Hong Kong legendary voice actor Mr. Lam Po-chuen has passed away: Doraemon has finally left us

It was only last night, when I happened to open my space to browse a friend's classmate's updates, and suddenly saw someone share such information. Although my mind picked it up, it seemed so hard to turn it into something I could truly accept. Because of this, I stared blankly at the dimmed phone screen for quite a while.

When I tried to repeatedly check to find the "loophole" in this message, my brain still forced me to accept it:
\Stop fooling yourself, yes, Nobita left us in 2006, and now, Doraemon has reached the time to return to his original world...... Besides, wasn't he supposed to leave us when we were truly growing? Shouldn't we be strong, grateful, and watch him leave now? But...... From now on, we really won't hear the familiar voice that accompanied us through childhood for so long...... The voice of Doraemon in my heart is his voice—no, Doraemon is him—no one else can replace him!

Idiot! Of course, he's a classic. After all, he's human, inevitably escaping life, aging, sickness, and death. But how could the voice he preserved disappear?! No matter when, we can always remember him, and he himself will surely feel that he can leave behind a representative work that future generations will remember. That is the important meaning and value of his life! Because he is a voice actor, he loves this profession deeply and is proud of the achievements it can achieve! And if we feel sad and depressed because of his passing, wouldn't that make the security guard in heaven feel sad too? What he hopes for is for us to recognize his contributions, truly love the roles he plays with his voice, and ultimately gain hope and strength to keep striving, persisting on the path of life. I think this is Mr. Bao's lifelong wish and also the wish of many voice actors. In the end, I was convinced by myself. Indeed, after commemorating Mr. Bao, we still need to keep moving forward, because we also have our own meanings in life to achieve. In China, being an animation voice actor can be described as a "thankless" job.Firstly, the domestic animation industry is not very developed and there is insufficient understanding of the animation industry, which has led to a domestic environment where the entire animation field is not very familiar to the majority of Chinese people (let's not deny it, even among us otaku born in the 80s and 90s who grew up with animation, we still only represent a small segment of the population). Secondly, because voice actors work in closed recording studios, no matter how hard you try, you cannot really compare to actors in the entertainment industry. Even if people remember your voice, in an era that focuses on appearance, you won't receive professional commercial marketing. In other words, as a voice actor, no one in China intends to make you famous, so no matter how excellent you are, you are mostly stuck with the label of 'behind-the-scenes personnel.' China provides too little publicity for voice actors, and even economically developed regions like Hong Kong cannot avoid this. People may recognize the voice of a voice actor, but they have no idea who the voice actor is, which is somewhat sad. In this 'sad situation of domestic voice actors,' Mr. Baoquan was lucky.
His voice is very distinctive and representative. More importantly, he was fortunate enough to be cast in a role and successfully brought that character to life, and this successful role also helped the audience remember Mr. Baoquan. A voice is the 'second life' of a voice actor. This 'successful character' had actually already achieved domestic success a long time ago. In the early years of allowed importation of Japanese animation into China, after Astro Boy, this 'blue raccoon cat' was the anime character most remembered and most impressive to the Chinese audience. The original Taiwan dubbed version was also a classic, laying the important place of 'Doraemon' in the hearts of the Chinese people. As for the people of Guangdong (including Hong Kong and Macau), unlike other regions of China, because of the uniqueness of their dialect, the promotion of cultural products required a Cantonese dubbed version. The Cantonese 'Doraemon' (at that time called 'Ding Dang,' which Mr. Baoquan also thought was a better translation) naturally came into being. Since the Taiwan dubbed version was successful, the Cantonese version, which can be seen as 'secondary creation,' was eagerly anticipated by the people, and sure enough, the excellent voice actors from TVB also successfully created the brand of Cantonese 'Doraemon' in the viewers' minds. The voices of the main characters, Nobita and Doraemon, naturally became household names.At the same time, because Mr. Baoquan's voice is truly so distinctive, in his subsequent appearances in other anime, movies, and TV dramas, audiences would inevitably slap their foreheads and say, 'The voice of Doraemon!' In addition, since Mr. Baoquan holds a high status at TVB, important works that require dubbing usually call on him for voice work. His uniquely distinctive voice naturally attracts the curiosity of people like me who want to know more about the real-life voice actors. Because of this, Mr. Baoquan stands out from other voice actors and is better known as a voice actor.
Mr. Baoquan was fortunate, but I believe that as someone who dedicated his life to voice acting, he might personally hope that this kind of 'luck' could be shared by all voice actors. In the end, it would no longer be 'luck' but a normal state; voice actors should have equal status to actors in major films. They deserve respect, and they deserve attention even more.
His final voice acting work is the fully 3D Doraemon movie set to be released in China this year. Last year, this film achieved high box office results in Japan, with a theme of collectively recalling the countless wonderful Doraemon memories from our childhood. In the drama, Doraemon has a line: 'This time, I really have to return to the future...' At this moment, please imagine that familiar voice speaking this farewell to us.
Goodbye, our Doraemon! Rest assured, we will be strong!