Voice Linking China & Africa: African voice actress dubs Chinese dramas to reach African audiences

World
Europe

03:16

Dubbing Chinese dramas into foreign languages to reach global audiences, it's a challenging but rewarding job for a group of African voice actors and actresses living in Beijing. CGTN reporter Wang Mengzhen follows their story to find out what role they are playing in enhancing the cultural bonds between China and Africa under the Belt and Road Initiative.

It's routine work for Happiness, a Tanzanian voice actress, dubbing Chinese dramas into Swahili. But back in her country, she was a famous on-camera celebrity.

HAPPINESS LULIKELA, VOICE ACTRESS STARTIMES "I want to have a new experience. I do acting for long, starting as a teenager. I really want to learn new things everyday, so I said let me go. The good thing is that a friend posted on WhatsApp group that there is an audition somewhere."

For her, it's a life-changing audition, only 10 out of more than 2000 were chosen and she was one of them. But from stage to studio, it was not as easy as she thought.

HAPPINESS LULIKELA, VOICE ACTRESS STARTIMES "At the beginning, it was hard, you could just dub for like 5 minutes and you forgot or something came up, you have to find someone for help. But now I master all these and even teach others."

Happiness says now many of her fans enjoy watching Chinese dramas and can recognize her voice without seeing her face.

The pay-TV operator Startimes is behind the huge project, dubbing popular Chinese movies and series into local languages. Now it's serving more than 20 million users in 30 African countries.

WANG MENGZHEN BEIJING "Happiness is just one of 21 African voice actresses and actors working at Startimes. And since this dubbing center was set up in 2011, more than 300 foreign staff have dubbed in 11 different languages here."

Altogether they have dubbed over 20 thousand episodes for African viewers. They are also learning more about Chinese culture throughout the process.

BRICE ICIGUMIJE, VOICE ACTOR STARTIMES "Working with different cultures really taught me a lot, because being an African outside your country, you need to embrace the other culture in another country, everything like the food."

HAPPINESS LULIKELA, VOICE ACTRESS STARTIMES "We eat different things and we have different ways of cooking. We use salt a lot when you get here, you find something without salt or sugar."

And the comparison goes well beyond food.

HAPPINESS LULIKELA, VOICE ACTRESS STARTIMES "Chinese men can do a lot for women in families, like you can find a man carrying a handbag for a woman, in my country never."

Proud to be a bridge between China and Africa, Happiness and her colleagues are now hoping to make their voices more widely heard across their continent. WMZ, CGTN, BEIJING.