Comp Stud Trans EN 4
A Comparative Study on Chinese and Japanese Translation of Legends' Titles in League of Legends 朱壬铎202120081560
Abstract: League of Legends (LOL) is one of the most popular video games in the world. Until November,2021, there are 157 legends that were published in game. In the translation of the titles of legends in China and Japan, there are some similarities but also many differences. The article tries to summarize these points and to analyze some specific examples, finally get to know the discipline with in both languages.
Key Words: League of Legends; Chinese Translation; Japanese Translation; Comparative Study
League of Legends is one of most-played MOBA video games in the world. LOL was made by Riot Games in the USA and published in 2009. It became popular in the North America rapidly and was published into Europe in no time. Besides NA and EU, there are many servers in other regions such as China, Vietnam, South East Asia, etc. According to Leaguefeed.net, from November 2020 to November 2021, the peak players in a day reached over 10 million, and the average monthly players reached over 110 million. Compare with other games, Leaguefeed.net says that the number of average monthly players of DOTA2 is only 1/10 of LOL, and the number of average daily players is only 1/50 of LOL. When it comes to CS:GO, the number of average monthly players is about 2.6 million, which is only 1/4 of LOL. We can say without any doubt, that League of Legends is the No.1 PC games in the world.
The ideas of the design of legends crossed many countries and cultures. Such as ‘The Sheriff of Piltover’ that comes from the old west of America, ‘The Monkey King’ that comes from the traditional Chinese fiction, Journey to the West, ‘Ninjas’ that comes from Japanese culture, ‘The Mad Chemist’ and ‘The Plague Rat’ comes from European history. The game itself represents an aspect of cross-cultural communication. Nowadays in a globalizing world, the cross-cultural communication is becoming more and more often, in which translation plays a very important part. A good translation can make receivers understand the meaning immediately and show the beauty of foreign culture in the same time. In the translation of cross-cultural communication, localization is the important part. If compare the localization strategies which is used in different culture or language in cross-cultural communication with another culture, the understanding of the compared cultures could be deepened.
Many studies on translation of game started with the localization of software. But most of those studies analyze the process of software localization from the approach of technology. Zheng stated a series of strategies of localized translation of games from the approaches of the localization standards of the translation of technology and software. In Xiao’s study of translation of game in cross-cultural communication she stated that ‘The translation of game is not only a transformation of language, but also a commercial activity.’ Besides, Wang analyzed the four values in the name of games, which are value of information transmission, the value of culture, the value of aesthetic, and the value of business. She also explained how to fulfill those four values in the translation of the name of games. Today’s studies in the translation of League of Legends are mostly the evaluation of the existing translation and the exploration of translation strategies through the approach of localization. Besides those studies are limited in Chinese language, some of them compared the simplified Chinese translation in mainland with the Traditional Chinese translation in Taiwan Province. But the comparation with another whole different language can not be seen by now. Therefore this article is aiming to compare the translation of legends’ titles of League of Legends between simplified Chinese and Japanese, through which to explore the similarities and differences between the selection of Chinese and Japanese translation strategies.