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Taiwan actor: TV soap operas like instant noodles
By Xu Wenwen |
September 16, 2012, Sunday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
TAIWAN actor Lee Li-chun is best known on the Chinese mainland as a TV actor playing supporting roles, but in Taiwan he's considered the savior of cross-talk dialogue comedy (xiangsheng) and a master stage performer.
Together with director Stan Lai and screen writer Hugh K. S. Lee, Lee started Taiwan's famous Performance Workshop in 1984, created a buzz, revived crosstalk and injected new life and innovation into contemporary Chinese theater. The trio are famous for "The Night We Became Xiansheng Comedians" and "Peach Blossom Land." Lee starred in both. "Comedians" sold 1 million tapes on the island of 20 million people. "Peach Blossom" is a classic in Chinese drama school study.
Today, at age 60, he has written an autobiography titled "An Actor's Life and Views," recently published on the mainland. He spoke with Shanghai Daily at a press conference for the book launch in Hangzhou last month. On the cover of his book he wears a trendy scarf made of an old dress that belonged to his wife. They've been married for 26 years.
Lee started acting when he was 27, giving up on a brief life at sea after studying at a maritime college. By the time he was 30 he had earned Taiwan's Golden Bell Award for best TV actor.
For 37 years, Lee has played hundreds of roles, including those in silly soap operas, kung fu movies and on stage. He was wicked Bigmouth Li who ate people in the kung fu series "Handsome Siblings" (1999). He's played bit parts and leading roles as wise men.
Lee said the most memorable time in his life is the 11 years he spent with the Performance Workshop. During that time he did some of his best dramatic work, won two Golden Bell awards, got married, had children and lost all his savings in a bad investment. "I spent almost every day with my family back then," he said.
Starting in 1995, he did a lot of work on the mainland in TV and film to restore his finances.
Early life
Born in Taiwan in 1962, Lee is the son of a Kuomintang veteran from Henan Province. His mother was a Beijing native, so Lee speaks fluent Mandarin.
The family was so poor that, as he once said in a crosstalk joke, their house had only two walls, front and back - the left and right walls belonged to the neighbors.
Because of the family's poverty, Lee enrolled in merchant marine college because seamen then earned three times as much as most professionals.
But after eight months at sea as an intern, he quit because he missed his family.
"On the ship my captain made a lot of money but looked sad every day. He told me it was because he couldn't contact his family. And I knew I had to leave the sea," Li recalled. "A human cannot be apart from the thing he should be closest to."
He had many jobs, delivering mail, selling mooncakes, picking apples and selling used cars. His father told him to find a job he wouldn't complain about.
Because he did amateur theatricals in college, Lee decided he liked performance.
In 1978 he played in "The Box," a stage play by Taiwan opera master Yao Yiwei. He studied acting and then began steady TV work.
In 1981 he starred a TV series "Thou Should Pity Me and So Will I," which made him popular and earned him a Golden Bell for best actor.
But he especially loves stage, improvisation and standup comedy.
"Many well-known actors are not willing to do it, but I think it reflects one's abilities," Lee said. "People who come to my show are either couples or businessmen, and it's quite a challenge for me to have them put down their knife and fork, stop their love talk, watch me and laugh."
He remembers once "acting alone to the air as if there were my mistress."
Explaining his love of the theater, he said: "A TV soap opera is a fast-made thing just like instant noodles. Even a good TV soap opera is no more than a bowl of instant noodles with side dishes. But a stage play is like an oil painting that requires people to think, ponder and change."
Together with director Stan Lai and screen writer Hugh K. S. Lee, Lee started Taiwan's famous Performance Workshop in 1984, created a buzz, revived crosstalk and injected new life and innovation into contemporary Chinese theater. The trio are famous for "The Night We Became Xiansheng Comedians" and "Peach Blossom Land." Lee starred in both. "Comedians" sold 1 million tapes on the island of 20 million people. "Peach Blossom" is a classic in Chinese drama school study.
Today, at age 60, he has written an autobiography titled "An Actor's Life and Views," recently published on the mainland. He spoke with Shanghai Daily at a press conference for the book launch in Hangzhou last month. On the cover of his book he wears a trendy scarf made of an old dress that belonged to his wife. They've been married for 26 years.
Lee started acting when he was 27, giving up on a brief life at sea after studying at a maritime college. By the time he was 30 he had earned Taiwan's Golden Bell Award for best TV actor.
For 37 years, Lee has played hundreds of roles, including those in silly soap operas, kung fu movies and on stage. He was wicked Bigmouth Li who ate people in the kung fu series "Handsome Siblings" (1999). He's played bit parts and leading roles as wise men.
Lee said the most memorable time in his life is the 11 years he spent with the Performance Workshop. During that time he did some of his best dramatic work, won two Golden Bell awards, got married, had children and lost all his savings in a bad investment. "I spent almost every day with my family back then," he said.
Starting in 1995, he did a lot of work on the mainland in TV and film to restore his finances.
Early life
Born in Taiwan in 1962, Lee is the son of a Kuomintang veteran from Henan Province. His mother was a Beijing native, so Lee speaks fluent Mandarin.
The family was so poor that, as he once said in a crosstalk joke, their house had only two walls, front and back - the left and right walls belonged to the neighbors.
Because of the family's poverty, Lee enrolled in merchant marine college because seamen then earned three times as much as most professionals.
But after eight months at sea as an intern, he quit because he missed his family.
"On the ship my captain made a lot of money but looked sad every day. He told me it was because he couldn't contact his family. And I knew I had to leave the sea," Li recalled. "A human cannot be apart from the thing he should be closest to."
He had many jobs, delivering mail, selling mooncakes, picking apples and selling used cars. His father told him to find a job he wouldn't complain about.
Because he did amateur theatricals in college, Lee decided he liked performance.
In 1978 he played in "The Box," a stage play by Taiwan opera master Yao Yiwei. He studied acting and then began steady TV work.
In 1981 he starred a TV series "Thou Should Pity Me and So Will I," which made him popular and earned him a Golden Bell for best actor.
But he especially loves stage, improvisation and standup comedy.
"Many well-known actors are not willing to do it, but I think it reflects one's abilities," Lee said. "People who come to my show are either couples or businessmen, and it's quite a challenge for me to have them put down their knife and fork, stop their love talk, watch me and laugh."
He remembers once "acting alone to the air as if there were my mistress."
Explaining his love of the theater, he said: "A TV soap opera is a fast-made thing just like instant noodles. Even a good TV soap opera is no more than a bowl of instant noodles with side dishes. But a stage play is like an oil painting that requires people to think, ponder and change."
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