PETALING JAYA, Dec 27 — There was a general sense of confusion when Chinese actress Yao Chen answered “Pippi Longstocking” to the question of who her role model was.
What one of the most popular Chinese actresses and celebrities has in common with a fictitious nine-year-old girl, the central character of Swedish author Astrid Lindgren’s children’s books, was beyond us, no thanks to a rather flustered translator.
“I had many role models growing up, but one that never changed was Pippi Longstocking,” she was translated to have said, also supposedly adding her reasoning that she admired the traits captured in the character.
From then on what followed was a strange mix of random, uninspiring answers to pre-approved questions in a rushed 10 minutes with the actress.
A shame really, as Yao Chen, despite her immense popularity in Chinese-speaking territories, has largely escaped mention by most Western media who have yet to be familiar with the body of work of the Actress in Focus for the third instalment of the recently concluded International Film Festival & Awards Macao (Iffam).
Making her debut in 2003 when she was still in college, she got her big break in 2005’s My Own Swordsman, a hugely popular TV series that catapulted her name to fame.
After 2008’s TV series Lurk, she won Best Actress at the Huading Awards and the Golden Eagle Awards, the two most important entertainment awards in China and followed that up with her theatrical debut in A Story of Lala’s Promotion.
The achievements of China’s answer to Angelina Jolie, as she has been branded, is nothing to scoff at, with Time magazine naming Yao Chen as one of the most influential people on their Time 100 list in 2014.
With a career spanning over 20 years of TV and films such as If You Are The One 2, Firestorm and Chronicles of the Ghostly Tribe, her resume also boasts stellar performances in films screened at Iffam including Caught in the Web (2012), Journey To The West: The Demons Strike Back (2017) and the more recent Lost, Found.
With some 80 million followers on Chinese micro-blogging site, Weibo, Yao Chen like many Chinese screen stars, was asked if she wanted to make the transition outside of China, specifically Hollywood, and what she would do to realise the dream.
“Hollywood represents the highest level of filmmaking, and it would indeed be an opportunity to learn a lot,” she answered carefully.
“However, I prefer making a Chinese film with our culture and values that could attain international recognition which would mean a lot more, personally,” Yao Chen said.
This was the clearest indication we got of what mattered most to her in her work.
For the newly-minted producer of Bad Rabbit Pictures which she co-founded with her cinematographer husband, Cao Yu, there is no forgetting the roots of her success.
Her inclination towards opportunities are focused more on local projects but with a universal appeal.
“Acting is a process of self-recognition, and the greatest lesson my years as an actress has offered, are the opportunities for a closer look at myself as a person more.”
