Popcxqueen

It was an interesting history lesson, for sure. I didn't think it was "super fun hilarity" but I thought it had some profound things to say about culture and gender and it was extremely well-done. I'm looking forward to seeing the second season which just came out.

I don't think Go Ahead is dubbed. It's SO GOOD too, so I would definitely recommend you watching it. I haven't finished it yet, but I will (just too many things to watch!)

One of the author's reasons listed in favor of dubbing is the noise level in China, both inside and outside. India has 1.3 billion people - do they dub their shows because of the noise level? They also have around 19,500 languages and dialects - do they dub their dramas to make sure there is one standard accent? I'm actually honestly asking these questions because I'm curious.

I would challenge you to watch at least one dubbed drama all the way through and then come back and let's talk about your experience with it. I'm honestly curious how you'll react since you haven't seen any dubbed dramas yet. I hear you say you agree with the reasons given in the article so you might like it, but you might not. You can see on my profile which ones I've seen but there are other dubbed dramas that I dropped because I couldn't stand it. (I don't really like historical C-dramas like other folks do either, so that doesn't help, but I have actually seen a few.)

Do you watch Cantonese dramas (are there Cant. dramas from other places than HK?)

I loved Alice in Borderland so much. I cannot wait for season 2 as well! We could have a whole conversation on just Arisu and Usagi...! :-)
I actually watch waaaaaay more Japanese dramas than Mandarin-language dramas (and even K-dramas anymore.) I find them more mature in their themes and often less tropey. I still love a good K-drama now and then, for sure, but I really really love J-dramas.
However, I'm in the middle of Please Feel At Ease, Mr. Ling which is a dubbed C-drama and I'm enduring it because I like the two main leads.

So this is interesting. I understand what you're saying about English not being Mandarin and I get that, but I think that English is actually more complex in its dialects than it's given credit for. Take Jamaica for example, (and perhaps other Caribbean contexts, but I'm not going to say that for sure.) But in Jamaica, the English is mixed with an English-based creole language called Jamaican Patois (or Patwa), which is a whole different language than the English you would hear in the US. Much of the time it's not understood by other English-speakers. But if a Jamaican actor would like to work in the US, they would need to 1) act in a Jamaican-American production from the US where they could highlight their language and be understood (and I'm all in favor of this option because I believe films and tv should show the broad diversity of the world and tell as many human stories as possible), 2) flatten out their accent to make it less pronounced while they're working, 3) develop the skill of taking on other accents, even when it's hard. This way they wouldn't have to lose their accent, which is important to them.

No, I'm not attacking you, and I'm glad we clarified at least that. :-)

And I'll ask again, what's wrong with having an accent? If they do have one, then it's the actor's responsibility to make sure they are understood. And it's also the film industry's responsibility to showcase the variety of humans who live within their borders.

I totally understand that in HK the first language is Cantonese, and the second is Mandarin. And I know that I've seen actors from HK act in Mandarin-language movies without being dubbed. Like Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and House of Flying Daggers, etc. Chow Yun-fat is from HK, right? And Andy Lau is from HK too, if I'm not mistaken?
And one of my absolute favorite actors, Kaneshiro Takeshi, is Taiwanese and Japanese and has acted in mainland Chinese films without being dubbed over.

I want to say that I'm certainly no expert when it comes to Hong Kong and the issues with being able to get work in a language that's not one's first (but lots of actors here in the US know this struggle.) I need to learn more about this specific issue, for sure.
But if they can't get acting work because they have an accent that's outside of the standard Beijing accent, or they're constantly dubbed over because their accent is deemed unacceptable, then (imo) that's a problem with the system that decides who is employable and who isn't.

Again, I never said that YOU were ignoring diversity. I was talking about the government and/or other entities who make those decisions...but you know what? I went back and looked at exactly what I said in my earlier comment and I can see why you would have thought that I was talking about you.
And like I also said earlier, when I'm wrong I can say so.
I apologize for using non-specific English, specifically the word "you." By "you" I didn't mean YOU, @Bethany, the reader, but "you" the government agency that decides to ignore diversity and make everyone sound the same (sometimes called "the royal you" or ya'll, or "you all.") But I acknowledge that that must have been confusing.

