China's dub of original Dragon Ball - the lesser known Mandarin version

Discussion regarding the entirety of the franchise in a general (meta) sense, including such aspects as: production, trends, merchandise, fan culture, and more.

Moderators: General Help, Kanzenshuu Staff

Dragon Ball Ireland
I Live Here
Posts: 3510
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 9:09 am
Location: Sligo, Ireland

China's dub of original Dragon Ball - the lesser known Mandarin version

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Wed Oct 05, 2022 6:34 am

I previously made a thread about Dragon Ball's history in China more generally, but as I've uncovered a decent amount of information on their local dub since then I thought it deserved it's own topic.

Many here are aware that within the Chinese territories Dragon Ball has been released with Cantonese and Mandarin dubs in Hong Kong and Taiwan respectively. The former was the first country outside Japan to see the anime when it premiered on TVB Jade on February 21, 1988, and the latter received its own broadcast beginning on August 3, 1997.

These dubs are well known among Dragon Ball dub collectors, but sometime in between the times they were seen on TV, and I believe released on VCD there was another Mandarin dub produced for mainland China that only covered the original Dragon Ball series.

I can confirm that at least 52 episodes of this mainland Mandarin dub can be found, as I believe a VCD release exists. Episodes 53-153, from what I know are lost as they only aired on TV. Although, sometime since 2016 the StarTimes KungFu channel in South Africa began airing this dub with English subtitles, so there may be some hope of recordings surfacing.

In terms of where the mainland Mandarin dub was recorded, everything I've read points to Liaoning People's Art Theatre as the source. I'm not entirely sure if they produced it, or were outsourced by another company, but through a cursory look on various Chinese websites I've seen fans from those areas refer to this dub as the "Liaoyi version", which is potentially a portmanteau of "Liaoyi Art" (which I've also heard being talked about). I've also heard fans outside China call it the Putonghua dub, likely because "putonghua" is the Mandarin word for Mandarin.

Sadly it seems that from some point in the 90s Liaoyi dubs began to decline, and Taiwanese dubbing would take over. There was a mainland Mandarin dub for the first 6 Dragon Ball Z movies, although they were done by Shanghai Audiovisual Publishing House, so I wonder if Liaoning lost the rights, hence why they never dubbed Z or anything afterward.

From what I've seen of the original Dragon Ball dub I can confirm that it leaves Makafushigi Adventure and Romantic Ageru Yo undubbed, I've also read that the few episodes occasionally have Japanese dialogue, although I haven't noticed examples from what I've spot checked. For this reason I am going to guess it was based on the Japanese version.

Cast
The translator for this dub was Li Qian, and Li Xiaofei served as proofreader (thanks to my source who kindly translated the credits for me).

I'd love to hear if anyone knows anything more about this dub, like what channels aired it (I've heard anecdotal accounts of Yunnan and Shenzhen Satellite TV, perhaps some syndication partners but nothing concrete), and it allegedly aired between 17:00 and 18:30, which is interesting because I've heard there were some instances of edited dialogue, although I also recall reading a blog somewhere that stated Ningxia TV aired two episodes between 11:45 and 12:50, so perhaps there are different edits of this dub out there.

Another thing I've heard is that the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television at one point issued a notice for anime, including Dragon Ball to be banned. Does anyone know anything about this? I haven't read anything that specifically names Dragon Ball as being a series that suffered this fate, but as China can be very strict about media I wouldn't rule this out as a possibility.
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:

Tian
Advanced Regular
Posts: 1121
Joined: Tue Sep 01, 2015 10:21 pm
Location: Argentina

Re: China's dub of original Dragon Ball - the lesser known Mandarin version

Post by Tian » Fri Oct 07, 2022 12:34 am

Whoa, what an amazing research!

I don't usually check about Chinese and Korean dubs because I always found them somewhat confusing since both China & South Korea tend to produce several dubs for a single series and that I can't really tell which dub I'm watching. :?

Awesome topic, man :D

Dragon Ball Ireland
I Live Here
Posts: 3510
Joined: Thu May 21, 2015 9:09 am
Location: Sligo, Ireland

Re: China's dub of original Dragon Ball - the lesser known Mandarin version

Post by Dragon Ball Ireland » Fri Oct 07, 2022 2:54 am

Thanks, it's been hard to find much info on this dub, and the number of websites I could access for information have been limited because my laptop deemed several of them as unsafe. The links I could access I documented in my previous thread.

But yeah, when you include Taiwan there are a lot of Mandarin dubs, same with Korean as I believe there is Champ, SBS and Tooniverse dubs of Z. OG Dragon Ball I only know of the Champ dub so that's more straightforward, but for GT I believe there is both a Champ and Tooniverse dub.

Interestingly the Chinese dub utilises both veterans of the dubbing industry and at-the-time newcomers. The Vice President of Liaoning People's Art Theatre also played the Tenkaichi Budokai announcer.

Here's all the info I could find about the history of Liaoyi dubbing more broadly:
Sadly the answer that mentioned Dragon Ball seems to have been removed since the first time I viewed this page, and there was also some more interesting information about the production of Liaoyi dubs that I wish I copied. Although interestingly this page says Dragon Ball was one of the more well-known Liaoyi dubs:
Surprisingly enough Dragon Ball was dubbed in the mainland in the early 90s, but judging by that page and these TV listings it was still on the air as late as the early 2000s. In light of this I'm really curious why only the original series was dubbed in China. Z movies 1-6 were dubbed by Shanghai Audiovisual Publishing, but not the series.

I see the Chinese dub being referred to as a classic here by a fan disappointed he can only watch the first 52 episodes online before it switches to the Taiwanese dub, so surely there must be fans out there who have nostalgia for it.
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:

Post Reply