Native TranslateHow to read Chinese websites in English
Much of what happens in Chinese tech, business and culture is written first, and often only, in Chinese: answers on Zhihu, threads on Weibo, coverage on 36Kr and IT之家, videos on Bilibili, reviews on Xiaohongshu. Here is how to read them comfortably in English, without copying text into a translator.
1. Translate the page where it is
- Install Native Translate and pin the N to your toolbar.
- Open a Chinese page and click the N, then Translate this page, or press Alt+Shift+T. You can also right-click anywhere on the page and choose Translate this page.
- The text on your screen turns into English first, sentence by sentence, usually within a second. The rest of the page follows as you scroll, and the article body gets a second pass that keeps names and terms consistent.
Links, buttons, menus and comment boxes keep working, because the translation is written into the page’s own text rather than layered on top. Press the shortcut again to see the original.
2. Make your regular sites automatic
In the popup, set the site to Always. From then on it translates as soon as a page opens, including new posts that load while you scroll a feed. Never turns it off for a site, and Ask (the default) waits for you.
3. Keep the Chinese when you want it
Learning Chinese, quoting a source, or checking a tricky phrase? Turn on Bilingual in the popup: the original stays under each translated paragraph. To check a single phrase, select it, right-click and choose Translate. A small card shows the translation next to the text, with a Copy button.
4. Search and reply in Chinese
Chinese sites work best when you search in Chinese. Click into a search box, type in English, and press Alt+Shift+I: you get a preview of the Chinese, can edit it, then insert and search. The same works for comments and messages. Password and payment fields are never read.
Site by site
| Site | What to expect |
|---|---|
| Zhihu (知乎) | Questions and long answers translate in place; the answer body gets the refinement pass. Some answers are folded behind “read more”, and they translate when you expand them. |
| Weibo (微博) | Posts in the feed translate as they load. Usernames and @mentions stay as they are, so you can still find the people behind them. |
| 36Kr and IT之家 | News articles read well, with the headline and body first. Homepages with many short headlines take a moment longer to fill in. |
| Bilibili (哔哩哔哩) | Titles, descriptions and comments translate. Video subtitles and on-screen danmaku are not translated yet. |
| Xiaohongshu (小红书) | Notes and comments translate. Text inside images is not translated. |
| Taobao and Tmall | Product titles and descriptions translate; prices, sales counts and shop names stay as they are. |
Native Translate comes tuned for these sites. If something looks off on any site, use Fix something on this page in the popup to mark what should stay as it is, or Report broken site and we will fix it for everyone.
Good to know
- Simplified and Traditional Chinese are both detected automatically, including pages that mix them.
- Logins and paywalls stay as they are: Native Translate translates what your browser can already see.
- Cost. A page is a page you translate, counted once a day; very long pages count one more for every 20,000 characters. The first 20 pages need no account; with a free email sign-in you get 10 pages a day. Heavy readers can go Pro for 1,000 pages a month.
- Privacy. Only the text you translate is sent, never the page address, cookies or form values. Read how we handle text.