TITLE:
Localization Translation Strategies of Chinese Games from the Perspective of Skopos Theory: A Case Study of Black Myth: Wukong
AUTHORS:
Cong Zhang, Chunyan Yao
KEYWORDS:
Black Myth: Wukong, Skopos Theory, Game Localization, Translation Strategies
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Journal of Social Sciences,
Vol.14 No.10,
October
26,
2026
ABSTRACT: With the rapid development of Chinese gaming industry, Chinese digital games have increasingly become important media for promoting fine traditional Chinese culture to the global stage. Released in 2024, the domestically developed 3A game Black Myth: Wukong has garnered widespread attention both domestically and internationally owing to its profound cultural heritage and high-quality localization translation. Based on the Skopos theory, this paper focuses on overseas players’ immersive experience and the accurate dissemination of traditional Chinese culture. Through a qualitative comparison of 9 groups of typical subtitle texts and in-depth analysis of English translation examples of parallel and rhymed verses, culture-loaded terms and vernacular slang in Black Myth: Wukong, this paper explores the application of translation strategies such as functional equivalence and domestication in game localization translation, and concludes that translation priority varies with dialogues’ communicative functions, with corresponding losses in semantics, cultural connotations or register, aiming to provide useful insights for the localization translation of Chinese games in the context of globalization.