Westerners acting in China.

[tgray88]

Hey I was wondering how the prospect of acting in China is for foreigners. Is there any demand for them in Theater or film acting?

I enjoy Chinese and I LOVE acting, so I was wondering how feasible this would be on a realistic level. I would think that they would find a need for a tall white guy whose fluent in Chinese (not yet, but I'm thinking ahead ;)).

I'm only worried that there may not be any place for westerners in theater. Because Chinese theater is, correct me if I'm wrong, mostly Beijing Opera, which is completely based around China and Chinese culture. I don't think they would be impressed with some random westerner playing Cao Cao. Personally, I think that acting would be great for my Chinese because it would force me to memorize lines and speak them until they sound fluent and it would give me a creative and direct outlet to use my Chinese beyond the common education and business paths.

What do you think?

[roddy]

There's definitely some demand for film and TV roles, but it's generally as Foreigner #3, or International Criminal #1. It's vary rare to see a foreigner in a recurring role, and it often seems the producers just send a minibus to the local university and pick up any passing foreign students for a day's work as an extra. You sometimes see ads on classified sites like thebeijinger.com (watch out for being asked to pay a 'registration fee' or anything).

Theater work I'm not sure about, I'd guess not a great deal.

If you're serious about it, best way to start would probably be to opt to study Chinese somewhere with links to the industry - Beijing Film Academy, The Central Academy of Drama, etc. At the very least you should be able to get into hundreds of student shorts.

[gato]

Do you look like Brad Pitt?

[liuzhou]

Are you Brad Pitt?

[fanglu]

If so the prospects are probably not so good

[universe2278]

Actually,there are very small group of Chinese who still watch Peking opera acting.And,for many Chinese,seeing westerners in stage is fresh and interesting ,so ,may u can find ur way acting China

[Lu]

For Chinese opera, you need to start practicing at age 12, so I don't think that's something you can get into. I once met a foreign actor in China, he played film and tv roles and could make a living. I also know a woman in Taiwan who is working in theater, and she seems to live entirely off her acting work as well. So it's possible, but don't expect to be able to make a living of that right away, I imagine it needs some time to build up.

[tufsoft]

There's a steady demand for foreigners to act in TV drama in China, around 6,000 TV dramas are made every year, some of them are very poor, but some of them are fantastic. I've been doing it for seven years and as you say, it's excellent for one's spoken Chinese (and reading too). However, Chinese is not always necessary as a lot of the productions are dubbed. Opportunities for stage acting are not so many, there certainly are stage plays that use foreigners, but they are more likely to use foreigners who have been born and raised in China and have complete fluency in the language.

I've written a book about it, you can find it on www.lulu.com, just search for "acting china" and you'll see it.

[eatfastnoodle]

Have you noticed the Australian guy who pretty much occupied every white character in Hong Kong produced TV shows? High level Hong Kong police officer before 97, Western "imperialists" back in late Qing Dynasty and Republic of China era, creepy serial killer in Hong Kong in modern era, to name a few characters I saw he played. I don't know his name, but I did watch one of his Youtube interviews at which he explained why he came to Hong Kong to act, and how he got to where he was. His Cantonese, I don't speak Cantonese, sounded native like.

[wai ming]

Have you noticed the Australian guy who pretty much occupied every white character in Hong Kong produced TV shows? High level Hong Kong police officer before 97, Western "imperialists" back in late Qing Dynasty and Republic of China era, creepy serial killer in Hong Kong in modern era, to name a few characters I saw he played. I don't know his name, but I did watch one of his Youtube interviews at which he explained why he came to Hong Kong to act, and how he got to where he was. His Cantonese, I don't speak Cantonese, sounded native like.

Gregory Rivers/河國榮?

[trien27]

Check out Gary Charles Rivers by his Chinese name 河國榮:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Charles_Rivers

Sorry, wai ming, I didn't realize you were talking about him too. Ha ha. An Australian who majored in Medical studies but went to Hong kong and his friend used his idol 張國榮 with his last name translated into Chinese: Rivers = 河: So his name became 張國榮 = 張 + 河 = 河國榮. He got an acting job from TVB, one of the two biggest broadcasting companies in Hong Kong.

Most recent foreigner to enter TVB = Brian Burell 布韋傑

Both of them speaking Cantonese here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HAVVFq7T--Q

Edited February 15, 2010 at 05:00 AM by trien27

[Caidanbi]

If you're interested in acting in China, did you ever read "Foreign Babes in Beijing"? It was pretty interesting...

[xiaotao]

I'd rather see a hot Asian!!

[eatfastnoodle]

Hot Asians there are, problem is too many of the generation Y actors/actresses act on silver screen and behave in their own lives as if they were pulled straight out of LA street as gang bangers. Physical beauty can only last so long, without personality and inner, you know, quality, to back it up, all the hotness is at best ephemeral. Maybe I'm too old, but as far as I know, the really big stars in China or Hong Kong, or Taiwan are still the few actors/actresses who made their name in the 90s at the latest. I mean, Jack Chan is in the 60s, and he's still the biggest star. Not to mention the precipitous drop in artistic quality of movies and cartoons produced in China after since early 90s, they might be hotter, but they're far less attractive.