentation, key order, quotes, comments, line endings, encoding and BOM are preserved; only the values change. Every translated value is compared with the source: if {0} days left before {1:d} loses {1:d} and the mismatch persists, the source value is kept and the report says so.

Not translated: keys, empty values, URLs, email addresses, numbers, colours, date formats, identifiers, and anything marked as non-translatable.

What Manuce does not do:

• rename the file or build the satellite assembly;
• touch strings hard-coded in your C# source;
• resize your forms: sizes and positions stored in a form .resx stay as they were;
• produce Traditional Chinese in the same order: for Taiwan or Hong Kong it is a separate language.

Chinese carries a language supplement (×1.6 on the per-word rate); the count covers the words in values, with keys and tags excluded.

Naming the file and picking the culture

Once delivered, rename the file with a culture suffix. The most robust choice is the neutral culture zh-Hans: Strings.zh-Hans.resx. A machine set to zh-CN or zh-SG falls back to zh-Hans through resource fallback, whereas a Strings.zh-CN.resx file would not serve Singapore.

Dates, numbers and currency should not be written into strings: keep {0:d} or {0:C} and let CultureInfo produce 2025/3/14 or ¥1,234.00. Manuce leaves these formats as they are, which is the intended behaviour.

To test, set CultureInfo.CurrentUICulture = new CultureInfo("zh-Hans") at start-up rather than switching the Windows display language.

Fonts, access keys and layout

A Latin font has no Chinese characters. If your WinForms or WPF app enforces an embedded font, labels may show as boxes or fall back to a mismatched font. Provide a font that covers Chinese, such as Microsoft YaHei on Windows, at least for this culture.

Access keys need a manual check. Chinese convention keeps the Latin letter in brackets: &File becomes 文件(&F). Review menus and buttons containing & after delivery.

For layout, watch height above all: hanzi are denser, and a fixed-height Label at a small font size can clip the bottom of characters. Chinese can break between any two characters, so word wrap works, but avoid lines that start with ： or 。.

Preparing the file and checking the result

Before uploading:

• start from the neutral .resx (no culture suffix), which holds every key;
• replace concatenations like "Hello " + name with a Hello {0} resource, as Chinese places the name differently;
• add a comment to short, ambiguous strings (Close, Clear, Run);
• mark product names and technical codes as non-translatable.

After delivery, read the report: any string left in the source language comes with a reason, often a lost placeholder. Run the app in zh-Hans, go through every screen and check formatted messages with real values, for instance 1 and 25 in {0} 个文件. The free sample, one paragraph translated at your chosen level, lets you judge the tone before paying.

In practice

1. Collect the neutral .resx file from your .NET project, comments included.
2. Upload it to Manuce for an instant quote on the exact word count and a free sample.
3. Download the translated .resx and the report on strings left as is.
4. Rename it Strings.zh-Hans.resx, add it to the project and build.
5. Test the UI under zh-Hans: fonts, access keys, clipped labels.