An hourly rate of over 100 U.S. dollars could potentially put an extra 100,000 yuan in Zhou Yuecai's bank account a month. In her early twenties, Zhou is a voice actress from southwest China's Sichuan Province and now helps manage a local firm that produces audiobooks and podcasts. Yet, her management role is not going to pay her the 100-dollar-rate, instead, the paycheck comes from her recent winning at a Sichuan dialect competition held in the provincial capital of Chengdu last month.  

Calling it a competition may not explain its true nature. Held by Alibaba, the event was looking for a voice in the Sichuan dialect for its smart speaker – the Tmall Genie, which some have compared to the Amazon Echo.  

The winner will record in the studio and the voice will be studied and recreated for the Tmall Genie to respond to people who speak the regional dialect. Finding Zhou Yuecai is among a 10-million-dollar dialect protection effort from Alibaba's AI Lab, which makes the Tmall Genie.  

Sichuan is the first stop of the Genie's journey to find voices among different Chinese dialects. 

In response to online comments about the legitimacy of her championship, Zhou Yuecai told CGTN that she in fact agrees with many who said that her dialect does not represent the entirety of the Sichuan dialect.  

"Sichuan dialect is not just a speech pattern as many people think. It is enriched with different local cultures, (such as) beautiful sceneries, deep history and of course the cute pandas. And it is important for people like me, as a local and promoter for regional culture, to keep learning it and to understand more of it," said Zhou.  

Including Mandarin, there are seven big categories of Chinese dialects, with accents, pronunciations and slang varying among people from the same province.  

In Sichuan Province, while people in Chengdu sound slower and gentler, people from the southern part may make more nasal sounds with a heavier accent, which people from other parts of Sichuan cannot easily grasp.

As China's urbanization continues, more and more people are now seeking jobs in other parts of China. 

A survey done by China Youth Daily found that only one-fifth of people sampled frequently speaks their home dialect while working away from their hometown, and 58 percent agree that young people should learn the meaning and value of their home dialects before learning others.

The crowned voice princess for Tmall Genie, Zhou Yuecai also believes it is necessary to increase people's awareness to keep their home dialect rooted.  

"As a voice actress, I speak Mandarin most of the time. But I am also surrounded by people who speak Sichuan dialect. I need to speak the same language when I can if I want to get close with them," said Zhou.