A work of liuli. Photo provided to China Daily

Breakthrough

Yang was a student at Providence University in the early 1970s when a TV producer discovered her during a bus trip home.

"I never thought I was pretty and my girlhood dream was to be a teacher like my father or a secretary," says Yang, adding that most of the female graduates from Providence University ended up becoming secretaries.

Yang was a gifted and hardworking actress. She appeared in 124 movies in 12 years, in roles ranging from a girl next door to a cold gangster widow, from kung fu fighter to noble lady. Her record was playing 22 films in one year. All the posters in cinemas featured her face. She even had several movies competing against each other for box-office revenue.

Her breakthrough came in 1984. The movie The Young Runaway earned her best actress at the Golden Horse Awards, Taiwan's highest prize in the movie industry. The same year, Jade Love won both the best actress and best director at the Asian Pacific Film Festival Awards. The next year, Yang's second movie directed by Chang, Kuei-Mei, A Woman, won both the best actress and director at the Golden Horse Awards.

Naturally and unconsciously, love blossomed between Chang and Yang when they collaborated on their third movie, My Love. But it was not a romantic tale. Chang was already married. His wife wrote a public letter to the newspaper accusing Chang of betrayal and condemning Yang for being a family wrecker.

Most people assumed this to be the main reason that "forced" them to retreat from the screen, but Chang says there is more to it.

"I did not enjoy directing movies in Taiwan any longer," he says.

He says that Edward Yang, another Taiwan New Wave director who was US-educated, told Taiwan stories in a Western way. Chang's family moved from Beijing to Taiwan and he did not feel much cultural connection with Taiwan.

"When I shot Jade Love, I did not know what Pai's house looked like in the 1930s. (Pai wrote the story based on his own childhood memory.) Taiwan's movies were all using the miniature scenes or model landscapes. I really hated it," says Chang.

More than that, he was tired of bowing to rich people who invested in his movies. Sophisticated movies exploring social problems did not sell well, and investors did not want to take risks.

There was also stringent censorship in Taiwan at that time, he says. Though Kuei-Mei, A Woman garnered best movie, best actress, best director and best script at the Golden Horse Awards, the movie watchdogs made Chang change, cut and even stop several times during shooting.

Those were the reasons that prompted him to leave the industry.

What happened to Yang who was at the peak of her career as an actress?

"For an actress, 34 is not the best age on screen," Yang says without any hesitation.

She chose to be his actress forever in life instead of on screen.

Like most people with fame and wealth, they first tried to invest in business and real estate. But soon, they found that was not what they wanted.

"Both of us want to find something meaningful, lasting and deserving our lifetime devotion," Chang says.

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