Former Presidential Office spokesman Fan Chiang Tai-chi (范姜泰基) has finally found a new job — and a new vocation.
Fan Chiang spoke recently about his experience of being unemployed for 18 months after leaving the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) Culture and Communications Committee in January last year.
Chosen for an acting role on a Hakka TV drama series, Fan Chiang said the public will be surprised to see him again on television, but on a set and without the logo of the Presidential Office behind him.
Photo: CNA
“After the party primary last year I could not find a new direction in life, so I went and tried my hand at everything,” he said, referring to his unsuccessful attempt to represent the KMT as a legislative candidate in Taoyuan.
As he was a big fan of TV dramas, Fan Chiang said he went to Hakka TV to ask about the possibility of a minor role in a drama.
The station offered him a guest appearance in the TV movie The Black Box (黑盒子), he said.
The role as news station manager proved easy because he was used to facing news cameras when he was spokesman, he said, adding that a friend had told him: “There is no need to act, that spiteful station manager is you.”
That film role confirmed his interest in acting, so he took three months of acting classes at Q Place school for the performing arts.
His next role was in a production of The House of Small Cubes (積木之家) by director Wang Hsiao-ti (王小棣), which is expected to air in February.
Fan Chiang, 46, is now working on a role as a labor inspector in the Hakka TV film The Labor King (勞動之王), which is expected to air in March or April.
“I started from zero acting experience,” he said, adding: “At over 40, most of my classmates in acting school were more than two decades my junior.”
For someone coming from the political sphere, acting is an experience unlike any other, he said.
“In the political world all the feelings are fake. As an actor, even though your role is made up, the feelings you evoke in your audience are real,” Fan Chiang said.
During the 18 months he was unemployed, no one dared ask him about his situation, he said, adding that former colleagues would push money on him and his wife would always pay expenses.
Although it was a difficult period, in the end he was fortunate, Fan Chiang said, adding that he has now had a number of new experiences, including part-time teaching and performing in commercials and online serials dramas.
He plans to stick with acting for now, he said.
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