purpleh2o:


i think bunnyfreakz was talking about chinese dramas here.  as taiwan no longer makes any costume dramas.  

ohh okay

I hope not..probably not older dramas..

I also hate dubbing in C-Dramas, so I started watching historical kdrama last year too

I don't understand. I have never seen a chinese, korean, or japanese drama dubbed. Where do you find these?

 ArniA:

I don't understand. I have never seen a chinese, korean, or japanese drama dubbed. Where do you find these?

Korean and Japanese dramas aren't dubbed, I'm pretty sure. Chinese dramas are dubbed often but there are some dramas with the main leads dubbing their own character.

 takarahime:

I hope not..probably not older dramas..

I also hate dubbing in C-Dramas, so I started watching historical kdrama last year too

I had no problems with dubbing in c-dramas before I knew the dramas were dubbed but once I knew it was hard for me to stop focusing on the character's voice

Taiwanese dramas aren't dubbed, and there are some great dramas and films out there if you're interested!

 Popcxqueen:

Taiwanese dramas aren't dubbed, and there are some great dramas and films out there if you're interested! 

Ahh okay! I rarely watch Taiwanese dramas but I would love to check out more of them!

Start with Someday or One Day, one of the best Taiwanese dramas ever made....actually one of the best dramas ever made. 

I just realized that I haven't made a custom list of my favorite TW-dramas yet - I should do that and I could give you a longer list, if you'd like.

 Popcxqueen:

Start with Someday or One Day, one of the best Taiwanese dramas ever made....actually one of the best dramas ever made. 

I just realized that I haven't made a custom list of my favorite TW-dramas yet - I should do that and I could give you a longer list, if you'd like.

Of course, I'm glad with getting more recommendations. I've heard of Someday or One Day, but I never planned on watching it. I shall give it a try sometime!

i too recommend someday or one day.  i watched it in january and i'm still listening to the songs from that.  

i just finished another good taiwanese drama yesterday ~ more than blue: the series .  if you'd like a good cry, watch it.  my eyes are still puffy from all the tears.  lol

 purpleh2o:

i too recommend someday or one day.  i watched it in january and i'm still listening to the songs from that.  

i just finished another good taiwanese drama yesterday ~ more than blue: the series .  if you'd like a good cry, watch it.  my eyes are still puffy from all the tears.  lol

I definitely second More Than Blue! I haven't seen the drama yet, but the movie (which came out first) was excellent! I like the actors in both the film and the drama, and I've heard good things about the drama as well.

 purpleh2o:

i too recommend someday or one day.  i watched it in january and i'm still listening to the songs from that.  

i just finished another good taiwanese drama yesterday ~ more than blue: the series .  if you'd like a good cry, watch it.  my eyes are still puffy from all the tears.  lol

more than blue: the series was so good! at first I found it boring but once the story progressed I liked it and I also cried twice ??

 aad:

Does that apply to Chinese dramas too or just Taiwanese dramas?

Chinese dramas get dubbed for a few reasons:

1.) Creating a uniform accent/dialect. Mainland China has a lot of dialects, so they often dub in order to make the character's dialect match the region they are supposed to come from and/or the other characters from there as well.

2.) Sound quality. A lot of Mainland China productions (especially historicals) are filmed in the same locations, some with several filming projects going on at the same time. It makes it quite noisy. So they do the filming, and then they go in afterwards with dubbing (this is also why you'll sometimes find dubbed titles where the actor is doing their own dubbing (which makes people who dont know either doubt that it's their voice, or ask what was the point)).

3.) To make a character have a certain vocal "quality" that matches the character (mainly applies to fantasy historicals and wuxia/xianxia/xuanhuan).

4.) (Hypothesis from observing): Censorship. It's not uncommon for censorship to come in and say that certain lines need to be axed or changed (there's literal lip-reading videos all over social media to determine what characters are actually saying underneath the dubbing). Since the actors tend to have such a jam-packed schedule with other filming, appearances, shoots, promotions, sponsorships, etc, it's easier to have a voice actor on retainer to come in whenever needed. So then the voice actor would need to have dubbed the entire production in order for that fix not to be as noticeable.


Taiwan doesnt have these problems and/or to the same degree. So you wont typically find dubbing in Taiwanese dramas, especially recent ones. With the exception of actors/actresses who natively speak a different language, and so they dub them to make them more understandable or to compensate for their lack of knowledge of the language. 

ahh okay, that makes sense. Taiwanese actors/actresses also get dubbed when acting in Chinese dramas right?

 aad:

ahh okay, that makes sense. Taiwanese actors/actresses also get dubbed when acting in Chinese dramas right?

Yes, anybody and everybody is free game to get dubbed in mainland china's productions. But like above users have said, it really depends on a lot of factors. Not all cdramas get dubbed. And not all dubbed cdramas use a whole new voice cast for the dubbing. It depends on how fluent the actor/actress is with the desired dialect/accent (if there is one), how much sound pollution is present when filming, etc. I think I recall also hearing speculation that we might be seeing less dubbing in future cdramas (but I don't remember the basis, sorry).