How to Watch Netflix with Chinese Subtitles

Netflix does have Chinese subtitles, on most Chinese-language titles and some others. Start a show, tap or click the screen (or press up or down on a TV remote), open Audio & Subtitles, and choose Chinese (Simplified) or Chinese (Traditional). If neither is in the list, the title doesn’t have them in your country, or your profile’s language settings are hiding them. Below are the steps for each device, how to fix missing options, how to get Chinese and English subtitles at once with pinyin, and a list of Chinese shows on Netflix by difficulty.

Turning on Chinese Subtitles, Device by Device

The menu is the same everywhere, but you reach it differently (Netflix Help):

Then pick the audio track and the subtitles separately. For a Chinese show, keep the audio on the original Mandarin and set the subtitles to Chinese. On a TV, if the language you want isn’t shown, choose Other to see the full list.

Netflix keeps your choice for that profile, so the next Chinese show you open usually starts with Chinese subtitles already on. The exception is children’s titles watched from an adult profile: Netflix doesn’t save subtitle choices for most of them.

Simplified or Traditional: Which to Choose

Pick the script you’re learning. Mainland China uses Simplified characters and Taiwan and Hong Kong use Traditional (our post on learning Traditional Chinese explains the difference). What Netflix offers depends on where a title comes from:

• Mainland Chinese titles usually have both Chinese (Simplified) and Chinese (Traditional) subtitles. Their audio is listed as “Mandarin (Putonghua)” or just “Mandarin”.
• Taiwanese titles, which include most of Netflix’s own Chinese-language series, often list only Chinese (Traditional). Their audio is “Mandarin (Guoyu)”. Many also have a Mandarin audio description track, which describes the action in Chinese: extra listening practice for higher levels.
• Hong Kong films are usually in Cantonese, with “Cantonese” and Traditional Chinese subtitles. A few have a Mandarin dub, but the original audio won’t help your Mandarin.

If you learn Simplified and a Taiwanese show only has Traditional subtitles, it’s still worth watching. Most common characters are the same or close, and the accent and vocabulary are a useful change. Just expect to pause more.

Why Chinese Subtitles Aren’t Showing

Netflix lists four things that decide which languages you see: your location, your profile’s language settings, the title, and your device (Netflix Help). In practice, check these in order:

1. The title doesn’t have them in your country. Subtitles are licensed title by title, and so is the title itself. Many English-language shows simply have no Chinese subtitles, and some Chinese films are on Netflix in one country but not another.
2. Your profile is set to other languages. Set your profile’s audio and subtitle languages to include Chinese (the steps are below). This is Netflix’s own fix for a language that won’t show up.
3. You’re watching a download. Downloads only carry the two languages Netflix thinks are most relevant to you. Delete the download, check your language settings, and download it again.
4. The show is still airing, or it’s an older season. Weekly shows get their full set of languages once all the episodes are out, and some seasons from before 2018 have fewer languages.
5. Your device is old. Netflix says some devices made before 2014 can’t display Chinese subtitles. Try the same title on a phone or in a browser.

You may read that Netflix only shows five to seven subtitle languages depending on where you live. That used to be true on many TVs, but Netflix now shows every language a title has when you stream it, on TVs as well as other devices (Netflix, April 2025).

How to Add Chinese to Your Profile’s Languages

These steps are from Netflix Help:

• In a web browser: go to Account, then Profiles, choose your profile and open Languages. Tick Chinese under “Audio and subtitle languages” and select Save. You may need to sign out and back in.
• On a phone or tablet: tap My Netflix (bottom right), tap your profile name, then Manage Profiles, choose the profile and tap Audio & Subtitles.
• On a TV: while something plays, pause it, open the player controls and choose Other.

The same profile menu has a separate Display Language setting for Netflix’s own menus. You don’t need to change it to get Chinese subtitles. Switching it to Chinese is good reading practice, though, because you’ll read the same menus in Chinese every time you log in. If you share the account, set up a separate profile for this so nobody else gets Chinese menus.

Netflix in China

Netflix isn’t available in mainland China (Netflix Help). People there watch Chinese dramas on iQIYI, Tencent Video and Youku instead. Our post on learning Chinese from TV shows covers those platforms and the international services that carry the same shows.

How to Find Chinese Shows on Netflix

On a computer, Netflix’s Browse by Language page lists everything with Chinese audio or subtitles. Go to netflix.com/browse/audio or netflix.com/browse/subtitles while signed in, then pick Mandarin or Chinese, and choose whether you want titles originally in that language, dubbed into it, or subtitled in it (Netflix Help). The page is only on the website. Add anything you like to My List and it will be there on your TV and phone.

