Wu Lei has provided the voice for the world's best-known teenage wizard in seven of the eight Harry Potter films. Unlike Daniel Radcliffe who won fame and fortune, Wu remains relatively unknown to Chinese audiences. Wu, 29, is a young voice actor from the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio. The studio was once famous for producing Chinese dubbing for the first foreign films which were screened on the Chinese mainland after the Cultural Revolution (1966-76).

As learning foreign languages was limited during the Cultural Revolution and many Chinese people still lacked literacy skills, dubbed films served as an important way for Chinese people to learn about foreign countries and played a prominent role in entertainment. However as living conditions and education improved, many young people gravitated towards foreign films with original soundtracks in the 1990s and film dubbing industry began to lose popularity.

Though many think it is impossible for the Chinese dubbing industry to make a comeback, the Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio is determined to revitalize its business by helping its young actors, like Wu lei, become superstars.

Salvation in animation

Liu Feng is the studio's manager and also a voice actor who has dubbed many beloved characters, including Po the Panda, from the Disney film Kung Fu Panda. Liu told the Global Times that his plan to turn voice actors into stars will hopefully revitalize the industry. "Dubbed films lost popularity when Hollywood blockbusters were introduced into China in the 1990s. Films like The Fugitive, for example, do not require skilled voice actors as people came to the cinema especially for the stunts and sound effects," Liu said.

Although the dubbing industry is at an all-time low in China, the popularity of the industry in Japan, especially for Japanese animated films has inspired many of China's youth. "We are in the same building as the local radio station. Once several Japanese voice actors came to the radio station for an interview, the Chinese fans, mostly teenagers, occupied every corner of the building," Liu said. "It was a big shock for me."

The Japanese voice actors, or seiyu, perform dubbing for non-Japanese television shows and films; however, a prominent part of their work is dedicated to playing characters in cartoons and computer games. Some seiyu have also become actors in films and television shows, and a few have even become pop stars. Seiyu are so popular that they have attracted fans from outside of Japan. A magazine about the seiyu industry, Voice Animage, is published four times a year to let the fans learn more about their beloved seiyu celebrities.

"China has such a big market, and there are so many young people interested in voice acting and animation. There are opportunities for China to develop its own stars," Liu said. However, Liu admitted that the future of the dubbing industry depends largely on the development of the domestic animation industry. "It is impossible to become famous through dubbing films or television shows because people can access original soundtracks so easily and compare the voice-overs with the original version, while providing voices for animation looks original and impresses audiences," Liu said.

Zhan Jia, a young voice actress, who dubbed the character of Ariadne in the 2010 film Inception, told the Global Times that there is an abundance of dubbing amateurs in China and that some of them have made their names through uploading their work on websites.

The dubbed version of the Japanese animated series Good Day for Gag Manga is widely circulated on Chinese websites. The group who dubbed the work consists of university students. The words they created and used in the animation including "geili" meaning cool or awesome have become popular Internet slang. "Voice acting is not restricted to the professional level any longer, there are many talented voice actors from amateur groups," Zhan said.

Liu said that the studio is now working with the Film School of Shanghai Tongji University to cultivate potential stars. "They will learn how to be actors and singers during their university years. Though the prominent part of their work will still be in dubbing studios, they will be actors and singers as well," he said.

However, Liu's plan is not supported by everyone in the industry. "It is hard for a seiyu industry to develop in China," Wu Lei said. "The seiyu industry relies on the animation industry to develop. Though the Chinese animation industry is well subsidized and a big number are produced each year, only a few are shown on television," he said.

Apart from that, the domestic animators are not in the same league as Japanese animators in terms of quality and creativity. To further hinder the industry, China's next generation of animators is limited in what they can view. "The television administration authorities have strict control over foreign animation so only a few Japanese cartoons can be aired," Wu said, suggesting it is impossible for voice actors to rely on domestic or foreign animation to become famous.

The Chinese government made regulations to limit the screening time of foreign animation in 2005. No foreign animation is allowed to be broadcast from 5 pm to 9 pm on television and offenders face strict punishment. A special government organization was established in 2006 to subsidize the local animation industry. The government subsidizes 3-D animations with up to 1,000 yuan ($156) per minute. As a result animation production companies aiming for a government subsidy have begun to open and expand.

