TAIPEI, July 14 (Xinhua) -- A renowned Taiwanese actress has been cultivating young talent at an art camp.
Sylvia Chang, 65, is in Taipei to promote the ten-year anniversary of the "Artistic Creation Camp" launched by the Gosh Foundation she helped found in 1988. At the camp, students learn acting, design, and other artistic skills. At the very end of the training, they put on a show for their parents and the public.
"I have always wanted to provide opportunities for underprivileged children with dreams of making it in the art field," Chang said. "They need a platform to chase their dreams."
Chang has won countless awards and accolades as an actress and a director, including best actress at the coveted Golden Horse Award in Taiwan and a nomination for a Golden Bear at the 54th Berlin International Film Festival.
In 1988, Chang, who had declared that she would never do any commercials, was persuaded by a friend to make one for sanitary pads developed by the friend's company.
"My friend said that if I made the commercial, he could arrange a foundation to help young people, so I made an exception," she recalled. "With the money from the commercial, we created the Gosh Foundation." Gosh was translated from the pronunciation of the Chinese phrase guo shi, or fruit.
Chang said that, at first, she did not know what the foundation could do to help people, so she started by repairing old films, publishing books about deceased artists and building libraries, things that made her feel she was doing something for art. Meanwhile, she was trying to find ways to help young people willing to enter the art circle but not financially able to.
"I remember in the early days, information about AIDS was starting to get attention in Taiwan, so we decided to do a competition among art students," she said. "We called on college students to make designs about AIDS information, and the winner would receive professional advice and have their designs shown via various media forms."
For the first 20 years, the budget was tight, and Chang regularly poured money from her commercials, acting gigs, and public speaking events into her project. As her influence grew, more people took notice and many started donating money to the foundation. Many stars, including Andy Lau and Maggie Cheung, gave a helping hand by promoting the foundation's activities.
In 2008, Chang cooperated with an art university in Taipei to launch the Artistic Creation Camp. Professional coaches were recruited to help underprivileged students study acting and design. The theme of the first camp was "Listen to My Story."
"I thought the theme was quite vague, so for the second year, I decided to gave them a more detailed and interesting topic: tomatoes," she said. "I even took the students to a tomato farm and asked them to taste every kind of dish made with tomatoes." Chang said that she wanted the students to learn that "art comes from daily life."
"I hoped they could create something interesting from their personal observations and their experience with tomatoes," she said.
So far, her camp has had more than 300 students, many of whom are already working in artistic fields or in other walks of life.
"Many of them often come back to the camp to help, either designing the activities or coaching new students," Chang said. "It is a very sweet thing."
Chang hopes that the camp will help more people follow their dreams in the art field.
"I hope that in the future more people will join us in the event so that young people can truly taste the sweet 'fruit' of their efforts, as the name of our foundation indicates," she said. Enditem
