"Xiao Xia" became an overnight online celebrity after posting a video in January in which she dubbed the voices of 14 female characters in six clips from popular Chinese costume dramas. Her video attracted more than 300,000 hits.

"It’s so funny. How can one person imitate so many voices? It's a light-hearted way to make judgments on reality," said Zhang Meng, 27, a white-collar worker in Beijing who was impressed by the video.

In recent years, online dubbing of clips from classical soap operas made in the 1990s, such as Taiwan's New Legend of Madame White Snake and Princess Pearl, have become popular on cyberspace. Many online dubbing communities have sprung up.

However, those who do this may be violating copyright laws, according to Yu Guofu, a partner with Beijing Shengfeng Law firm.

"This violates copyrights in terms of the right to alter or authorize others to alter one's work and the integrity of one's work," Yu said. "If these videos are shared within small groups of people and the right holder doesn’t mind, it's OK to do so as copyright is a kind of civil right."

Xiao Xia now works part-time for a radio station in her hometown of Shenyang, the capital of Northeast China's Liaoning province. She does the radio's advertisements earning 100 yuan ($16) to 200 yuan for each 20-second ad.

Her themes included people's comments about the 2012 CCTV Spring Festival Gala, playing mahjong,and ergophobia.

"Those who make funny dubbed videos are mainly amateurs, including me. I became interested in dubbing when I was a kid and started to practice it in 2008,"said the 24-year-old Xiao Xia, who works in an online game studio in Beijing. "I'm very glad that netizens like my videos. I'm just trying to find my sense of belonging on the Internet,"

It took her two days to finish the video, which is her third production. She first decided on the main topics and found some suitable clips from TV series.

"I used to do radio plays and imitate soap operas dialogue as practice, but being creative is more important. Why not change the lines?" she said. "I noted the lines from the soap operas and wrote new lines, which have to fit into the same time frame as the original lines. If there is close-up shot of the actress, I have to consider how the mouth moves when speaking," she says.

"I can master many voices. At first I practice the word that the character uses frequently to get a feel for the voice until I can use that voice to laugh, cry or shout," she explained.

Xiao Xia says she takes most lines from her real life. For example, in one clip, the Empress was complaining that the princess didn’t have a boyfriend, and wanted to force her into marriage by corporal punishment.

"My mom said exactly the same thing to me. At our age, if one doesn't have a boyfriend, parents will belabor the issue whenever there is a chance," she said.

Xiao Xia uses a simple computer software to record and spends about two hours editing, but she says it is difficult to find appropriate videos to dub. She chooses popular TV soaps from one or two decades ago, because audiences are more familiar with the voices.

"I’m not making a profit from the dubbing videos as yet, but will consider it," she said.