appConfigEntityId

bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

isVideo

articlePageQuery

article

articleSchemaContent

content

hooksArticlePageAdvertisementConfigArticle

hooksArticlePageFloatingButtonConfigArticle

appConfig

filter

json

liveArticle

Daniel Eagan

Sylvia Chang Ai-chia is showing no signs of slowing down.
The Taiwanese film icon is currently touring festivals with heartfelt drama Daughter’s Daughter, fine-tuning post-production on romance film Measure in Love and writing her next directing project, which she hopes to start filming in 2026.
“I haven’t relaxed at all,” Chang says, sitting in a hotel lobby restaurant in Udine, Italy, where she received the Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement at the 2025 Far East Film Festival. It is her second visit to the festival – her first was in 2018, to screen Love Education.
“I’ve been on the stage, working with young filmmakers, acting, helping people with scripts and writing my own things – which excites me, but it’s also very tiring,” the 71-year-old says.

A beloved entertainer since the 1970s, Chang became a pop singer soon after she finished school.
“I thought I would continue as a singer,” she says. “But, once I started acting, I made a promise to myself that filmmaking would be my lifetime work, not just a stepping stone in a career. I found filmmaking a medium you can explore in many different ways, that teaches you so much about life.”
I’ve been in the industry so long, it’s important not to repeat yourself. I’m looking for something different to say in stories.
Sylvia Chang
Chang has worked in every conceivable film genre, from comedies and musicals to dramas and action adventures. Along the way, she has been a writer, actress, director and, most recently, producer.
She co-produced Daughter’s Daughter, directed and written by Huang Xi, with Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien. Pre-production on the 2024 film began in 2018, but it was delayed repeatedly during the Covid-19 pandemic. Other films, such as Measure in Love, soon followed.
Chang first met Measure in Love director Kung Siu-ping years ago while he was still a university student. She had liked his thesis film and had encouraged him to get a good grounding in the film industry.

“For 10 years, he worked very hard as an assistant director,” she says. “I asked if he had something he wanted to develop into a film, and he told me about this love story that takes place in two different times and places. A year in one place might be just a day in the other.”
Chang agreed to produce the film and helped refine the script and assemble a crew. “I also went out and looked for money for him,” she adds. “This was not a low-budget film. I don’t think Hong Kong and Taiwan first-time directors should be confined to low budgets.
“Those kinds of movies can’t compete in the film world. Nobody cares about those movies. Look at a platform like Netflix, with all of its movies and stories that are frankly better than most low-budget films.”

The week before we speak, Chang had been working with Taiwanese sound designer Tu Duu-chih on the final mix for Measure in Love.
“I love post-production work,” she says. “I can’t be an expert in everything, so I try to work with the best. The idea is to explore, to experiment, to keep an open heart and mind.
“I’ve been in the industry so long, it’s important not to repeat yourself. I’m looking for something different to say in stories.”
Good projects are hard to find, she says. That may be one reason she is so deeply involved in writing. For Daughter’s Daughter, she compiled her character’s history on the backs of call sheets. That led to a line in the movie about how she felt like a failure.
“Actually, I’m very good with failures,” she laughs. “I don’t worry too much about them, you know? I just try to improve myself after them.”

Throughout her career, Chang has often played characters who experience disappointments and regrets but, she says: “I don’t feel that way about myself.
“I do make mistakes, many mistakes when I was young. There are a few things I still regret. You can regret something, but it’s already done. What you need to do is know you’ll never do that again.”
She points to the first film she directed, Once Upon a Time (1981), as an example of a disaster.
“I had a lot of courage, a lot of guts, but that didn’t help,” she says. “So I went back to my acting career. Then I would take the time, whenever I was on the set, to learn from each director I worked with. Passion (1986) is the film where I truly matured as a director.”

Chang recently watched Flow, a 2024 Latvian production which won the best animated feature film Oscar earlier this year. The wordless film follows a band of animals as they seek to escape from a flood.
“The director wasn’t using a lot of dialogue or sound effects,” she notes. “I enjoyed it thoroughly, entering another world, sharing this wonderful journey.
“For my new project, I’m also trying to use more imagery, not as much dialogue. It’s very difficult. You have to make sure the audience understands what you’re saying.”
Chang wrote draft after draft of her screenplay, acting out each role until she was satisfied with the parts.
“First, you have to find something you really want to talk about,” she says. “Not just write about, because you need images. Sometimes you can have an idea without images. But for this, someone approached me with a short story. And the images for it came right away.”

Chang is collaborating on the script for her coming project with scriptwriter You Xiaoying, who also worked on Love Education.
“Prep and casting are also very important,” she says. “I have to believe these characters. When the actor or actress auditions, I know immediately if this is the one. So then they don’t have to act so much in the film.”
Watching Flow in a cinema brought up one of Chang’s pet peeves. “Being in this big, black box makes what you’re seeing larger than life,” she says. “It’s a magical world to me. That’s why I disagree with small [cinemas]. You don’t get the feeling of space between you and the screen.
“You need that sense of distance. Meanwhile, TV sets are getting so big, people think, ‘Why should I go to a [cinema] if I can watch it at home?’”

A new generation of film-goers is being introduced to Chang’s talent thanks to numerous recent film restorations, such as that of That Day, on the Beach (1983), a Taiwanese independent film that helped advance the careers of director Edward Yang De-chang and cinematographer Christopher Doyle.
“I was the producer on that one, too,” Chang says, ruefully. “It was such a difficult job I told myself I would never do it again. And now here I am, back producing.”
Tsui Hark’s romantic comedy Shanghai Blues (1984) also screened at the Far East Film Festival. The movie brought freshness and creativity to Hong Kong filmmaking.
“That’s why I keep telling Huang Xi to please do a comedy for the next film,” Chang says. “I love comedies, it’s actually one of my favourite genres. But it’s very difficult to find a good subject for a comedy.”

