Radio Drama

During the wi-fi break-down, I reviewed some of my radio drama collection, which already adds up to a surprising stock of 9GB in my laptop. Even after the unfortunate theft of my previous Lenovo last November, my collection was soon recovered and grew very fast. Now it took at least four days for me to listen from the beginning to the end.

The first radio drama I listened to was in Japanese. In early 2000s, when most Chinese audiences had to tolerate hypnotic radio stories by the China National Radio, Japanese dubbing schools were prospering as animation industry boomed. Graduates became popular by dubbing cartoon characters, some even having their fan associations and annual fan meetings. These famous voice casts then chose to make radio dramas and games, both of which are much more profitable because of their lower costs. Dramas are particularly cost effective - just think of how much less work you need to do in producing a drama in comparison to an animation! Like other pop cultural products, many Japanese dramas were pirated in China, and soon acclaimed by cartoon fans.

Dramas tell stories by dialogues and monologues, thus language skills are crucial if you are not a native speaker. I used Japanese dramas to practice my listening skills and learn slang. But for those who don’t speak the language, it might be challenging. Actually unless you’ve acquired a pretty good level of Japanese, it's unlikely to understand what’s going on. Sometimes you can find their Chinese translations online. However most people listen to dramas when they are walking, sleeping, etc. - basically when their eyes need breaks, and very few are willing to listen while reading. So despite that dubbers have beautiful voices, it’s frustrating if you don’t know what they are saying.

Therefore the demand from Chinese audiences fuel the market of Chinese radio drama. Many radio studios emerged on internet after 2005, adapting internet novels and making dramas. Usually a 200,000-word novel can be adapted into a four- to seven- episode drama, and the production cycle may vary from a few months (e.g. Bat by "Jueyi Studio") to a few years (e.g. Unspeakable Love by "Scissor Studio"). A typical team consists of voice casts, directors, scriptwriters, audio specialists and other staffs. Voice casts and audio specialists are the key components of the team: they use either their voices or technologies to inspire our imagination and create virtual frames. A drama usually has several voice casts for different characters, but always one audio specialist to ensure the overall consistence of the style. Some of them - dubbers in particular - also make names of themselves by making high-quality dramas.

Most people working on radio drama are amateur. They get together out of interests, and none of them are paid. Early Chinese dramas had difficulties in recruiting high-quality staff: a typical dilemma faced by those with great interests but not enough skills. Things are getting better later as more people know the industry and become willing to contribute. In addition, short-term training on dubbing and audio production are also provided at reasonable prices in major cities like Beijing and Shanghai now. Courses are offered at night or during summer, so that college students have spare time to do something fun. A website called "Superior Voices Superior Looks" (You Sheng You Se, a punchline for "impressive" in Chinese) releases information about all the new dramas published by each studio, and provides BBS for discussion, recruitment and get-together. I still check this website from time to time, the amount of dramas do increase exponentially in the last decade.

Ten years have passed since my first drama, voiced by Midorikawa Hikaru (can't remember the name of the other guy.) When I have difficulties falling asleep, or need to walk alone for hours, I still resort to dramas for accompany. Last year, I had almost nothing with me after the burglary in South Africa but my iPhone which happened to be under my pillow when thieves broke in at midnight. During the next several days when I was detained in Pretoria waiting for my new passport and visa, dramas in my phone soothed  my soul and relieved my anxiety. It's a fantastic feeling as if you know someone by his/her voice so well that they are like old friends to you. I'm always grateful for the visual world that they create for me.