How I QA Chinese Translations: A Practical Workflow for Founders

Most Chinese localization bugs are not translation mistakes. They are review-process mistakes: a placeholder that was never checked, a string that only appears after a failed payment, a Traditional Chinese character hiding in a Simplified build.

This is the QA workflow I use for EN→ZH SaaS and e-commerce content. It is designed for small teams that do not have a dedicated localization department.

Step 1: Freeze the source and build a glossary

Before translating a word, confirm that the English source is final. Then build a short glossary for the terms that appear on every screen:

English	Chinese	Note
workspace	工作区	one term everywhere
dashboard	仪表盘	not 控制台
plan	套餐	pricing page
seat	席位	user management
invoice	发票	billing

If the glossary is missing, stop and create one. It is the cheapest QA tool you have.

Step 2: Translate with context, not just strings

A translator needs to know where a string appears: button, tooltip, error message, email subject, legal page. If you only provide a CSV with keys and English text, the translator will guess. Attach screenshots or a staging link, and mark the strings that have length limits.

Step 3: Do a bilingual review

The reviewer compares the English and Chinese side by side and checks:

• meaning and tone
• terminology consistency
• placeholders and variables
• numbers, dates and currency
• untranslated English
• mixed Simplified/Traditional characters

This is the step where most defects are found. Do not skip it because the translator is experienced.

Step 4: Do a monolingual read-through

Hide the English and read only the Chinese. Does it sound like a product a Chinese user would actually use? This catches translationese: sentences that are grammatically correct but sound like they were translated. Common examples:

• 过多的“您的” (overusing “your”)
• 直译的被动句
• 英文语序的长定语
• 不自然的按钮文案

Step 5: Back-translate critical strings

For checkout, payment, legal and security strings, have a second person translate the Chinese back into English without seeing the source. If the meaning changes, the string needs another pass. This is slower, so reserve it for the strings where a mistake is expensive.

Step 6: Test in context

Open the Chinese build and use it like a customer:

• sign up
• add a payment method
• trigger a validation error
• change a plan
• cancel a subscription
• open the mobile menu

Check truncation, line breaks, text alignment and whether the Chinese punctuation looks right inside buttons.

Step 7: Log defects in one place

Use a simple defect log with these columns:

Screen	String key	Source	Target	Severity	Owner
Checkout	checkout.pay	Pay now	立即支付	High	Translator

Severity matters. A broken placeholder on checkout is a release blocker; a slightly awkward tooltip is not. Do not let a long tail of low-severity issues delay the launch.

Common defects I see most often

1. Broken placeholders — {name} becomes {名称} or disappears.
2. Truncated UI — the Chinese string is shorter, but the button is narrower.
3. Mixed variants — one Traditional character in a Simplified build.
4. Untranslated strings — error messages, emails and empty states are missed.
5. Wrong tone — casual English becomes overly formal Chinese, or vice versa.
6. Number and date errors — 1,000 becomes 1.000, or the date order flips.
7. Punctuation mixing — English commas inside Chinese sentences.

A lightweight QA stack

You do not need enterprise software to start. A spreadsheet for the glossary, a shared defect log, screenshots of the main flows, and one reviewer who reads Chinese natively will catch most issues. Add a placeholder-check script when you can; it pays for itself on the first release.

What “done” looks like

A Chinese build is ready when:

• every placeholder matches the source
• the glossary is applied across the product
• no English UI strings remain
• the main flows work on desktop and mobile
• a native Chinese reviewer has signed off
• the defect log is closed or explicitly deferred

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I am Alex Chen, a freelance translator and localization specialist working from English and Russian into Simplified Chinese. If you need a Chinese QA pass before launch, email me at [e-mail].