From Linguistic Transfer to Cultural Transcoding: Cross-Cultural Translation Strategies for the English Slogans of Chinese Brands Going Global

Abstract

As Chinese enterprises shift from product export to brand internationalization, English slogans have become a high-density interface through which brand values, cultural meanings, and market positioning are negotiated across linguistic boundaries. This study examines the cross-cultural translation and transcreation of English slogans used by Chinese brands in overseas communication. Drawing on a project corpus of more than fifty bilingual slogan and brand-positioning items across consumer electronics, fashion, new-energy vehicles, beverages, and other internationally oriented sectors, the study adopts qualitative comparative analysis informed by contemporary applications of Skopos theory and functional equivalence. The analysis identifies five recurrent transformations: semantic compression, reduction of culture-specific presuppositions, value re-articulation, preservation of core brand identity, and controlled creative deviation from source-text form. Cases involving Anker, DJI, SHEIN, Huawei, NIO, and BYD demonstrate that effective global slogans rarely depend on literal correspondence. Instead, they reconstruct the communicative function of the source message in relation to target-market processing habits, emotional expectations, cultural accessibility, and brand positioning. On this basis, the paper proposes the FACETS framework, comprising Functional alignment, Audience accessibility, Cultural compatibility, Expressive economy, Tone consistency, and Safety and compliance. The framework converts general translation principles into a practical procedure for slogan development and evaluation. The study further argues that artificial intelligence should support, rather than replace, culturally informed human decision-making in high-stakes brand communication. Because the project's planned audience survey has not yet been completed, the framework is presented as a theoretically grounded and case-based model that requires subsequent quantitative validation.