# Why can't zh\_CN content be translated to zh\_TW?

**URL:** <https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-cant-zh-cn-content-be-translated-to-zh-tw/414883>\
**Category:** Support\
**Created:** [October 16, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-cant-zh-cn-content-be-translated-to-zh-tw/414883 "2026-10-16T16:14:47Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 1\
**Page:** 1

## AI-generated summary

[joo](/t/-/414883/1) reports an issue on a self-hosted Discourse instance where content written in Simplified Chinese (`zh_CN`) is not being translated to Traditional Chinese (`zh_TW`), despite both locales being supported. While English translations function correctly, `zh_TW` shows zero translated posts, with only a subset marked as eligible.

The user identifies the root cause in the source code: `LocaleNormalizer.is_same?` compares only the base language code before the underscore, treating `zh_CN` and `zh_TW` as identical. Consequently, `PostLocalizer.localize` returns early, and `PostCandidates.needs_localization` excludes `zh` targets for sources with a `zh` base. Additionally, `Localizable#in_user_locale?` assumes `zh_TW` readers already understand `zh_CN` content.

[joo](/t/-/414883/1) asks whether this merging of Simplified and Traditional Chinese is intentional and seeks either a supported method to serve Traditional Chinese for Simplified content or a change to make locale matching variant-aware.

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![joo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/meta/user_avatar/meta.discourse.org/joo/32/334852_2.png) [@joo](https://meta.discourse.org/u/joo)\
**Post date:** [October 16, 2026, 4:14pm UTC](https://meta.discourse.org/t/why-cant-zh-cn-content-be-translated-to-zh-tw/414883/1 "2026-10-16T16:14:47Z")

</div>

Self-hosted Discourse `2026.10.0-latest`, `content_localization_supported_locales` = `zh_TW|en|zh_CN`, `default_locale` = `zh_CN`, posts written in Simplified Chinese.

English translations work fine (Admin → Plugins → AI → Translations: `en` 17/23 posts). Traditional Chinese gets nothing: `zh_TW` shows 0 translated, and only 5 posts are even “eligible” although the site has 23.

From the source, it looks like `LocaleNormalizer.is_same?` compares only the part before the `_`, so `zh_CN` and `zh_TW` are treated as the same language: `PostLocalizer.localize` returns early, and `PostCandidates.needs_localization` drops the `zh` target for posts whose source base is `zh`. The same check in `Localizable#in_user_locale?` also means a `zh_TW` reader is considered to already understand the `zh_CN` source.

So: is merging `zh_CN` and `zh_TW` intentional? If so, is there any supported way to serve Traditional Chinese for Simplified content? If not, could locale matching become variant-aware for these two?