Do or die in the office

By Chen Nan (China Daily)
Updated: 2008-12-06 08:03

How can a 50-something actress survive in today's competitive world of youth-orientated cinema? Ask Sylvia Chang. Age has never been an issue for the 55-year-old actress who continues to keep her zest for life.

Chang boasts a career spanning three decades and has starred in nearly 100 films, including Eat Drink Man Woman (1994) and The Red Violin (1998).

Since 1986 the Taiwan actress and singer has also been writing and directing her own motion pictures.

Three years ago her film 20, 30, 40 was the only Chinese entry in the 2005 Berlin Film Festival and last year her gangster comedy Run Papa Run premiered across the Chinese mainland.

But Chang is best known for her acting abilities and this weekend she takes her talent to the stage.

The actress teams up with avant-garde Hong Kong theater director Edward Lam's in Design for Living.

Set against a background of a modern office in a skyscraper-filled metropolis, this production uses high-end urban art, architecture, fashion, and dining to explore big city life from a female perspective.

It presents the white-collar struggle for love and success.

The Golden Horse award-winning actress plays a female senior manager, who feels threatened by a rumor.

To secure her position, she begins to play mind games with her staff and office politics poses different opportunities and challenges for the men and women in her company.

Lam says he waited more than seven years for an opportunity to work with the veteran screen star.

Chang, who hasn't performed on stage for 20 years, is happy to be back on the stage.

"I have directed and starred in my own films in recent years," she says. "I've wanted to act in someone else's play for a change. And I will be getting tips from the director to improve my performance.

"The pairing with young actors will create good chemistry as well."