William Chan is Still Struggling with Mandarin

Although William Chan (陳偉霆) started his entertainment career in Hong Kong’s music scene, the 34-year-old has found success in China by starring in popular dramas and variety shows. Despite working in China for many years, he is still having difficulties with his Mandarin and his co-star Yang Mi (楊冪)  finds it hard to understand him.

Entering the Chinese market with 2013’s Swords of Legends <古劍奇譚>, William’s popularity continued to grow after appearing in The Mystic Nine Tetralogy <老九門>, Lost Love in Times <醉玲瓏> and Only Side by Side with You <南方有乔木>.

During the filming for fantasy drama Novoland: Pearl Eclipse <斛珠夫人>, William revealed that co-star Yang Mi (楊冪) complained about his Mandarin enunciation. He shared, “She said, ‘I actually don’t understand what you’re saying. You don’t need to recite the lines.’ Do you know how bad I felt?”

Although William has been working hard to improve his Mandarin and study his lines before filming, he feels discouraged when others say his speech is not clear. The crew would tell him to just speak in Cantonese since they find his Mandarin to be incomprehensible, and his voice would be dubbed in post-production editing anyway.

His discomfort with the language barrier has come up in other instances too. When William appeared as a mentor for variety show Gagman <認真的嘎嘎們>, one contestant deliberately spoke in Mandarin infused with a Hong Kong accent. Bothered by the tone of the contestant, William called out the student and said, “Are you making fun of me? Are you discriminating against me?”

While William is honest with his weakness, his fans are very supportive and insist that William’s Mandarin is improving. They love the actor for his gregarious personality and look forward to his next drama.

Source: HK01