For learning, filter by original language: Mandarin. A dubbed show has subtitles that often don’t match the Chinese audio word for word, while a show made in Mandarin has subtitles written from the original script.

Chinese Shows on Netflix by Level

These were all on Netflix UK when we checked in October 2026. Catalogues change and differ by country, so search for the English title before you get attached.

The difficulty ratings are our own. Romances and family dramas use everyday vocabulary and lots of repetition. Crime, politics and science fiction bring a lot of specialist words, and fast, overlapping dialogue. In the UK, The Wandering Earth isn’t on the Standard with adverts plan because of licensing. For more shows, including ones on YouTube and other services, see our guide to learning Chinese from TV shows.

Dual Subtitles and Pinyin with Language Reactor

Netflix only shows one subtitle language at a time. To see Chinese and English together, you need a browser extension. The best known is Language Reactor (it used to be called Language Learning with Netflix), which works on the Netflix website and YouTube. At the time of writing, its dual subtitles and pop-up dictionary are free, and a paid Pro plan adds extras such as more machine translations and exporting saved words.

• Dual subtitles: Chinese on one line and English underneath, so you can read the Chinese first and glance down only when you’re stuck.
• Pinyin: open the extension’s settings and turn on transliterations to show pinyin above the Chinese line. Try it with pinyin for a while, then turn it off once you can read most of the characters, or it becomes a crutch.
• Playback controls: you can jump back to the previous subtitle or have the video pause after each one, which is ideal for repeating lines out loud.

The catch: it’s a desktop browser extension, for Chrome (and Edge, which runs Chrome extensions). It doesn’t work in the Netflix apps on phones, tablets or TVs. If you watch on a TV, pick one subtitle language and save the dual-subtitle sessions for focused study at a computer.

How to Learn Chinese from Netflix (Not Just Watch It)

Watching with English subtitles is entertainment. To learn, make the Chinese do the work:

1. Choose a show just above your level. If you need English subtitles for every line, it’s too hard for now. Our Chinese level test gives you a quick idea of where you are, and the easier titles above suit learners at about HSK 3–4.
2. Watch with Chinese subtitles only, and use the English line, if you have one, only to check.
3. Rewatch episodes. The second time through, you’ll follow far more and start noticing words you missed. One episode three times beats three new episodes.
4. Repeat lines out loud. Pause after a line you like and say it with the same rhythm and tones. This kind of shadowing builds your speaking as well as your listening.
5. Save a few sentences per episode. Pick lines with one or two new words, not whole scenes. Those are the sentences you’re ready to learn.

That last step is sentence mining, and it’s where Mandarin Mosaic comes in. Add the sentences you saved to the app as Custom Sentences (the free plan holds 10; Premium has no limit), and it reads each one aloud, shows the pinyin, and brings it back with spaced repetition so the new words stick. Its HSK lessons do the same with ready-made sentences, one new word at a time, to build the vocabulary that makes Chinese shows easier to follow. Mandarin Mosaic is on iPhone and Android. At the time of writing, Premium’s first month is free, and there’s a limited free plan. Get it on iOS or Android.

Frequently Asked Questions

Does Netflix have Chinese subtitles?

Yes. Most Chinese-language titles have Chinese subtitles, usually both Simplified and Traditional for mainland shows and Traditional for Taiwanese ones. Some English-language shows and films have Chinese subtitles too, but it depends on the title and your country.

Can I watch Netflix with Simplified Chinese subtitles?

Yes, where the title has them: choose Chinese (Simplified) under Audio & Subtitles. If it’s missing, add Chinese to your profile’s audio and subtitle languages. Taiwanese titles often only have Traditional subtitles.

How do I change Netflix to Chinese?

To change Netflix’s menus to Chinese, change your profile’s Display Language: in a browser it’s under Account, Profiles, then Languages; on a phone under My Netflix, Manage Profiles. Changing the display language doesn’t change the audio or subtitles, which you set separately.

Can Netflix show Chinese and English subtitles at the same time?

Not on its own. On a computer, a browser extension such as Language Reactor adds dual subtitles and pinyin. There’s no way to do it in the phone or TV apps.

Does Netflix have Chinese dubbing?

Some titles have a Mandarin dub, including a few Hong Kong films whose original audio is Cantonese. On a computer, the Dubbing option on netflix.com/browse/audio shows which. For learning, it’s better to watch shows made in Mandarin, since their subtitles match the dialogue more closely.

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