Master Dubber’s Happy Marriage

Ding Jianhua is a famous dubbing artist in China. Over the past three decades， she has dubbed characters in nearly a thousand foreign films and television dramas. She has received numerous awards for her unforgettable voice interpretations of foreign characters in both art films and blockbusters. She has also received top government awards and top national film awards for her major part in eight dubbed films.

Ding Jianhua was born into a soldier’s family in Shandong Province in 1953. As a child， she loved to listen to novels serialized on radio. After graduation from middle school， she was recruited as a drama actress by a navy troupe. In 1976 she left the navy and got employed by Shanghai Film Dubbing Studio. Three months later， she dated Peng Zhichao， a technician at the studio.

The prelude started when Ding Jianhua gave Peng a notebook. She had received some notebooks from Shanghai Television after working an assignment there and she gave these notebooks to her colleagues. Unexpectedly， Peng returned the notebook to Ding Jianhua 15 days later. Puzzled， Ding Jianhua opened the notebook only to find that all the pages were scribbled with poems and that all the poems were written meticulously in a calligraphic script. In particular， Ding Jianhua found that each poem was just one page long， for Peng Jianhua had counted the lines in a page and managed to compose the poems just that long.

They began to date and in 1978 they got married.

Since then their marriage has been different from the traditional mode: the wife spends a lot of time away from home whereas the husband holds the fortress and does the family chores.

Peng is determined to help his wife become famous and successful. He has done his share. In the early years of their marriage， their incomes were not big. The husband managed the tight budget and provided good meals. A self-made tailor， he even managed to create a very good costume for his wife for a big show. After the wife received an invitation to appear at a large poem recitation performance， the couple decided to shop for a good dress for the big event. But they were disappointed. They spotted some very suitable fashions but the prices were exorbitant. That night， Peng got out scissors and a red fabric and began to do his tailor job. The next morning， Ding Jianhua found a very dazzling performance costume.

The unusual costume made Ding Jianhua’s first important public appearance a big bang. But Peng was not proud at all. He insisted upon keeping his tailor business a household secret， for， he explained， that the old Shanghai tradition was very against men doing tailoring job at home.

Peng might be very tightfisted about himself， but he did not hesitate to buy things his wife liked. One day， Ding Jianhua fancied a leather jacket when the couple was doing window shopping. Peng bought the jacket as soon as he got the salary the next month. Ding Jianhua loves colored scarves and some small ornaments. In these years， Peng Zhichao bought his wife scarves every month.

Two years into the marriage， the couple had a daughter. Peng Zhichao became Mr. Mom at home. He invented ways to hold the baby in crowds. While on a crowded bus， he often put the baby on his shoulder， holding her with one arm. In the summer， he held her in a way so that her body would not touch his body for a long time in a bid to prevent her from getting heat rash.

Ding Jianhua then got a job offer in Beijing and worked as a dubbing supervisor for Beijing Television. Then one day， she sneaked back to Shanghai hoping to give her husband a big surprise. Stepping into the apartment she found him cleaning the bathroom and their daughter’s clothing drying on the clothing string on the balcony， fluttering in the wind. She felt guilty. Peng Zhichao was philosophical about the house chores he did. He explained that he was trying to keep a balance of Yin and Yang. His theory runs like this: “Yin and Yang need balancing. Small and Big need balancing. The High and Low need balancing. You and I need balancing. If you do a lot of work away from home， I need to do a lot at home to keep it balanced. If you spend a lot of time outside and I did a lot away from home， the home would be left unbalanced and problems would grow out of this imbalance.”

If Peng Zhichao did not worry about the marriage， some people worried on his behalf. He got some advices from smart people that he should watch out for himself since his wife spent so much time working with other people. When Ding Jianhua heard such rumors， she became frustrated and wanted to drop everything and came home. Peng Zhichao persuaded her not to give up her career. “You’ve gone through so much and achieved so brilliantly in these unforgettable dubbed films， it would be nonsense to give that career up. You don’t need to take the wagging tongues serious.”

The two has trusted each other and loved each other. One day the daughter found her mother talking with her father on phone in a very sweet voice of a teenage girl. The daughter laughed and wondered how her mother could speak to her father as if they were teenagers in burning love. Ding Jianhua retorted， “Why can’t I be coquettish to your father at my age? Moreover， he is the best man in the world!”

While commenting on the marriage， Peng Zhichao says that he has gained a great deal though he sacrificed a bit. He has a brilliant wife and a very good daughter. He is very content. He knows that all this happiness comes at a price and that is why he cherishes it so much. He regards the happy marriage as his life’s masterpiece. □