Yeah, "Xiao" as an affectionate diminutive just does not translate well at all lol, and it's creates this mild internal inconsistency with the worldbuilding, since her "easterner" status is constantly pointed out as novel and different.is lil' Yang her SoundCloud rapper name?
Yeah 100%, it's weird to translate and you're absolutely right about the inconsistencies in the story. My handwavy headcanon for the inconsistencies is that the "European" setting of the game was created from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience and therefore has a lot of influences from Chinese culture despite being supposedly European.Yeah, "Xiao" as an affectionate diminutive just does not translate well at all lol, and it's creates this mild internal inconsistency with the worldbuilding, since her "easterner" status is constantly pointed out as novel and different.
You're telling me folks who say shit like "Do all easterners have the same sense of openness and humor?" wouldn't be confused hearing someone get called "Little" anything? I can see Yang Yang being immediately understood as a xiaoming/nickname, but this?
And this isn't on the translation team necessarily, because I happen to agree that as silly as "Star Dew" sounds, the story has gone out of its way to insist on a cultural division. By that reasoning though, the fact that Star Dew even thought to call her Xiao Yang should have been an actual red flag and foreshadowing that the character was not who she appeared to be. Why would some random European-coded girl know Chinese honorifics? It's even implied cultivation and related concepts are something the people of this world don't know about, even as myth or fiction - so how does Star Dew know to address her that way?
personally I prefer Xiao Yang, I'm sorry but I can't read "lil" and take it seriously lolYeah 100%, it's weird to translate and you're absolutely right about the inconsistencies in the story. My handwavy headcanon for the inconsistencies is that the "European" setting of the game was created from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience and therefore has a lot of influences from Chinese culture despite being supposedly European.
But I have been pretty unhappy about my choice of translating 小央 as "lil' Yang". It kinda does make her sound like a sound cloud rapper lol. Talked about it here as well.
I've been thinking about switching to Xiao Yang as Stardew's nickname for Jiang Yang. What do you think of that?
Yang Yang would work too, as a slightly more westernized version, but I don't know if it's necessary? To me Xiao Yang flows better when reading, but I'd love to know what others think about it
Personally I think Xiao would be a fine change from Lil'Yeah 100%, it's weird to translate and you're absolutely right about the inconsistencies in the story. My handwavy headcanon for the inconsistencies is that the "European" setting of the game was created from a Chinese point of view for a Chinese audience and therefore has a lot of influences from Chinese culture despite being supposedly European.
But I have been pretty unhappy about my choice of translating 小央 as "lil' Yang". It kinda does make her sound like a sound cloud rapper lol. Talked about it here as well.
I've been thinking about switching to Xiao Yang as Stardew's nickname for Jiang Yang. What do you think of that?
Yang Yang would work too, as a slightly more westernized version, but I don't know if it's necessary? To me Xiao Yang flows better when reading, but I'd love to know what others think about it
Xiao Yang seems to be the consensus on the Forum, while people on the Discord (btw. please join!!) prefer lil' or Yang YangPersonally I think Xiao would be a fine change from Lil'
My heart goes out to your group, bc I'm bilingual and imagining translating this for a western audience sounds like a trick project to test your localization skills. There's no right answers, just ones that sound less ridiculous lol. I think the readers understand that there's only so much you can do with such a complicated setting.
Even that curveball sfx/idiom in chapter 5 about "every grain being hard earned" was pulled off well enough to where I can guess what the original hanzi was without checking, you guys have some really strong translators!