It doesn't take much exposure to Chinese television to realize CCTV's recipe for juicing the ratings of any show: adding mandarin-speaking foreigners. And while we're always happy to see our compatriots getting paid by the Chinese government for a change, we'll be the first to admit that the mandarin fluency of many of our aspiring Western thespians leaves a considerable amount to be desired, at least in terms of communicating more subtle details as character motivations, emotional sincerity and overarching plot.

Learning Chinese? In this podcast, join our crew as we walk through the climactic scene from a recent CCTV production featuring everyone's favorite mandarin-speaking Scots detective... as heard by its Chinese audience. And once we're finished with that, keep listening as we offer up a quick cheater's guide to a Chinese genre that's equally impenetrable to the rest of the world. Soon you too can impress your friends with eerie foreknowledge about the plots of Chinese television shows you've never seen before and are unlikely to ever see again.
 said on
October 14, 2011
Hilarious, as usual. Having once taken part in a soapie in Hainan, I can really relate to this. My dialogue somewhat resembled Det. McGregor's, much to the dismay of the Chinese leading lady, who was forced to deliver her English lines perfectly, while I could just mutter anything slightly Chinese.

And what was my role???.Why sleazy business man trying to seduce pure virtuous Chinese girl to 'sweeten' the deal (in front of my 'wife' no less!), but of course the pure, innocent Chinese lass was having non of that and kept her dignity intact
 said on
October 15, 2011
So funny. Maybe Popup Chinese could do a special deals for aspiring laowai actors.
 said on
October 15, 2011
@Longmarch88,

I agree, at least 90% of Popup Chinese podcasts make me laugh out loud every time I hear them. I also second the motion of giving aspiring laowai actors a special deal. We can 边 show off our 普通话 skills 边 show off our 演艺 skills.

只不过看我的留言来判断,我所谓的普通话技术不是很发达的。反正我觉得,有机会的话我可以符合泡泡中文的标准。把话筒给我让我炫耀一下, 张扬一下吧。;)
 said on
December 6, 2019
Having not seen laowai and having heard I thought the mumbler was一個殭屍, but I learned something about Chinese culture instead (I think). Great podcast! Thank you.