Return of the Pearl Princess is China’s most highly rated and beloved television series of all time, and in 2013, was dubbed for its American release.
The completed project has not been released. Personally, I think that it is not the right series to showcase Chinese television to the Western world.
Firstly, Chinese television series are more related to Telenovelas, they are essentially soap operas, but with a scheduled ending. Telenovelas and soap operas run daily for years and years and years. Just have to look at the Bold and the Beautiful. You could miss six months and basically come back to the same staring contest that you left off at. It’s just that during that time, the baby has now grown into a teenager.
Chinese series air daily, with each episode continuing with the characters’ journey to the inevitable conclusion of death, love or epic fight scene. They are melodramatic and most often, overacted and unrealistically dramatic.
The Chinese television humour is very different to that of the Western world. Where we have wit, sarcasm and taking the piss, they have… ummmm… physical humour?
Chinese period dramas are reminiscent of Flying Tiger and Hidden Dragon, in the sense that those who can fight, are quite masterful and can fly, or at least, jump so seriously high that they can leap over walls and buildings. Period dramas are a combination of potentially historical people and events combined with a massive element of fantasy. So, for any novices out there, don’t be alarmed when you see people flying around, the ancient Chinese people used to fly around and know kung-fu, they just lost that ability with the Chinese Revolution.
The Return of the Pearl Princess is an annoyingly fun and over acted television series, it brought to the Chinese people a different type of heroine. It is a series that concentrates mainly on its female leads, rather than the male. A story centred around two very different female leads. Little Sparrow (XiaoYenZi), who is cheeky, illiterate and a vagabond, and Rose (ZiWei), who is very well educated, reserved and beautiful. The two form an instant friendship and become sworn sisters.
The over acting which appeals to the Chinese audience will annoy the Western one. The characteristics which the Chinese find adorable and cute, will make Western audiences think that she’s immature and needs to grow up. The evil Empress who was understood by the Chinese people for her motivation, but hated at the same time, will not be understood at all by the West. We do not have an appreciation or understanding of how The Emperor’s harem actually works.
The Return of the Pearl Princess will only attract Asian viewership, those who grew up with the structure and binge watching culture of these television series. It is an acquired taste, and one which I just don’t think the West is ready for. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve watched this series myself in Chinese, and I absolutely loved it, but it is an acquired taste, and not for everybody.
Dubbing takes away a lot from the actual performance, it grates on your nerves and more often than not, we watch the actors’ mouths to see what it is they’re saying. A lot will be lost in translation. The only live action show which has successfully transitioned into the West is Iron Chef, with its bad dubbing and commentary, we have grown to love it for its showmanship and strange polite actresses, who constantly complement chefs by saying, “Oh, it’s so subtle.” Damn it woman, we say, “It lacks flavour, it’s really boring.” over here. But, to each their own.
If any series should be dubbed into English, it should be The Condor Heroes trilogy, the version that was made by TVB back in the 90s, to date, it is still the best production of these wonderful stories. Or perhaps, a studio should just buy the rights of it and make it themselves, it’s got a really cool story line, with plenty of fighting. But it is a once off series.
Ultimately, Asian television is very different to the West. Our shows run for seasons, equating to years, whilst theirs run between a month to three, depending on how many episodes there are in the series, and then it’s over.
I am glad that the dubbed version has been shelved.
Ranter & Banter 