Mandarin Chinese voice over, natively reviewed.

Mandarin is spoken with different accents and written in two character sets. The audience decides both, and a mismatch is noticed at once.

Accents and variants of Mandarin Chinese.

Mainland Mandarin (Putonghua)
The standard of mainland China, written in Simplified characters.
Taiwan Mandarin (Guoyu)
The standard of Taiwan, written in Traditional characters, with a softer accent and local vocabulary.
Singapore Mandarin
The Mandarin of Singapore and Malaysia, with local terms.

What a native Mandarin Chinese reviewer checks.

Simplified or Traditional
The character set follows the audience: mainland and Singapore use Simplified, Taiwan and Hong Kong use Traditional.
Local vocabulary
Mainland and Taiwan use different words for common things. The script is checked against the market.
Tones
Tones change meaning, so names and terms are checked by a native listener.

Writing for Mandarin Chinese.

Do not convert characters automatically
Turning Simplified into Traditional without rewriting leaves mainland wording in a Taiwan script.
Foreign names
Brand names need an agreed Chinese rendering or an agreed English reading.
Numbers and units
Agree how figures, dates and currencies are read.

Mandarin Chinese voice over: questions.

Which Mandarin should we pick for a Chinese audience?

Mainland Putonghua for mainland China. Taiwan Mandarin for Taiwan. Singapore audiences accept either but prefer local terms.

Is Cantonese the same?

No. Cantonese is a separate language with its own speech, and we cast it separately.

Tell us your Mandarin Chinese project.

Tell us your content, languages and timing on one short page. A producer replies.

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