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Jane Cai

At the December premiere of the Chinese-dubbed 1957 Billy Wilder classic Witness for the Prosecution in a Shanghai cinema, dubbing artist Qiao Zhen voiced a more immediate mystery: “Do you still enjoy Chinese-dubbed films?”
When audience members, mainly nostalgia-seeking fans, responded with applause and shouts of “Yes!”, the 83-year-old veteran became emotional, offering a moving defence of his art form.
“Several years ago we felt this profession had fallen into a low point,” he told the audience. “So many people ignored dubbed films, unwilling to watch the translated or dubbed versions, and preferred the original.
“But I believe that to truly appreciate the creative art of a foreign film, one should watch a genuine dubbed version. Dubbing is the reshaping of a soul.”
The re-released Witness for the Prosecution, a courtroom drama adapted from Agatha Christie’s celebrated stage play, is the latest release from the Shanghai Dubbing Studio. It features several veteran Chinese voices, including Qiao as the presiding judge.

By late January, the dubbed version had grossed about 6.31 million yuan (US$925,000) at the mainland box office – a figure driven largely by nostalgia-seeking fans, according to state news agency Xinhua. In China’s booming film market, where many mid-tier new releases easily clear tens of millions in their opening weeks, the total is modest.
“In the 1980s and early 1990s, everyone flocked to dubbed films. Why has it fallen to such a low point now?” Qiao asked at the premiere. “Of course, there are various reasons, but the responsibility ultimately lies with ourselves. We must let audiences see real [high-quality] dubbed films.”
While Qiao may be too harsh on his profession, enthusiasm for dubbed foreign films has indeed waned. Rising English proficiency among younger generations and the widespread availability of subtitles on streaming platforms have shifted viewing habits.
China was ranked 86th globally by the 2025 EF English Proficiency Index, which measures non-native speakers, and is classified as “low proficiency”. But even that proficiency level combined with easy access to original films is enough to erode demand for traditional dubs.
A 2022 online survey of nearly 2,000 respondents cited in a 2025 Sage Open journal paper found that about 75 per cent preferred foreign films with Chinese subtitles, while only 2.27 per cent favoured Chinese dubbing. The remainder chose both subtitles and dubbing or expressed no strong preference, according to authors communication studies assistant professor Muhammad Yaqoub of Tongling University in Anhui province and Ze Gao of AI motion data firm CyanPuppets in Guangzhou.
Zhou Ziwei, a 42-year-old Beijing resident, embodies the trend. In December, she exchanged a ticket she had mistakenly bought for the dubbed Witness for the Prosecution to instead see the original English-language release.
“I opt for the original version with subtitles, prioritising authentic acting,” she said. “I’ve watched hundreds of foreign movies and TV shows over the past two decades without dubbing. The re-creation is unnecessary because meanings could be distorted in the dubbing process.”


When state broadcaster CCTV aired the classic 1956 French film The Hunchback of Notre-Dame as a Chinese-dubbed version on April 19, Zhou stayed up late to watch what had once been a long-time favourite.
“Something felt different,” she recalled. “The performances that once moved me to tears now struck me as slightly unnatural and distant.
“The voices, though professionally delivered, carried a formal, somewhat theatrical tone – a style that once felt immersive but now seemed a bit stiff and detached from the raw emotion on screen.”
Still, Zhou added with affection, “dubbed films are a cherished imprint from my childhood and youth … it used to feel so alive and close to my heart”.
Dubbing is not mere translation; it is the art of cultural and, sometimes, ideological adaptation that creates a distinctive “dubbese” style – exotic yet intimately Chinese.
For decades, dubbed foreign films played an irreplaceable role in Chinese cultural life. They served as a vital bridge to the outside world, reflecting China’s diplomatic evolution and shaping public perceptions of distant societies.
In the 1950s, Soviet classics dominated, promoting collective heroism and socialist ideals in line with the Sino-Soviet alliance.
Indian melodramas, such as Awaara starring Raj Kapoor, captured Chinese film-goers’ hearts with songs and emotional depth in the 1950s and 60s – a period of relatively warm cultural ties.
Even during the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), when public screenings of most foreign films were severely restricted, high-ranking Communist Party cadres secretly watched dubbed “internal reference films”.
They were publicly denouncing bourgeois ideology while privately studying the artistry – a practice that preserved sophisticated dubbing skills.
Su Xiu, a former dubbing director at the Shanghai studio, recalled in her 2014 autobiography, My Dubbing Career, that she and colleagues were recalled from re-education camps in 1971 because then premier Zhou Enlai had ordered their work to continue so leaders could monitor “new trends in class struggle”.
After the Cultural Revolution and the launch of Reform and Opening-up in the late 1970s, dubbed films became a mainstream window on the world. Following the normalisation of relations with the United States in 1979, Hollywood productions and Japanese films poured in, introducing modern lifestyles, technology and themes of resilience that mirrored China’s complex international ties.
Between 1978 and 1993, the country dubbed a remarkable 630 films from 43 countries and regions amid China’s accelerating global integration. The repertoire embraced a rich diversity of genres, from crime thrillers and romantic dramas to science-fiction adventures and documentaries.
“This breadth mirrored the era’s hunger for fresh perspectives on the world,” according to a social media post from Peking University Press in December.
In recent decades, however, the rise of domestic cinema has further diminished the appeal of foreign dubs. While Hollywood imports once routinely generated hundreds of millions of dollars – Avengers: Endgame (2019) exceeded US$600 million – their dominance has faded.
In 2025, China’s total box office reached about US$7.4 billion, with domestic films capturing roughly 80 per cent of the market.
And the dubbing profession itself has evolved. Professionals have increasingly pivoted to supporting made-in-China productions, especially animation and big-budget epics, where polished voices can heighten emotional depth amid complex special effects or overcome on-set audio challenges.


At the Witness for the Prosecution premiere in December, Qiao made an optimistic call.
“I hope that starting from this film we will make every effort, with full heart and soul, to reshape souls and create more good and excellent dubbed films.”
Yet, his dubbing studio faces practical hurdles. Liu Feng, its head, noted in a recent interview with the Shanghai-based The Paper that the limited pool of dubbing actors was a challenge. The studio was therefore shifting focus towards dubbing Chinese films into foreign languages – a strategic move designed to expand China’s cultural soft power overseas.
The question Qiao posed that December evening still resonates: do audiences today still enjoy dubbed films?
An online survey launched in November by a film fan club on Douban, China’s leading film review platform, may offer a clue: only 43 votes so far.


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Greater subtitle literacy among streaming viewers is among factors chipping away at enthusiasm for dubbed movies in China


Greater subtitle literacy among streaming viewers is among factors chipping away at enthusiasm for dubbed movies in China.


Why are modern Chinese audiences shying away from dubbed films?

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Greater subtitle literacy among streaming viewers is among factors chipping away at enthusiasm for dubbed movies in China

Greater subtitle literacy among streaming viewers is among factors chipping away at enthusiasm for dubbed movies in China