Tsin Ting

Tsin Ting (Chinese: 静婷; pinyin: Jìng Tíng) (born 1934 in Sichuan, Republic of China) is a Chinese singer and dubbing artist, who is perhaps best known as the Marni Nixon of Hong Kong cinema.

Tsin Ting arrived in Hong Kong in 1949 with her brother after China came under communist rule. Left to fend for herself after her brother left for Taiwan, she sang in nightclubs to earn some money. In 1953, she recorded a Cantonese song, "One Day When We Were Young", on one side of a 78 but refused to do the other after finding her command of the language not up to par.

In 1954, she auditioned for EMI Pathé when they were recruiting new talent but was told by composer Yao Min who auditioned her that her vocals lacked power and energy. She was offered instead, a part in the chorus. In 1956, she was signed on as a solo artist after Miriam Wang, the chief executive, took notice of her. Her first record was two songs from the Shaw & Sons film Narcissus, where she dubbed for actress Shih Ying. Her self-taught ability to read music was an added bonus as this saved valuable studio time. Film studios soon began using her to dub their musical films.

During a recording session, director Li Han-hsiang (Li Hanxiang) heard her singing at the studio, dubbing a song for actress Yu Suqiu in the Shaw movie Lady in Distress (1957). Impressed with her voice, he had her dub for film star Lin Dai in his next film Diau Charn. The film was a great success all over Southeast Asia and won several Asian Film Festival awards. Thereafter, when Li went on to film The Kingdom And The Beauty, Tsin Ting was roped in to dub for Lin Dai once again.

Tsin Ting dubbed many of Shaw Brothers' Huangmei Opera movies from the 1950s to the 1960s. The most notable was The Love Eterne (1963), where she sang for lead actress Betty Loh Ti (Lè Dì 樂蒂) in the role of Zhu Yingtai. The pathos and emotional impact of her singing, along with Loh Ti's excellent acting, moved viewers to tears. She left Shaw Studio as a contract singer in 1970 but continued recording albums on EMI in the 1970s, Wing Hung in the 1980s, and Polygram in the 1990s.

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