When I was a tour guide, I accidentally knew the truth of my life experience. Shi Ban Yu, who lives behind Zhou Xingchi, is the king

In mainland China, many people may hear Shi Ban Yu’s name, and the first reaction is Zhou Xingchi’s royal voice. In fact, long before Zhou Xingchi’s fire, steamed grouper was a specialty food in Taiwan in our country. Choosing this as his stage name, on the one hand, expresses Shi Ban Yu’s hometown feelings, and on the other hand, it is inseparable from his life experience.

Shi Ban Yu’s original name was Shi Renmao, and he was originally a recording engineer for a radio variety show. At that time, it seemed like an iron rice bowl. The TV station had regulations that it was not allowed to take private work outside. In order to prevent people around him from knowing that he was dubbing movies and TV dramas, Shi Ban Yu specially changed his name.

In fact, when it comes to Shi Ban Yu’s dubbing journey, it comes from this work experience in the radio station. The recording engineer is always a behind-the-scenes worker, requiring equipment debugging and countless contacts. Shi Ban Yu was very envious of the hosts who could be in front of the stage at that time.

It was not until 1985 that Shi Banyu studied with Chen Mingyang, who was known as the "dubbing emperor of Taiwan", that he entered the Tao. Chen Mingyang has many representative works, the most famous being Fat Cat Zheng Zeshi and Big Silly Cheng Kui’an, who arranged the dubbing of almost all their films.

The development of Master’s career was invisible, and it also affected Shi Ban Yu’s life. To this day, Shi Ban Yu and Zhou Xingchi are still the perfect partner in the eyes of the audience.

And when it comes to Shi Ban Yu and Zhou Xingchi’s karmic relationship, it is a coincidence in 1990. At that time, Andy Lau and Zhou Xingchi co-filmed the movie "Gambler". In order to find a voice actor who could be far different from Andy Lau’s screen voice, the production company Insein Company found Shi Ban Yu, a Taiwanese voice actor.

Shi Ban Yu’s personal voice was rather sharp, and before meeting Zhou Xingchi, it was always a small regret that he couldn’t cooperate with most actors. Before that, most of the dubbing was for some villains, such as eunuchs, traitors, etc. After Zhou Xingchi appeared, this kind of nonsense and a little strange voice got its use, and the dubbing Shi Ban Yu really became a king who used his voice to conquer the world.

When watching Stephen Chow’s films, many viewers were thinking that Stephen Chow and his voice actor Shi Ban Yu must have a very good relationship, otherwise how could there be such a close cooperation. In fact, the cooperation model between them is not as everyone thinks.

Generally speaking, it is Zhou Xingchi who prepares a Cantonese version of the work in advance, and then Shi Ban Yu reinterprets it in private with the other party’s performance. In particular, there are many languages in Cantonese that cannot be translated in Mandarin, which requires Shi Ban Yu to replace these words with a mouth shape and to be able to match Zhou Xingchi’s performance style.

It is worth mentioning that in movies, Stephen Chow and Wu Mengda are always a pair. In real life, the same is true for their royal voice actors Shi Ban Yu and Hu Licheng. Their cooperation has achieved a seamless integration of sound and form, and together they have created one classic image after another in the film works.

In addition to voicing Stephen Chow’s films, Mr. Shih has also worked sporadically for other actors, notably Chen Xiaochun in "The Confused 4," Jacky Cheung in "Rat’s Gall" and Tony Leung in "The Three Heroes of the Wind and Dust."

Dubbing actors are different from those in front of the screen. Although Shi Ban Yu has dubbed many film and television works, his income is still relatively small. In 2008, Shi Ban Yu started working as a tour guide with tour groups, just when he happened to meet his brother’s divorced wife during a work trip. It turned out that Shi Ban Yu was adopted by his adoptive parents shortly after birth, and he never knew his true background, but he did not expect the truth to come so suddenly.

Mr. Shi is rarely active in front of the stage, but in 2017 he made a rare appearance on a variety show called "Happy Comedian." In this episode, he teamed up with comedy genius Huang Cailun to bring a feast of performances, bringing many of Stephen Chow’s classic clips to the screen again.

It is difficult to say whether Zhou Xingchi achieved Shi Ban Yu or Shi Ban Yu achieved Zhou Xingchi. It is certain that mutual achievements have promoted each other’s development.