Vicky Chen (陳文淇) is a laid-back 14-year-old with an easy smile, but the Taiwanese actress is already a force to be reckoned with, nominated for two major awards at the Chinese-language equivalent of the Oscars. Chen could make history tonight as the youngest ever contender to be crowned best actress at the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival (台北金馬影展) awards.
Local media have dubbed her a “prodigy” able to play complex characters in movies that tackle a range of difficult subjects.
Chen is nominated for the best actress award for her role in Angels Wear White (嘉年華) directed by China’s Vivian Qu (文晏), in which she plays a runaway who witnesses a sexual assault and struggles between her conscience and saving her job by staying quiet.
Photo: AFP
DOUBLE NOMINATION
She is also up for best supporting actress in Taiwanese director Yang Ya-che’s (楊雅?) thriller The Bold, the Corrupt and the Beautiful, where she takes the role of an upper-class heiress in a family gripped by dark political and business intrigues. The film includes a scene in which her character is raped. Chen describes the roles as “very challenging.”
“I wanted to try them out, even though I felt nervous,” Chen said.
“I am very young so there are some things I don’t understand. I rely on communicating with my seniors, other actors and the director about any questions I have over the script.”
Chen’s acting career started four years ago when she was cast in a film in China, where her family is based. She went on to appear in a number of movies and TV dramas before landing a lead role in Angels Wear White, which competed at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
“I like acting because I feel very happy and accomplished after finishing a scene,” she said.
ORDINARY CLASSMATE
Giving back-to-back interviews ahead of tonight’s ceremony, Chen appeared poised, but said days can be long as she balances her acting commitments, school work and private tutoring. Teachers and fellow students are not treating her any differently after the nominations, she said.
“My classmates see me as their classmate and my teachers see me as their student. I don’t put too much pressure on myself,” she said. “Perhaps the most difficult part for me is to get up early and go to sleep late.”
In the wake of more than 100 women coming forward to accuse Hollywood movie mogul Harvey Weinstein of sexual misconduct — ranging from harassment to rape — there is a spotlight on the global film industry and its treatment of young actresses.
Chen said she was aware of the issues but felt she was in safe hands, with her family and management constantly by her side.
“I am very well protected and I am also careful,” she said.
Her ambition is to continue with her studies alongside her movie career — she counts Oscar-winning actress Natalie Portman and Australian singer-actor and YouTube sensation Troye Sivan among her role models. While she has made her name by taking on heavy-duty parts, Chen says she would next like to play a “sunny girl,” which is closer to how she sees herself. Director Yang said he has no doubts about her potential.
“She has talent of course,” he said.
“But most importantly, she has a lot of passion.”
That US assistance was a model for Taiwan’s spectacular development success was early recognized by policymakers and analysts. In a report to the US Congress for the fiscal year 1962, former President John F. Kennedy noted Taiwan’s “rapid economic growth,” was “producing a substantial net gain in living.” Kennedy had a stake in Taiwan’s achievements and the US’ official development assistance (ODA) in general: In September 1961, his entreaty to make the 1960s a “decade of development,” and an accompanying proposal for dedicated legislation to this end, had been formalized by congressional passage of the Foreign Assistance Act. Two
March 31 to April 6 On May 13, 1950, National Taiwan University Hospital otolaryngologist Su You-peng (蘇友鵬) was summoned to the director’s office. He thought someone had complained about him practicing the violin at night, but when he entered the room, he knew something was terribly wrong. He saw several burly men who appeared to be government secret agents, and three other resident doctors: internist Hsu Chiang (許強), dermatologist Hu Pao-chen (胡寶珍) and ophthalmologist Hu Hsin-lin (胡鑫麟). They were handcuffed, herded onto two jeeps and taken to the Secrecy Bureau (保密局) for questioning. Su was still in his doctor’s robes at
Last week the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) said that the budget cuts voted for by the China-aligned parties in the legislature, are intended to force the DPP to hike electricity rates. The public would then blame it for the rate hike. It’s fairly clear that the first part of that is correct. Slashing the budget of state-run Taiwan Power Co (Taipower, 台電) is a move intended to cause discontent with the DPP when electricity rates go up. Taipower’s debt, NT$422.9 billion (US$12.78 billion), is one of the numerous permanent crises created by the nation’s construction-industrial state and the developmentalist mentality it
Experts say that the devastating earthquake in Myanmar on Friday was likely the strongest to hit the country in decades, with disaster modeling suggesting thousands could be dead. Automatic assessments from the US Geological Survey (USGS) said the shallow 7.7-magnitude quake northwest of the central Myanmar city of Sagaing triggered a red alert for shaking-related fatalities and economic losses. “High casualties and extensive damage are probable and the disaster is likely widespread,” it said, locating the epicentre near the central Myanmar city of Mandalay, home to more than a million people. Myanmar’s ruling junta said on Saturday morning that the number killed had