It is clear that Chang remains deeply passionate about the film industry, a feeling that has not waned in spite of the years she has dedicated to it.
“I like working with young directors because they dare to ask me to do something different,” she says.
“There are always new situations happening on set. That’s what we’re looking for, something that changes the way you act or react. You might design something, then find a way to add more value, more details, to it.”
“I think it is that excitement that makes me keep on going,” she adds. “Something different that comes to the piece, something that pops out on a set. Those moments are so important to me.”
Want more articles like this? Follow SCMP Film on Facebook


Hong Kong film festival celebrates 37 years of queer cinema

Famous Chinese women in folklore, from Hua Mulan to a consort who brought down a dynasty

‘Rest in eternal peace’: veteran horror actor, filmmaker Simon Loui dies at age 62

How Cantopop lyricist Wyman Wong pushed Hong Kong’s LGBTQ, style and emotional boundaries

Asian cinema: Hong Kong film

What Taiwanese film legend Sylvia Chang enjoys most about working with emerging directors

Sylvia Chang at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy in 2025. Photo: Alice BL Durigatto

Sylvia Chang at the Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy in 2025. The actress, director, writer and producer reflects on her career and talks about her busy work life at the age of 71. Photo: Alice BL Durigatto

Sylvia Chang and Tian Zhuangzhuang in a still from Love Education (2017).

Chang in an interview with the Post in 1995. Photo: SCMP

Chang and Huang Xi, director of Daughter’s Daughter, at the 2025 Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy. Photo: Riccardo Modena

Chang (left) and Karena Lam in a still from Daughter’s Daughter. Photo: Sun Lok Productions

Chang and George Lam in a still from Passion (1986), directed by Chang

Chang receives the Golden Mulberry Award for Lifetime Achievement at the Far East Film Festival. Photo: Alice BL Durigatto

Chang in a still from That Day, on the Beach (1983), which she also produced. Photo: Central Motion Picture 

Sally Yeh (left) and Chang in a still from Shanghai Blues (1984). Photo: Film Workshop

Hong Kong 1941 with Chow Yun-fat an unflinching look at Japanese occupation of then-colony

Alex Man and Cecilia Yip Tung in a still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

(From left) Chow Yun-fat, Cecilia Yip Tung and Alex Man Chi-leung in a still from Hong Kong 1941, set during the Japanese military occupation of Hong Kong. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Chow Yun-fat (centre, with cigarette) in a still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Chow Yun-fat (left) and Alex Man in a still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Cecilia Yip and Chow Yun-fat in a still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

A still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Alex Man and Cecilia Yip in a still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

Chow Yun-fat in a still from Hong Kong 1941. Photo: Eureka Entertainment

How Chang Cheh’s Venom Mob martial arts films, starting with 1978’s The Five Venoms, became cult favourites in the West

Lo Mang (left) in a still from Five Deadly Venoms, Chang Cheh’s 1978 film.

Lo Mang in a still from The Five Venoms (1978). The cartoonish style of this and other Venom Mob films directed by Chang Cheh, and their acrobatic fight scenes, went down well with North American audiences, if not  with Hong Kong film critics.

Lo Mang in a still from Crippled Avengers (1978).

Chang Cheh in 1968. Photo: SCMP

Lo Mang (centre) in a still from The Five Venoms (1978).

‎The Dumpling Queen movie review: Andrew Lau depicts founding of a Hong Kong food brand

Ma Li as businesswoman Zang Jianhe in a still from ‎The Dumpling Queen (category IIB; Cantonese, Mandarin) directed by Andrew Lau. Kara Wai and Ben Yuen co-star. Photo: Handout

Kara Wai is landlady Hong Jie in a still from ‎The Dumpling Queen.

Ben Yuen Fu-wah as Uncle Dessert in a still from ‎The Dumpling Queen.

Cecilia Cheung: Hong Kong actress, sex scandal victim and Chinese social media star

Cecilia Cheung at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards in 2004. The actress’ personal life garnered a lot of attention in the 2000s, with tabloids covering scandals and her high-profile romantic life. Photo: SCMP

Cheung in 1999. Photo: Oliver Tsang

Cheung speaks after receiving the award for best new performer, as veteran actors Liza Wang and Danny Lee look on, at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2000. Photo: Martin Chan

Cheung and Nicholas Tse in 2001. Photo: Reuters

Cheung in a still from Lost in Time (2003), for which she won best actress at the 23rd Hong Kong Film Awards. Photo: China Star Entertainment Group

Cheung and Tse at the 30th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2011, the year they filed for divorce. Photo: K. Y. Cheng

Cheung and Stephen Chow in a still from King of Comedy (1999). Her feature-film debut remains one of her most memorable roles. Photo: The Star Overseas

Cheung and her three sons. Photo: Weibo

Cheung in a photo she posted on her Weibo account in 2023. Photo: Weibo

Lifestyle

Entertainment

Culture

Film & TV

Whether as actress, writer or producer, Taiwanese screen veteran loves working with emerging film talent – they offer ‘something different’


Whether as actress, writer or producer, Taiwanese screen veteran loves working with emerging film talent – they offer ‘something different’.


What Taiwanese film legend Sylvia Chang enjoys most about working with emerging directors

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Whether as actress, writer or producer, Taiwanese screen veteran loves working with emerging film talent – they offer ‘something different’

Whether as actress, writer or producer, Taiwanese screen veteran loves working with emerging film talent – they offer ‘something different’