So now I'm really confused. You're arguing with me about dubbing, on an article about dubbing, and saying that I'm wrong about my opinion(s) about dubbing...but you've never watched any dubbed dramas?

No, I'm not wrong. It's my opinion that it's lazy filmmaking to dub over diverse accents instead of teaching actors to master other accents, like in many, many other places in the world.
Also, I didn't say that YOU don't want to show China's diversity to the world, but the entity who is making the dubbing decisions must not.

And news flash, many, many folks who live and work in NYC have southern accents! NYC, like Beijing, is a major city and hosts people from absolutely everywhere in the world, including the south of the US. And if a character in a NYC show or film has a southern accent, (which by the way happens!) then either it's acknowledged or a comment is made about where they're from originally, or it's ignored, because everyone here has some sort of accent and the character is just assumed to have moved to NYC from somewhere else. If an actor's southern accent is too thick to be understood (and that's also happened!) then either that actor isn't hired for a non-southern role or that actor does some work and learns how to flatten out their accent so they can be understood and hired.

I don't understand the issues of dialects and accents? Hmm, well, the US (a country of 330,000,000) has 350 main languages and 30 dialects of just English alone, not to mention the dialects and accents of all those who have emigrated here, either recently or longer ago. And Chinese (Mandarin, Cantonese, and the other languages/dialects) is ranked the number 3 most populous language spoken in the US, after English and Spanish.

When is it "vital" to the plot? Like when actors can't do the jobs they're paid to do? So for that reason why would an actor from the Fujian region get hired to speak Mandarin in a role if they can't speak it? Everywhere else in the world that actor would spend time learning the language that would need to get spoken.

Hmm, it certainly sounds like there's dubbing in PYHOMS, but if I'm wrong, I'll own it. It sounds like the SML is dubbed but not the main leads.

I went back and checked the dubbing in Put Your Head on My Shoulder and it sounds like some characters are dubbed and some use their own voice. That makes it even worse in my opinion because the sound isn't evenly matched all the way through. Dubbing a modern C-drama makes the whole thing sound unrealistic and frankly, fake.

Thanks!

Acting calls for the whole body to be used, and that includes the voice. In fact, the voice is so important that those of us who are trained actors have had years of classes and training for our voices. And that's not just in this country.
Also, China is hardly the only country with different languages and dialects spoken. In South Korea, folks from Jeju Island have their own dialect and it's often written into dramas - the characters from Seoul make note of how they can't understand the folks from Jeju (and subtitles are used.) The same is true in Taiwan of the Hokkien language/dialect, and there are actors who are fluent in both Mandarin and Hokkien who are never dubbed, (until they act in a mainland Chinese drama.)

It's only dramas that are dubbed and not movies, correct? (And definitely not movies for international awards seasons, right?) Anyone know the reason for this?

Do you have a short list you could send me of the non-dubbed dramas? I'd like to see more of those.

I've watched a few dubbed dramas, and I don't rate all of them on here. I liked Put Your Head on My Shoulder fine - except for the dubbing. I've also seen My Dear Lady and am in the middle of a few others.
I don't understand this statement you made: "I have not watched any dubbed Chinese dramas, so I am missing part of your perspective, of inaccurate dubbing." It sounds from your comment like you have watched dubbed dramas so I was wondering what you meant here, or if you accidentally forgot a word.
I don't agree - at all - with your statement that there needs to be a level of homogeneity and uniformity. There doesn't, in my opinion. You said: "A Beijing accent paired with an accent of a completely different region will not make sense." So people from other parts of China (or other places in the world) with other accents never move to Beijing and live and work and fall in love there? Are you not allowed to live in Beijing and have your story told if you have a different accent or dialect?
The world - and China - is a very diverse place, and by dubbing over it because you want a uniform accent (that sounds exactly the same all the time) you're either simply ignoring the diversity, or worse, want the rest of the world to think that it doesn't exist.