At the Taiwan Creative Content Fest (TCCF) in Taipei, Chang Chen, the chair of the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival Executive Committee and the recipient of last year’s Best Leading Actor award for “Lucky Lu,” shared invaluable insights with six of Taiwan’s promising emerging actors on navigating diverse film sets.
Showcasing Taiwan’s Rising Talent
The “TCCF x The Golden Horse Awards: Taiwan Emerging Actors Showcase” highlighted the talents of Bai Xiao-ying, Ho Man-xi, Rosen, Jimmy Liu, Ma Shih-yuan, and Lin Yi-ting—nominees and winners of the prestigious Best New Performer accolade at the Golden Horse Awards, the pinnacle of Chinese-language cinema in Taiwan. This event aimed to forge connections between these performers and international creative teams, investors, and media.
A Look at the Talent Pool
The actors featured in the showcase were honed through two consecutive cycles of the Golden Horse Awards. Bai and Ho are competing this year for the Best New Performer award for their roles in “Girl” and “Sunshine Women’s Choir,” respectively. Last year, Ma earned the award for her performance in “Left-Handed Girl,” while Rosen, Liu, and Lin received nominations for “Marching Boys,” “Blind Love,” and “A Dance With Rainbows.”
Unique Perspectives from the Performers
Bai, acting since the age of six and now a university film student, greeted attendees in both Mandarin and Japanese and revealed her decade-long training in traditional Chinese martial arts. Meanwhile, Ho, who describes herself as serious and multifaceted, expressed a desire to tackle physically demanding roles, particularly in suspense action films, leveraging her extensive dance background.
Liu reflected on his seven years of taekwondo practice, stating, “At this stage, I feel it’s more important to light up others than to light up myself,” sharing insights about the collaborative nature of performance. Ma, on the other hand, emphasized how acting serves as a vital outlet for dealing with pressure, stating, “When you give yourself completely to a role, audiences can feel your sincerity.”
Rosen expressed his fondness for nature and the opportunity acting provides to acquire new skills. He recounted learning Western fencing for a role and triumphing in a competition afterwards. When discussing future aspirations, Bai, Ma, and Liu conveyed a desire to step outside their usual casting types to explore comedy and villainous roles.
Wisdom from Chang Chen
In praise of the six performers, Chang remarked, “Actors have to be like water, changing shape to fit the vessel.” He pointed out that each film set has its unique atmosphere, whether under the direction of renowned filmmakers like Wong Kar-wai or Hou Hsiao-hsien, and stressed the importance of understanding how much freedom each production team grants its actors.
Chang recalled advice from Ang Lee, who emphasized the value of reading autobiographies of individuals with diverse personalities to better inhabit the myriad of characters that actors portray. “Taipei may not have Hollywood’s industry ecosystem,” Chang concluded, “but we’re working in a place we know, and that can help us do our best work.”
