A million yuan smile
By Liu Wei (China Daily)
2009-07-30 09:52
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Wang Baoqiang who got his first break and critical acclaim in Li Yang's Blind Shaft plays a soldier in the TV series Soldiers' Sortie. |
Wang Baoqiang's signature innocent smile never changes. It was the same when he was a farmer, construction worker and extra actor. Now, he's an A-lister.
Since his big screen debut in 2002, he has created a hit role almost every year. Although most of them are stereotypically of humble and kind young guys from the country, audiences love him for his grassroots background and, of course, his smile, that reminds many people of a farmer looking contentedly at his bumper harvest.
After seven years of struggling in the entertainment world, however, the 25-year-old is more mature than his age or his looks suggest.
"Taking the role in Shunliu is like a bird flying suddenly from a cage, very exciting," he says, talking about his latest character, a sniper named Shunliu.
His own story is just as colorful as one of his roles.
At the age of 8, Wang left his parents' farm and started learning kungfu at Shaolin Temple, a sacred site for martial arts in Henan province.
A Jet Li film inspired him, but it was being part of an impoverished family in a small village in Hebei province and being bullied by other children that was his biggest motivation.
"Other children often bullied me," he says. "I wanted to make my family proud of me. Even if I failed, at least I tried."
The young Wang had to get up at 5 am in winter, 4 am in summer. He ran half-marathons and climbed cliffs with 45-degree angles as part of his training. During the six years he studied, Wang returned home to visit his family only at Spring Festivals.
Wang told his master that he wanted to be an actor, as he thought he would be able to earn a fortune, before arriving in Beijing, in 2000, with just 500 yuan ($73).
His first stop was Beijing Film Studio, at the gate of which gather aspiring actors every day, waiting for roles as extras.