Lesson 9



Maggie Makes the Grade

| After eight years in show business, actress Maggie Cheung feels that at last she has made the grade. In the first five years of |

|her career, she said that she had been no more than a pretty face: she was there for decoration rather than acting ability. The |

|turning-point of her career, she feels, was winning the Best Actress Award in the Taiwanese Golden Horse Awards for her role in |

|Stanley Kwan’s ‘Full Moon in New York’, which also featured Sylvia Chang and mainland star Si Qin Gao Wa. [ Introduction ~ The |

|important news of Maggie Cheung] |

|Cheung was nervous about working alongside two established names but decided to take the chance, seeing it as a good opportunity to|

|learn. ‘The two actresses were extremely dedicated and involved.’ Even so, her success came as a big surprise: ‘Why me? I didn’t |

|think I acted at all well, in fact it was a mediocre performance.’ [(Interviewee’s) Maggie’s comments to news mentioned in the 1st |

|paragraph] |

|Cheung’s first opportunity to venture away from undemanding roles in Cantonese comedies and dramas came with Wong Kar-wai’s stylish|

|gangster picture, ‘As Tears Go By’, which was acclaimed by critics. ‘I think I have entered another stage of my career,’ she said. |

|‘I’ve got to become more serious about my acting and strive to be consistent in the future. Before, people expected your |

|performance to be average and were surprised if you turned out to be good. Now it is totally different.’ [Interviewee’s career in |

|brief] |

|Many local stars make over ten films a year in order to earn as much money as they can: Dodo Cheng is a notable example. But Cheung|

|is happy with an average of four to five movies a year – ‘there’s no point in over-straining yourself’ – and she is willing to |

|adjust her fee for a low-budget production if she likes the story and role. |

|In choosing her films, Cheung looks for good stories, a director she can trust and the names of the male and female leads. ‘I |

|normally talk to the director to understand more about his approach to the film and find out how he intends to shoot certain |

|scenes,’ she said. |

|Cheung was born in Hong Kong in 1964. Eight years later, her family emigrated to England. With no English, she found school life in|

|England very difficult: the fact that she was the only Chinese girl at the school hardly helped matters. When she was 17, she |

|returned to Hong Kong and worked for Lane Crawford as a sales girl. ‘I didn’t want to continue studying and I hated nine-to-five |

|office jobs so I chose to work as a sales girl. Then I began to develop an interest in films.’ [Background information of the |

|interviewee ~ not important to the article] |

|In 1983, she entered the Miss Hong Kong Pageant, thinking it could be a stepping stone to joining the film industry. She was first |

|runner-up and this led to a two-year contract with TVB. In 1984, Cheung made her film debut in ‘Prince Charming’ with Cherie Chung |

|and Kenny Bee, a film she describes as ‘terrible’. |

| |

|Initially, Cheung’s attitude was that film-making was fun and an easy way to make money. Her good looks helped her to get parts but|

|they were lightweight and there was little incentive for serious acting. Although she does not intend to give up commercial |

|productions altogether, she is happy to have made the move into more serious, artistic films. |

| |

|Cheung has high hopes for the Hong Kong film industry but sees only a short-term career for herself. ‘I think I’ll retire before |

|1997,’ she said. ‘It’s an industry where the new faces tend to edge out the old ones. My family is in England and therefore my home|

|is there.’ |

Words to remember

|Turning-point (n.) |Featured (v.) |Established (adj.) |Dedicated (adj.) |Mediocre (adj.) |

|Venture (v.) |Acclaimed (v.) |Notable (adj.) |Over-straining (v.) |Debut (n.) |

|Lightweight (adj.) |Edge out (Phr. v) |

Comprehension Exercise

Answer the following questions in COMPLETE sentences.

1. Why did Maggie feel that “she had been no more than a pretty face” in the first few years of her career?

| |

2. What was Maggie’s turning-point of her career in show business?

| |

3. Which was the first film that Maggie found herself in a demanding role?

| |

4. How was Maggie different from other local stars in terms of quantity of film production? What was her reason for that?

| |

| |

5. What does Maggie look for in the choice of her films?

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6. Why did Maggie find school life in England very hard?

| |

7. How did Maggie get into the film industry?

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8. What did Maggie think about film-making at first?

| |

9. What, as Maggie suggests, is the characteristic of the film industry?

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10. Why would Maggie think of going back to England after her retirement?

| |

Vocabulary Exercise

Look at the vocabulary you have learnt on page 3. Re-arrange the spellings of the following words. Then, match the words with the one having similar meaning.

|betud (n) | | | |Outstanding |

|___________________ | | | | |

|ableton (adj) | | | |Average |

|___________________ | | | | |

|trenuve (v) | | | |Commended |

|___________________ | | | | |

|treafued (v) | | | |Overloading |

|___________________ | | | | |

|cremedio (adj) | | | |Included |

|___________________ | | | | |

|clacaimed (v) | | | |First appearance |

|___________________ | | | | |

|datediced (adj) | | | |Keen |

|___________________ | | | | |

|blestishade (adj) | | | |Unimportant |

|___________________ | | | | |

|stoverraining (v) | | | |Well-known |

|___________________ | | | | |

|10. ghlittweigh (adj) | | | |Attempt |

|___________________ | | | | |

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