In Chinese society there is an established practice of borrowing kinship terms to address people outside the extended family. This practice is heavily reflected in modern Chinese fiction, and has caused much difficulty for the English translator. The problem is compounded by the use of age and status prefixes and suffixes which carry a distinct cultural flavour. Through an examination of various examples of different terms of addresses, the author of this article reviews the common translation approaches to such culture-related problems and the possible distorions resulting from such approaches.