No. Translating a BIP39 seed phrase word by word into Chinese and then importing it into a wallet will restore a different wallet, not the original one. The reason is not about whether the translation is correct, but how BIP39 generates the seed: the seed is calculated from the literal string of the mnemonic sentence using PBKDF2. Changing the language changes the string, resulting in a completely different seed, and therefore different addresses and private keys.
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Chinese wordlists do exist, but they are not "translations"
BIP39 officially supports Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese wordlists, each containing 2048 words. These wordlists are structurally equivalent to the English wordlist: each word has an index number (0 to 2047) in its own list, and the same index corresponds to different words in different lists. For example, index 1 is abandon in the English wordlist, and "的" in the Simplified Chinese wordlist.
The key point is that the same index does not mean the same seed. BIP39 seed derivation uses the UTF-8 string of the mnemonic sentence as the PBKDF2 password. English abandon and Chinese "的" are different byte sequences, so the hash results are different. Even if you have an English seed phrase, look up the index of each word, and replace it with the corresponding Chinese word, the resulting string is already different at the byte level from the original English string.
If your wallet originally generated a Chinese seed phrase, just select the correct language when restoring
If your wallet originally generated a Chinese seed phrase, you do not need to do any "translation" when restoring. On the wallet's restore page, select the corresponding language (Chinese Simplified or Chinese Traditional) and enter the Chinese words in the original order. An English interface does not mean you must enter English seed words; the interface language and the seed phrase language are two different things.
Note that Simplified and Traditional Chinese cannot be mixed. The Simplified Chinese and Traditional Chinese wordlists are two independent 2048-word lists. The same index corresponds to different Chinese characters in the two lists. If your backup is Simplified but you select Traditional when restoring, or if you mix in Traditional characters, the checksum will fail or you will restore the wrong address.
If you want to "convert" a Chinese seed phrase to English
Lossless conversion is not possible. Some tools claim to "convert between languages using word indexes," but what they convert is the sequence of word indexes, not the seed. The index sequence is the same, but the string is different, so the seed is different. The converted English seed phrase can pass the BIP39 checksum (because the indexes and checksum bits match), but it corresponds to a brand new, empty wallet.
If you really need a wallet with an English seed phrase, the correct approach is to create a new wallet, generate a set of English seed words, and then transfer the assets from the old wallet to the new wallet address. The old wallet's Chinese seed phrase is still valid. Do not discard it just because you created a new wallet, unless you have confirmed that the old address is no longer in use and all assets have been transferred.
One thing to rule out: Passphrase
There is a situation that can easily make people think that "language conversion worked" or that "the seed phrase is broken": you set an extra passphrase (sometimes called a "passphrase" or "25th word") when creating the wallet. BIP39 seed derivation is PBKDF2(mnemonic, "mnemonic" + passphrase). If the passphrase is different, the same seed phrase will restore a different wallet. If you did not enter the original passphrase when restoring, the address will naturally be wrong, and this has nothing to do with the language of the seed phrase. Check whether you set this option when creating the wallet.
How to verify after restoring
After importing the seed phrase, do not rush to receive coins or make transfers. Compare the restored address with the receiving address of your original wallet. If the addresses match, the seed phrase, language selection, and passphrase are all correct. If the addresses do not match, check in order: whether the word order is messed up, whether there are too many or too few spaces, whether Simplified and Traditional characters are mixed, whether the language option is correct, and whether there is an unentered passphrase. Do not transfer assets to an address that does not match.
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References
- Bitcoin BIPs·BIP 39: Mnemonic code for generating deterministic keys, 2026-10-30
- Bitcoin BIPs·BIP 39 Wordlists, 2026-10-30
- libwallet·importMnemonic method, 2026-10-30
- bip39-dict·Mnemonics struct documentation, 2026-10-30
- imToken Tutorial·Converting seed phrases to English: operations and security notes, 2026-10-30
