30-10-21
In the old dining hall filled with sunshine, white panelling and wood windows, Perry Chiu(焦媛)arrived and lightened the mood at my table. She wore no jewellery but serious makeup. Meticulous dressing up is a large part of her polite character. She talked in a soft and heedful manner. Her lack of pretension was markedly charming. The wise conversation with her made me think of what Charlotte Bronte said, “I care for myself. The more solitary, the more friendless, the more unsustained I am, the more I will respect myself.” Perry is certainly an affable, well-disciplined and top-class star in the theatre arts of Hong Kong.
Perry looked into my eyes, “After 40, a woman should be truly confident and independent. The survival guide for a woman is to have the courage not to feel destitute and to face the desolate wilderness of life. I told destiny, ‘You really have to let me fight my own battles!’ For the past years, I was lucky in being over-protected. I was born in Beijing. My father was an opera actor and mother was a ballerina. Around 1980, when I was 4, they came to Hong Kong but were unable to continue their artistic pursuit. Sorrowfully as factory labourers, they still tried very hard to support the happy school life of 2 children. We lived in a tiny and shabby cubicle in To Kwa Wan where 4 lives were placed. In defiance of destiny, he struggled and spent all his money on the family, affording me to finish my university education in The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts with a degree in drama. He died in his 50s. I admit openly that I am so emotionally attached to my great father that my ideal boyfriend or husband must be the exact metrical version of my late daddy.” I asked, “Is this complex your self-discovery or acceptance?” She replied like a naughty child, “Be that as it may.”
“What is your present self-excavation?” I am interested. “It was reported that you have split up with your boyfriend who is almost 20 years older.” She talked slowly, “Love is a relationship but a relationship is not necessarily for love. Love strangely came and left. One day, I ran to the mirror which told me that something was gone. But, my ex-boyfriend Mr. Clifton Ko(高志森) remains my good teammate and close friend. In the 1990s, when I was still studying, it was Mr. Ko, the famous stage director, who became my talent scout and luck star. He groomed me with plentiful theatrical opportunities. I am now professionally mature and very grateful to him.”
I said, “Did you change a lot after ending a relationship who had been there for a long long time?” She smiled, “I did not change. I just become honestly more myself. I still work extremely hard and am sentimental, sensitive, honest and self-sufficient. A day without reading is still like a body without a soul. I am inevitably flawed but I should be good enough to deserve the support and affection from the audience in theatre. My dad always told me, ‘If you can “learn” to act well, you will “earn” your bowl of rice!’ Haaaa…my half bowl was earned.”
I said, “You are the most sophisticated drama professional here experienced in performing in the Chinese Mainland. What are your lessons to share?” She answered, “Allowing me to cross the boundary into a cliché, do you agree that the theatre market in Hong Kong is really too small? In Hong Kong, I perform for a week or a month and stop. In the Chinese Mainland, there are more than 20 to 30 sizable cities. I did all the touring plays and musicals being presented across the country. I do not only mean that the bigger income, as a result, provides enough to satisfy your needs. I believe that actors do require something as big as a country to provide a very wild latitude exposure to developing a career which involves a great deal of worldly experience and knowledge of the different types of audience from the east, south, west and north. Then, an actor will be complete.”
I asked, “Some suggested that the theatrical productions from Hong Kong are not competitive with those available inside Chinese Mainland?” Perry’s jaw clenched, “I disagree. I can’t say that all found Hong Kong drama suitable for their taste. A lot of people did tell me, ‘We love stage contents from Hong Kong. They do carry a “Hong Kong scent”.’ In our drama, stories come quickly one after another and actors have a faster pace. Also, Cantonese dialect is loud, proud, delightful and its pitches change abundantly.”
“Do tastes of the audience in big cities vary?” I said. “For example, Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong.” She enjoyed a moment of breathing space, “Beijing tends to like serious and philosophical contents. For Shanghai, artistic and aesthetic matters uphold higher ‘interest’ rates. Hong Kong is a busy and stressful city. People here look for more entertaining and relaxing pieces. The above are just my subjective observations.”
I asked, “Will you go north to capture the bigger theatrical market?” Perry stared at her book on the table, “Only those who risk going far can possibly find out how far they can go. I am now lone and alone, being happy on my own. I will go anywhere. Life is not a destiny. It should be a matter of choice. Sadly, most people are not brave enough to choose.”
When Perry Chiu spent half her artistic life dealing with an empty or a crowded stage, it is now good for her, because of the pandemic COVID-19, to pause, step back, take five, relax, contemplate, dream high, decide and repack all her passions and treasures that she had discovered from her successful years. “I would. I would definitely clean and repack the things that I am taking,” she smilingly decided. “For a Brave New World!”
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