To cut production costs, some companies have even plagiarized Japanese animation. The recent Chinese animated series Bullet Train Boy has been accused of being a shot-for-shot remake of the Japanese cartoon Hikarian.  

This year, Tianjin Film Studio released Legend of a Rabbit as part of a plan to develop the country's cultural industries before 2015. With a budget of 12 million yuan it was hailed as China's first world-class animated film. However the film received much criticism for its lack of originality, poor animation style and for having too many similarities with the US hit Kung Fu Panda.
Secret dubbing

Liu Guangning, a film dubbing celebrity who retired two decades ago, told the Global Times that film dubbing was protected while other industries experienced setbacks and disasters during the Cultural Revolution.

"Film dubbing was protected because the top officials needed the films to learn about capitalist countries," Liu said. However, Liu's job was confidential, and they were not allowed to tell anyone about the content of the foreign films.

"We were not allowed to take back the film scripts. The central propaganda department sent superintendents to ensure that we would not disclose anything to the public. There were no film titles but a series of numbers, for example, 'Internal Film No.012.' Voice actors had to live in the studio's dormitory and were allowed to go home only once a week when they were dubbing for a film," she told the Global Times.

Lectures were given beforehand to prevent voice actors from being influenced by the films. "We were told that the films were toxic and were meant to help the leaders learn about the enemy," Liu said.

Voice actors were asked to denounce the films after the dubbing. "They said our minds needed to be sterilized after watching the films."

Though the films were not screened for entertainment purposes, much attention was devoted to making the dubbing look professional. Foreign language experts who were dispatched to rural areas were called back to the city center and gathered in the studio to translate the scripts.

"There were not enough foreign language experts in Shanghai, so experts from Beijing were also sent to the studio to help. The former head of the studio, Chen Xuyi, took charge of the translation group. The sentences should not be too long or too short to suit the actors' lip movements, and words were carefully selected to sound as natural as possible," Liu said.

Voice actors were given special privileges such as reading foreign books which were forbidden at the time. The books could help the actors better understand the plot and the characters. "We were allowed to read classic literature including Pride and Prejudice, The Count of Monte Cristo and The Hunchback of Notre Dame. The books were stored in a library in Xujiahui and strictly forbidden from being seen by the public. But the library would not let us take the books out of the building," Liu said.

Though the Cultural Revolution brought disaster to China, the voice actors gained special opportunities to develop their skills quickly through dubbing for the confidential films. "It was the most fortunate thing during the most unfortunate years," Liu said.

"Film dubbing these days is always completed in a short period of time. There are only a few full-time translators working for the studio. Dubbed films are treated more as productions than art works. However, it was not like that in the old days. The government needs to pay more importance to protect the voice talent industry because, it is not only a business but an art form," Liu said.

Still hope

Di Feifei, a middle-aged voice actress and a film dubbing director from the studio, told the Global Times that she is unwilling to talk about the differences between the old generation of voice actors and the younger generations as she has explained too many times that it is not the actors who are to blame for the downturn of the industry. "I became an employee of the studio in 1987. It was during the last few years when dubbed films were still cherished by Chinese audiences. I witnessed the glory days and the decline of the industry," Di recalled, adding that the dubbed films have picked up in recent years.

"The industry embraced its prosperity because there were few alternatives. There were no pirated DVDs. The only way Chinese people got to see foreign film productions were through the dubbed versions," she said.

Di said that the fact that there were still limited choices for people's entertainment when the Cultural Revolution ended added to the audiences' thirst for dubbed films. "We have to admit that the studio is still resting on its past achievements. But vocal actors, no matter from the old, the middle, or the young generations, all think highly of themselves. The downturn of the industry was natural after the subtitled films appeared in the 1990s. Audiences were provided with more choices. So dubbed films had to share the market," she said.

Now Di has started a vocal training school - the Vo School. The Vo School received its first batch of students after it reopened to the public this year. The school offered courses for dubbing amateurs to learn from industry experts. Through training courses, students were provided with chances to take part in the dubbing of foreign films. "The students are now participating in the dubbing for the French film Arthur 3: The War of Two Worlds," Di said.