Dragon Ball in China?

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Dragon Ball in China?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Oct 19, 2021 11:54 am

Something I've always wondered about is Dragon Ball's history in China. Considering it's loosely based off a Chinese legend, and China itself is a close neighbour of Japan I thought it would be likely there would be plenty of material produced for the Chinese market.

So far I'm aware of the following being released in China:
- Mandarin dub of OG Dragon Ball and movies 1-5 and 15
- Cantonese dub of Z and GT

There was also a Hmong dub by Txhais Lus Productions for DBZ movie 4 and at least the Saiyan arc (Goku vs Vegeta fight has surfaced), which can be found on YouTube, but I haven't found out anything about where it aired.

The manga was published by Citicomics, but I'm looking to find out the name of the translator and how much it covered.

Has anyone got anything else to add about Dragon Ball's history in China? Would love to know more.
Last edited by Dragon Ball Ireland on Fri Mar 25, 2022 5:33 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by kei17 » Tue Oct 19, 2021 2:47 pm

In China, the Dragon Ball manga was first published by 春秋出版社 in 1989, under the title of "小猴王" (Little Monkey King). It was discontinued around the fifth volume, and then shortly after that, 学苑出版社 published it again as "霹雳小猴王" (Lighting Little Monkey King), which was also discontinued after the ninth volume. In 1991, 海南摄影美术出版社 started publishing the manga, named "七龙珠" (Seven Dragon Pearls), which successfully continued until the end of the serialization. Among the countless numbers of unlicensed manga releases, this so-called "Hainan version" was the most popular and it was a great success. 宁夏人民出版社 began a magazine called "画书大王" (Comic's King) in 1993, which featured Dragon Ball and sold over 800,000 copies in its prime. After the end of the serialization in Japan, they still wanted new contents from the series, so a lot of unlicensed sequels and spin-offs were created and published by multiple publishers. They were all based on the format of the aforementioned Hainan version.

None of the published materials featuring Dragon Ball in China (except for Hong Kong) had been legitimate until Shueisha finally signed a contract with 中国少年児童出版社 in 2005.

Hainan version:
Image

The comic magazine:
Image

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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:06 pm

Thanks for the detailed and informative response Kei17, knew I could count on you :thumbup:

Have you heard anything about Chinese broadcasts of the anime? I know some Chinese language dubs (Mandarin and Cantonese specifically) aired in Hong Kong and Taiwan, but haven't heard anything about airings in China itself, or a standard Chinese dub.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by kei17 » Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:29 pm

I don't know much about the Anime series in mainland China. Original Dragon Ball was dubbed and it seems to have been broadcast on local TV channels, but I think that's it when it comes to TV broadcasts. TV broadcasting in China is probably too strict for the DB series. There have been a lot of home video releases on VCD, but most of them feature dubs from Taiwan.


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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by PurestEvil » Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:24 pm

That's really interesting. I remember watching a clip of Gohan fighting Buu in a Chinese dub, but I cannot remember if it was Mandarin or Cantonese.
Was there a Cantonese dub for Dragon Ball Z, or was there only a Mandarin (Taiwanese) dub?
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Oct 19, 2021 4:30 pm

kei17 wrote: Tue Oct 19, 2021 3:29 pm I don't know much about the Anime series in mainland China. Original Dragon Ball was dubbed and it seems to have been broadcast on local TV channels, but I think that's it when it comes to TV broadcasts. TV broadcasting in China is probably too strict for the DB series. There have been a lot of home video releases on VCD, but most of them feature dubs from Taiwan.

Thanks again Kei.

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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Mon Mar 21, 2022 6:43 am

So I have been doing some more research into Dragon Ball's history in China into whatever websites I could find that are safe to view. The information is still very vague, but I've at least been able to determine where it was dubbed, and possibly the airtime and original broadcast run.

Interesting word from one of the actors about how it felt to be dubbing the series, and seemingly the mainland Mandarin dub was done by alumni of the Liaoning People's Art Theatre.

