The stories that have been "localized" read like trash. Changing Chinese names, currency, locations etc in the story to random western ones is utterly ridiculous concept.
It ruins the whole book if you arbitarily start changing stuff. Nobody reading stuff here is "alienated" or "confused" by Chinese terms etc.
I didn't see it in Webnovel, and it's a pity if is happening. I remember that certain another company in the same segment started to aim at my country's readerbase on Facebook.
Suddenly I started seeing excerpts of their romance books with 'latinized' names instead of Asian ones! It was risible, because, not only the names were not trending for this generation, but the context were completely wrong. Like, some situations just don't happen this way in Latin America.
Such as billionaires CEOs. They aren't so abundant as in China, believe me.
And the behavior of South American people is so different from Asian... I'm not saying it's better or worse, just so different. Divorce is not dreaded, for instance. And faceslapping ends in police dept and court, mostly.
That's why when they buy the rights for TV adaptation of Ugly Betty they need to adapt to the culture of the country they are broadcasting it, as universal the story is.
We certainly can understand and appreciate Asian stories, but when they are translated to our context, many modern customs need to be revised.
SrtaA
You just gave a great idea for a meta story, what happens when someone tries to adopt a certain genre of a culture into their own society. Chaos ensues lol. Will be perfect for a Isekai/Portal or transmigration story lol. Like this Chinese cultivator slaps this Brazilian woman and she is like WTH and the next thing you know, the Chinese cultivator is getting slapped with a restraining order and getting sued for a million dollars lol.
fantasybliss30
No matter where the cultivator is from, if he isekais in Brazil he's better not to faceslap anyone. 
But yeah, he'll be leveling from sweeping public squares and donating food for the poor to a season in Brazilian jail for aggression and slandering... The novel would be called "I cultivated getting sued and arrested in the other side of the world"
SrtaA
Oh boy!! If only we could IP ideas, lol. Sounds like something I would definitely read. :D
Okay. Now I get the gist of this discussion, which kept getting locked in previous versions. The previous version OP didn't really make much sense to me tbh. Yeah, if it's a translation thing to try to make the content relevant to the publishing location. Don't think this is a good move. It's cool to keep the novel's location as is since there's so much sentiment and relevance to that particular culture.
Is it a specific translation group that has opted to do this? Or seems to be a WN new requirement?
me totally waiting for a mod 2 lock this thread
I don't think this would be locked now as the discussion makes sense.
It's good to talk on the ways of content relevance for different audiences.
I think if a story is too steeped to one culture, it should continue to carry those cultural elements. An example are Japanese honorifics in stories. Some people hate it, but if the honorific is removed it might also remove the charm of the culture's hierarchy respect from the story.
Hmm...wondering if this relates...sometimes when I'm reading Webtoons (for example, Lookism) the translator gives the characters Western first names, for example, the MC, Park Hyung Suk is Daniel Park in the English translation. I don't really mind it when translators do just this, since it helps me remember character names more and not butcher it in speaking. As a Chinese American a lot of my Chinese friends go by Western names as well. So my question is, how would people feel about this in a novel? Not localising, just not directly bringing over the pinyin for names.
LinYang No, not the same at all. The courtesy name (or having a real name from another culture) is fine. The weird thing is:
Catarina Pereira (or Alma Rosensworth), 21 yo, married Leopoldo Silva (or Clarence William Jameson), 30, the Multibillionaire CEO of the Comida Feliz Industries (Happy Meal Industries.), in Rio de Janeiro (Boston). He gave her a Lamborghini Gallardo and she gave him a little bun called Mario (or Earl). Catarina's stepsister Teresa (Juliet) envied their happy marriage and, most of all, the beach house in Rocinha (West Roxbury). When they're having a brunch in a hotel Teresa humiliates Catarina and slapfaces her in front of her new friends.
Also, due to Teresa's plots Catarina discovers her husband has a lover, Amalia (Dahlia).
"Oh, divorce! My life is over! I'll fake my dead and Mario's! Leopoldo Will never let me be with my little bun!"
Two years later, a Comida Feliz's employee phones his boss: Boss, I just saw Mrs. Catarina and a little boy just like you in the airport!"
"Close the airport!" Yells Leopold.
I think what they want is to globalize a story. However, such an attempt should be done with the participation of the author. So, the story won't become weird.
There are many cases Chinese, Japanese, or Korean authors made foreign settings but with their cultural mindset. Most of the novels were welcomed by most readers after being translated.
Because every novel is a universe that is separated from the real world. Law, culture, event, plot, character, etc are created based on author's understanding and imagination. Because of that, novel is categorized as fiction.
Ron_Azure There are many cases Chinese, Japanese, or Korean authors made foreign settings but with their cultural mindset. Most of the novels were welcomed by most readers after being translated
Indeed, but usually author does some research or writes about own experience.
I believe that the only way to "localize" the novel is to change the names of the countries to fictional. Don't write USA, just use M-country; H-country instead of Korea and R-country instead of Japan.
And pick reasonable human names that doesn't sound too weird
I deliberately avoid stories that have Western names copy/pasted in place of Chinese ones. It reads strangely, and translators do not seem to be good at picking names. Every one of them is old fashioned or strange. My man, is the divine-level cultivator really named Reginald, or are you just pulling things out of a hat?
Damn, I think that the most novels from the last batch of trial reads are from faloo too. @WEBNOVEL_OFFICIAL did you buy faloo or you are pirating their novels? Because I can't imagine even a one good reason to do it.
I'm somewhat pissed off and laughed at the latest trial reads - do you really think we can't find them on faloo? Yeah, we can't do it in two minutes like before, but we still can do this in half an hour, if the novel is up to our taste
Dwarkin I want to know about this as well. Did they got the right for the english publication, or was that just good ol' taking notes from the competition? Iirc, some of them have slight difference, but still very much similar.
