China Daily Global Edition (USA)
A man for all seasons
A household name across the land, veteran actor Tang Guoqiang is returning to Chinese screens with another iconic portrayal of Mao Zedong, Xu Fan reports.
For more than 20 years, actor Tang Guoqiang has starred as Mao Zedong, the founding father of the People’s Republic of China, in over 40 films and television dramas.
And with New China’s 70th anniversary falling on Oct 1, the actor has become one of the most recognized faces on our screens today. Following the TV series Diplomatic Situation, which has run on Beijing Satellite Channel, GRT Satellite TV in Guangdong province and the Youku, iQiyi and Tencent Video streaming platforms since Sept 19, the film Mao Zedong 1949 opened across domestic theaters on Friday.
In both productions, Tang plays his most familiar and perhaps bestknown character — the great leader who led Chinese people to liberation.
“The first time that I played Chairman Mao was in the 1996 movie The Long March. Over the years since then, I have accumulated a comprehensive knowledge about Chairman Mao through playing him at the different stages of his life,” Tang says in an interview in Beijing.
He has read a lot of historical documents, and retraced almost all of the routes taken by the Red Army during their milestone trek, the Long March, between 1934 and 1936 — interviewing elderly comrades along the way, including some who once served under Mao.
“The more I learn about modern revolutionary history, the better I can accurately interpret Chairman Mao,” he adds.
For example, Tang recalls his first glimpse of Mao’s profile photo snapped by American journalist Edgar Snow during his 1936 visit to Yan’an in Shaanxi province, then the revolutionary base for the Communist Party of China.
“You can see a feeling of melancholy in Mao’s eyes but you can also sense that he was quite confident about China’s future. In different works created in different periods, you can see Mao’s transformation. If I hadn’t done enough research to know all of these stages, I wouldn’t have dared to play him,” says Tang.
In some of his works, the historical incidents overlapped, such as in the TV series Diplomatic Situation which covers 1948 to 1972, and the film Mao Zedong 1949, which is set at the dawn of the founding of New China.
Directed by Song Yeming, the 48-episode TV drama offers viewers a panoramic retrospective of New China’s diplomacy in the early decades, and chronicles the Partyled efforts to restore and enhance China’s status on the international stage and establish relations with
In different works created in different periods, you can see Mao’s transformation. If I hadn’t done enough research to know all of these stages, I wouldn’t have dared to play him.” Tang Guoqiang, actor
more than 180 countries.
Opening with John Leighton Stuart — the former US ambassador to China — looking to secure a meeting with premier Zhou Enlai on the eve of the Kuomintang defeat, the plot-driven drama unfolds through a number of historical incidents told through a tense narrative.
Standout scenes include the 1954 Geneva Conference, marking New China’s debut on the international stage; to Zhou’s state visit to 10 countries in Africa between December 1963 and February 1964; and former US president Richard Nixon’s visit to China in 1972, which opened a new chapter in Sino-US relations.
Produced in around three years, the TV drama was shot in Beijing, Yantai in Shandong province, Dalian in Liaoning province and several locations in Hainan province, as well as other countries including Russia, France, Switzerland and the United States.
With a huge budget, the crew’s art department re-created over 380 replica sets — some life-size — of iconic complexes such as Zhongnanhai in Beijing, the White House, Moscow’s Kremlin, the Elysee Palace in France, and the Palace of Nations, the home of the United Nations Office, in Switzerland.
While the TV drama covers long spans of time and sets foot in numerous locations, the film Mao
Zedong 1949 centers on the leader’s stay at Shuangqing villa in the Fragrant Hills in western Beijing from March to August in 1949.
The site was the transitional headquarters of the Central Committee of the CPC after the liberation of Beiping, which later had its name changed to Beijing.
Despite the fact that Mao is now his best-known screen character, the versatile Tang has also played a string of impressive and influential roles over the past few decades.
Born in Qingdao, Shandong province, Tang shot to fame with the 1979 military-themed film Little
Flower and gained increasing popularity by becoming something of a pop idol thanks to the mythological romance flick, Peacock Princess, in 1982.
In 1990, Tang was cast to play the ancient politician and strategist Zhuge Liang in the epic TV drama
Romance of Three Kingdoms, adapted from the 14th-century classic Chinese novel of the same name. In the years between the 1990s and 2000s, he starred as more historic figures, such as Li Shimin, the emperor who laid the ground for the golden era of the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and Yongzheng, a highly self-demanding and diligent ruler during the Qing Dynasty (16441911).
Interestingly, one of the mostasked questions the veteran actor receives is, has he ever felt too immersed in his rulers’ roles. Wearing a big smile, he says such a moment can actually never happen.
“When the cameras are rolling, I am an ‘emperor’ watching all his ‘courtiers’ kneeling before him on the palace floor. But when the director shouts ‘cut’, they all stand up. Some of them take off their caps while others peel off their artificial beards. When the ‘palace’ suddenly turns into a noisy and chaotic place, it’s quite easy to be pulled out of character as no one still regards you as an emperor,” he explains.
But looking back at his acting career which has spanned nearly half a century, Tang says he feels lucky to have been given so many opportunities to play lead roles in influential works.
“I’m still expecting new roles. And, as time goes by, an actor becomes more able to bring his unique understanding of life to any new role,” concludes Tang, who is now 67 years old.