Here's some comments by one of the actors (voice of Kuririn, Yajirobe):
Jia Lina said

"at that time, i was very young, and it was quite stressful to play dragon ball with some of the seniors in the dubbing industry, and if i was wrong, i would have to start over with everyone. so i was nervous when i was dubbing. at that time, it was not like there was a track splitter now, you could record me, then there were a few microphones, you finished and went to the back, and your lines came up front.”
Jia Lina also said

"i remember with dragon ball, there was a scene in the square, and it was kling singing out of tune. at that time, everyone was around, pretending to be talking in the square, and i couldn't be disturbed by anything, and i kept singing there. i ran quite seriously, and then i went through it again, and the director praised me.”
Turns out the the vice president of Liaoning People's Art Theatre at the time has also done some voicework for this dub, specifically the Tenkaichi Budokai announcer.

There is some fascinting history about the Liaoyi dubbing here.

From the first poster's response it seems that anime, Dragon Ball included was dubbed in mainland China around the 80s and very early 90s, and like in many other countries those that watched Dragon Ball during its original broadcast fondly remember it, its interesting Dragon Ball Z promo art is used here, specifically Wrath of the Dragon, as neither Z nor that movie specifically ever received a mainland dub. Turns out from 1992 onwards (recounted by Teng Kuixing who worked for them as an actor and was brought in by Chen Daqian, who was in charge of the theatre's dubbing at the time) these Laioyi dubs began to decline.

The poster here says that the retirement of dubbing veterans, the increasing popularity of home media formats like VCD DVD, and rentals coincided with the fall of translated foreign films, including anime like Dragon Ball. That seems plausible given the proliferation of dubs released on VCD in Taiwan and Hong Kong (which the person asking the question appears to imply their work started to overtake mainland dubbing).

Though the mainland dub for Dragon Ball was released on VCD in the late 90s, so its interesting the format didn't seem to take off as well as it did in the other two special administrative areas. Even today when it comes to domestic Chinese animation donghua haven't had a native Blu-Ray release, so I'm guessing home media in general must have seen a decline, which coincided with the decreasing popularity of Laioyi dubbing.

Also of note, this person states in 1999 the Liaoning People's Art Theatre and the Liaoning Children's Art Theatre were officially merged, so we can assume that the mainland Mandarin Dragon Ball dub was recorded at the former since the dub's production (approximately early-mid 90s) would predate this merge.

The second poster claims that mainland Chinese dubbing, which aired on TV was once carried out by Shanghai translation studios and Changchun Film Studio in the south and north respectively, whereas during Liaoning's time TV stations had their own voice actors, and if this person is to be believed Liaoning had their own station in the south. Liaoning in particular being familiar with animation fans, although unlike the previous poster this person dates their work back to the 70s, which obviously Dragon Ball wouldn't have been around for, and that part of the decline in their dubs was because the money wasn't as good as on-screen, which we know is true too for US dubbing.

There is a blog here, which says that last year marked the 60th anniversary of Liaoning, and also seems to indicate Dragon Ball aired on prime time between 17:00 and 18:30.

For anyone wanting to know the cast list, it can be found here. This article also does confirm that Liaoyi did all 153 episodes of OG Dragon Ball and Goku had two voice actors, Wang Xiaoyan (episodes 1-78) and Liu Yi (episodes 79-153).

This is another interesting read as it suggests that the Liaoyi dub removed some lines that were considered unsuitable for children, which is interesting if the claim that it aired on prime time is true. It also cites the 80s and 90s as a time Chinese anime fans would be nostalgic for Dragon Ball, although all the evidence I've found seems to point to their own dub being recorded in the 90s.

