The Dance with Shackles: A Study on Black Myth: Wukong’s Dialogues Translation

Che Gao

doi:10.54097/a2kpmr54

Authors

Che Gao

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.54097/a2kpmr54

Keywords:

Game Translation, Black Myth: Wukong, Fidelity, Creative Treason

Abstract

China’s AAA game Black Myth: Wukong is deeply rooted in Chinese culture, featuring dialogue texts that integrate quintessential cultural elements with classical literary aesthetics from Journey to the West. However, its process of “Going global” faces significant cultural circulation challenges. This study examines the translation strategies for culture-specific items, including Buddhist terminology, characters’ names, and prosodic texts, within the game’s narrative dialogues. It investigates how game localization translation strikes a balance between the “shackles” of fidelity and the “dance” of creative treason. Through comparative analysis of representative source-text and target-text examples, it is shown that effective game localization requires the scientifically grounded application of translation strategies, which balances the game’s functional requirements with cultural-aesthetic needs while upholding the source material’s core essence, and juggle semantic precision and aesthetic functionality in the translated version, thereby enhancing cross-cultural communication efficacy.

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