(Ecns.cn)--Dubbing is not unfamiliar to Chinese movie buffs, especially for those above the age of 30 who consider it as a special art form. During the prosperous days of dubbed movies in the 1980s, voices behind Chinese dubbed English movies were widely respected, probably more so than the foreign actors and actresses actually in the movie.
But as time went by, the golden era for dubbing houses has long since passed. Young people in China choose to see English-speaking original movies with Chinese subtitles more often, and the situation for dubbing actors has changed.
From bloom to silent decline
In the 1950s, the state-owned Changchun Film Dubbing Studio in Northeast China's Jilin Province and the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio in the country's largest metropolis were established.
The studios enjoyed a golden era in the early 1980s when China began its reforms and opening up to the outside world. At a time when people were freed from the relatively isolated period of the Cultural Revolution (1966-76), reading foreign books and watching dubbed foreign films became the hottest fads.
Among the most popular dubbed foreign films were "Hamlet," with actor Laurence Olivier in 1948, "Jane Eyre," directed by Delbert Mann in 1970, Zorro, starring French actor Alain Delon, and the British-French film "La Grande Vadrouille," directed by Gerard Oury.
The love of dubbed films led to the admiration of film dubbing actors, who assumed key roles in the well-received films. The film dubbers at that time had the same star power as that of today's Hollywood superstars and popular Hong Kong singers and actors.
At that time, learning foreign languages, especially English, was not as popular as it is today. Dubbed films opened people's horizon to foreign cultures and they liked to recite most of the Chinese lines in the films.
The dubbed lines in the films were not mere translations, but thought-provoking, moving and encouraging words that could express people's feelings at that time, recalled a middle-aged writer who watched "Jane Eyre" countless times when she was a university student.
The popularity of dubbed films in the 1980s led to the birth of more state-owned dubbing studios and voice-overs became a career for people. In the late 1970s and 80s, dubbing actors were stars loved by thousands of people because they made foreign movies accessible and alive for ordinary Chinese people.
Yet, since the 1990s, things have gradually changed. Although many still love to watch dubbed foreign films, the industry hasn't been able to fill positions emptied through retirement or death with new young talent.
Boys and girls of a dating age, the major customers of theaters, have become used to home videos with the original soundtracks and Chinese subtitles. For people who are familiar with foreign languages, seeing the original movie is a handy way to brush up on language skills while having a good time.
Since then, more and more theaters in Beijing and Shanghai have been screening subtitled movies in their major cinemas and dubbed movies in the smaller ones.
Customers flowing into films with the original soundtrack have directly led to a shrinking business for dubbing studios and salary decreases for dubbers.
State-owned studios, on the one hand, suffered great economic losses and were hit by a brain drain. On the other hand, they had many new competitors in the market, including self-employed dubbers and private film dubbing studios.
The studios struggled to find enough dubbing contracts from film and TV production companies to keep afloat. Some small state-owned dubbing studios have simply been forced to close down in recent years, and dubbers, in order to make a living, quit the industry.