I have made an effort to reach out to Dragon Ball fans in China, so hopefully I will have more information to share about the anime's history there. There is so much more to learn like what channels aired it, any other staff that worked on it besides the cast, etc.
Do you have any info about international non-English broadcasts about the Dragon Ball anime or manga translations/editions? Please message me. Researching for a future book with Dragon Ball scholar Derek Padula :thumbup:

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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:33 pm

Dragon Ball Evolution did better in China than it did compared to the rest of the world oddly enough.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:56 pm

Apparently the Cantonese dubs (of the movies) is how the laughably awful Speedy dubs in Malaysia/Singapore back in the mid '90s were able to have the higher quality M&E sources. It would seem they reached out to the people behind the aforementioned dub in China and were somehow able to finagle these tracks which is really surprising for a crappy quality bootleg dub released to VCD. Somehow they managed it, so even with the mangled acting and warped music they still got nice M&E tracks which i find funny in of itself.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Gilby1385 » Mon Mar 21, 2022 6:30 pm

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:56 pm Apparently the Cantonese dubs (of the movies) is how the laughably awful Speedy dubs in Malaysia/Singapore back in the mid '90s were able to have the higher quality M&E sources. It would seem they reached out to the people behind the aforementioned dub in China and were somehow able to finagle these tracks which is really surprising for a crappy quality bootleg dub released to VCD. Somehow they managed it, so even with the mangled acting and warped music they still got nice M&E tracks which i find funny in of itself.
Makes sense to me.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by SuperSaiyaManZ94 » Mon Mar 21, 2022 7:07 pm

Gilby1385 wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 6:30 pm
SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:56 pm Apparently the Cantonese dubs (of the movies) is how the laughably awful Speedy dubs in Malaysia/Singapore back in the mid '90s were able to have the higher quality M&E sources. It would seem they reached out to the people behind the aforementioned dub in China and were somehow able to finagle these tracks which is really surprising for a crappy quality bootleg dub released to VCD. Somehow they managed it, so even with the mangled acting and warped music they still got nice M&E tracks which i find funny in of itself.
Makes sense to me.
Yeah, it's a little surprising but considering how things were i guess Speedy had connections over there and were able to get those good quality tracks from the people in charge. Also, apparently the scripts were based from poorly translated versions of the Chinese/Cantonese scripts which were in turn translated from the Japanese version. That, along with the poor comprehension of English the people behind the voices seem to have had.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Asin » Tue Mar 22, 2022 12:43 am

Hellspawn28 wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:33 pm Dragon Ball Evolution did better in China than it did compared to the rest of the world oddly enough.
Any specifics you can get into? I'm curious on how you know this and would like to know more.

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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Tue Mar 22, 2022 8:05 am

SuperSaiyaManZ94 wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:56 pm Apparently the Cantonese dubs (of the movies) is how the laughably awful Speedy dubs in Malaysia/Singapore back in the mid '90s were able to have the higher quality M&E sources. It would seem they reached out to the people behind the aforementioned dub in China and were somehow able to finagle these tracks which is really surprising for a crappy quality bootleg dub released to VCD. Somehow they managed it, so even with the mangled acting and warped music they still got nice M&E tracks which i find funny in of itself.
Hong Kong was the first region in any part of China to receive the anime. It premiered on February 21st 1988 on TVB Jade, which predates both the mainland (also known as the Putonghua or Liaoyi) dub and Taiwanese dubs. It's possible the Cantonese and mainland Mandarin dub shared the same M&E track, which the Speedy dubs later sourced.

From the information I've gathered it seems that:
  • the province of Liaoning was once closely associated with Dragon Ball, as seen by not only the dub that aired in China but some other products that can still be found online. These products may or may not have been distributed by branches of the same company as they are both attributed to Liaoning, although considering this is the name of a province there could be numerous unrelated companies named after it. Nonetheless Dragon Ball's history in the mainland can be traced back to Liaoning
  • after some time the Taiwanese dubs phased out the mainland Mandarin dubs, although evidence points to the mainland still being involved in distribution for some time
Not only was OG Dragon Ball dubbed at Liaoning People's Art Theatre, but products like this is listed as being published by "Liaoning Culture and Art Audio and Video Publishing House". According to Google Maps the two are about a 15-20 minute drive from one another, so they may or may not be connected.

