Mandarin-dubbed Japanese anime Crayon Shin-chan, or La Bi Xiao Xin in Chinese, has entertained audiences for over two decades. But not many people know that the voice behind the cheeky and pervy title character — a precocoious five-year-old boy with a penchant for baring his butt — was a woman. Sadly, Jiang Duhui, the Taiwanese voice actress who embodied La Bi Xiao Xin passed away this morning (Sep 16). She was 49.

Facebook page Voices Income uploaded a post at 11am to announce the sad news. “One of Taiwan’s best voice actors, Ms Jiang Duhui, left us this morning. We will always miss you. We hope that you rest in peace, and may your family and friends be at peace,” read the message.

Apart from La Bi Xiao Xin, Duhui had lent her voice to a long list of Mandarin-dubbed Japanese anime characters, including Detective Conan and Naruto, ​​​​​​​and many netizens, who grew up watching her dubbed cartoons, were left stunned and saddened by the news.

“How can this be!” wrote a shocked fan. “She is still so young! I really liked her,” wrote another.

When contacted by reporters, Duhui’s brother-in-law said that the voice actress had been diagnosed with stage four cervical cancer and died from multiple organ failures. He also added that the wake would be a low-key one and no public farewell will be held.

According to reports, Duhui was a dancer and a member of her school’s drama club before she was encouraged to go become a theatre actress by her teacher. A friend later invited her to join a voice dubbing class, and she started her career as a voice actress when she was 24 when the owner of a recording studio asked her to audition for a cartoon.

Before her death, Duhui often made appearances on Taiwanese variety shows where she would speak using the voices of her characters to the amusement of studio audiences.

“In this line, being enthusiastic is very important. It is the willingness to learn and the ability to react quickly that will allow you to give new energy to the character,” she once said in an interview.