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Talented voice artist started at young age
August 23, 2010, Monday
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QIU Di can imitate the voices of almost everyone. "I realized my talent for dubbing when I was very young," Qiu says.
"From the first day of primary school, I was interested in imitating teachers' voices. I always performed secretly for my friends. This amusement activity continued all through my school years until I graduated from senior high school."
Surprisingly, instead of voice work, Qiu chose medicine as his major in college.
"I thought medicine is fun and actually it is, but then I realized I was more interested in doing dubbing work."
After graduation, Qiu worked in a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai for six months. At the same time, he made network advertisements while looking for a part-time dubbing job.
Five years have passed and Qiu is now a professional and full-time dubber. He is also the head of Vocal Transformer Workroom, a specialized dubbing studio.
"I have a lot of titles," he says. "I'm the dubbing director and inspector of the studio. But at the end of the day, I'm just a dubber. I enjoy the whole process."
Compared with his love for dubbing, money seems to be less important to Qiu.
"People always think dubbers earn very high salaries. It's not low, but not as high as people think," he says.
"It's proportionate to how much time and energy you have invested. The key point is whether you enjoy it or not."
Dubbing seems to be simple compared to acting since you just read the scripts.
But Qiu disagrees.
"Dubbing is not easy," he says. "Sometimes we have to cry in the first second and then burst into laughter. You have to act just like actors. It can be quite exhausting.
"For example, if I want to do the voice for a character who falls from an airplane, I will stand on a desk or chair and then jump to experience the feeling of falling."
Despite the challenges, Qiu is still fascinated with the art.
He dubbed five characters in his latest film.
"I was delighted to get this chance," he says. "The film is great; it cost hundreds of millions yuan to make."
In fact, the job was hard-won. The film's producer picked candidates very carefully. They asked university students as well as radio presenters to take the sound test, but finally chose Qiu, whom they heard on the Internet. "That is quite encouraging for me," he says.
Qiu is also good at doing facial expressions.
"I'm capable of imitating Song Dandan, Zhao Benshan, Ge You and other famous comic stars and cartoon characters."
Qiu says his favorite character to do is Monkey King from "Journey to the West," one of China's four great classic literary works.
The voice artist says he remembers walking down the street one day and he just shouted, using the Monkey King's voice, "Guys, come with me."
People stopped and Qiu immediately gained the crowd's attention.
"People may think I'm crazy." Qiu says. "I do not deny I am a strange person. This is who I am."
Qiu's biggest dream now is to organize a team that can perform dubbing live on stage.
"I want to stand in front of an audience and let them see what happens behind the scenes," he says. "Don't you think it's cool to dub 10 or even 20 different characters on stage?"
But this dream is still hard for Qiu to realize since the dubbing industry in Hangzhou and other parts of China has not fully developed.
"I'm optimistic about my future," he says. "I'm going to organize a local dubbing team next year."
"From the first day of primary school, I was interested in imitating teachers' voices. I always performed secretly for my friends. This amusement activity continued all through my school years until I graduated from senior high school."
Surprisingly, instead of voice work, Qiu chose medicine as his major in college.
"I thought medicine is fun and actually it is, but then I realized I was more interested in doing dubbing work."
After graduation, Qiu worked in a pharmaceutical company in Shanghai for six months. At the same time, he made network advertisements while looking for a part-time dubbing job.
Five years have passed and Qiu is now a professional and full-time dubber. He is also the head of Vocal Transformer Workroom, a specialized dubbing studio.
"I have a lot of titles," he says. "I'm the dubbing director and inspector of the studio. But at the end of the day, I'm just a dubber. I enjoy the whole process."
Compared with his love for dubbing, money seems to be less important to Qiu.
"People always think dubbers earn very high salaries. It's not low, but not as high as people think," he says.
"It's proportionate to how much time and energy you have invested. The key point is whether you enjoy it or not."
Dubbing seems to be simple compared to acting since you just read the scripts.
But Qiu disagrees.
"Dubbing is not easy," he says. "Sometimes we have to cry in the first second and then burst into laughter. You have to act just like actors. It can be quite exhausting.
"For example, if I want to do the voice for a character who falls from an airplane, I will stand on a desk or chair and then jump to experience the feeling of falling."
Despite the challenges, Qiu is still fascinated with the art.
He dubbed five characters in his latest film.
"I was delighted to get this chance," he says. "The film is great; it cost hundreds of millions yuan to make."
In fact, the job was hard-won. The film's producer picked candidates very carefully. They asked university students as well as radio presenters to take the sound test, but finally chose Qiu, whom they heard on the Internet. "That is quite encouraging for me," he says.
Qiu is also good at doing facial expressions.
"I'm capable of imitating Song Dandan, Zhao Benshan, Ge You and other famous comic stars and cartoon characters."
Qiu says his favorite character to do is Monkey King from "Journey to the West," one of China's four great classic literary works.
The voice artist says he remembers walking down the street one day and he just shouted, using the Monkey King's voice, "Guys, come with me."
People stopped and Qiu immediately gained the crowd's attention.
"People may think I'm crazy." Qiu says. "I do not deny I am a strange person. This is who I am."
Qiu's biggest dream now is to organize a team that can perform dubbing live on stage.
"I want to stand in front of an audience and let them see what happens behind the scenes," he says. "Don't you think it's cool to dub 10 or even 20 different characters on stage?"
But this dream is still hard for Qiu to realize since the dubbing industry in Hangzhou and other parts of China has not fully developed.
"I'm optimistic about my future," he says. "I'm going to organize a local dubbing team next year."
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