Having searched a number of Chinese sites, it seems there was some disappointment among fans that episodes 53-153 of the mainland dub became hard to find, likely because only the first 52 were released on VCD and the rest may have not been seen since they aired on TV in the 90s. Here we see a fan disappointed when watching the Liaoyi (mainland Mandarin) dub online it switches to the Taiwanese dub after episode 53. I've seen a few examples of fans asking the same question about where to find the full dub.

I've also seen anecdotal accounts of the dubbing being moved to Taiwan because of Dragon Ball being considered too violent for mainland China, such as the answer to this question. I will ask about this as I've made an attempt to reach out to China.

I can confirm that I've spoken to a fan who bought a VCD of the Taiwanese dubbed movies, and it was published by Donghexing Ausiovisual Publishing House, who are based in the mainland. One of their releases, which judging by the artwork includes World's Strongest and the early episodes of Z can be found here.

I know that the first 6 Z movies were dubbed in 1994 by Shanghai Audiovisual Publishing House, a few years before the Taiwanese dubs began production and Dragon Ball dubs ceased to be produced in mainland China. Although, Resurrection F and Super Broly received theatrical releases, so the series may be making somewhat of a comeback in the mainland, even if its just movies. I imagine TOEI will try to get Super Hero released there too.
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Tue Mar 22, 2022 11:01 pm

Asin wrote: Tue Mar 22, 2022 12:43 am
Hellspawn28 wrote: Mon Mar 21, 2022 5:33 pm Dragon Ball Evolution did better in China than it did compared to the rest of the world oddly enough.
Any specifics you can get into? I'm curious on how you know this and would like to know more.
You can go on Box Office Mojo and read it for yourself. It was number #1 for two weeks in China, meanwhile it flopped in the US. It's like how the Golden Compass and Pacific Rim was a bigger hit in China than it did in the US.

https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/r ... 21/weekly/
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Re: Dragon Ball series in China?

Post by TobyS » Thu Mar 24, 2022 1:29 pm

Doesn't China have weird censorship issues regarding time travel? So I imagine trunks onwards had issues.

But maybe if it's a cartoon and in a fantasy universe it doesn't matter so much.
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Re: Dragon Ball in China?

Post by Hellspawn28 » Mon Mar 28, 2022 12:12 am

DBE also had a bigger marketing push in China than it did in the US. It won't surprise me if the film was mostly made with the Chinese market in mind like with some movies.
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Re: Dragon Ball in China?

Post by tinlunlau » Fri Apr 08, 2022 10:04 pm

I'm not going to discuss the Mainland China side of manga since as a native Cantonese speaker myself, I absolutely cannot stand read simplified Chinese. But I definitely have some familiarity with the Hong Kong and Taiwanese releases of the manga. Both Hong Kong and Taiwan editions have two separate translations. Although they're both published in traditional Chinese text, Hong Kong and Taiwan have differing slangs so there are some glaring differences in localization. As mentioned in the first post, Citicomics released Dragonball in Hong Kong while Tong Li Comics does Taiwan. I've both bought Hong Kong and Taiwanese editions of the Buu arc over the years.
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Re: Dragon Ball in China?

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Jul 22, 2022 10:21 am

So I think I found one reliable source for when Dragon Ball aired in China. This page seems to list an airing on Liaoning Satellite TV at 14:32 (unusual timeslot). This is taken from a TV guide from January 19, 2004. Judging by these listings episodes 11-14 aired on that date, and the next day episodes 15-18 aired at the same timeslot on that channel. It wasn't aired any other days that week. Interesting that Dragon Ball was also in the "TV drama section", and that it was still on air about 10 years after it was first dubbed in China.

I recall one of the wikis saying the mainland Chinese dub was aired in syndication, which I will take with a grain of salt, but as I've heard anecdotal accounts of Dragon Ball airing on Ningxia TV and regional channels like Yunnan Satellite TV and Shenzhen Satellite TV I think this leads a bit more credibility to that idea.
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