Ｗｅｓｔ Ｌａｋｅ Ｓｔａｒｌｅｔ Ｓｈｉｎｅｓ ｉｎ Ｌｕｓｔ，Ｃａｕｔｉｏｎ

Ang Lee’s new film “Lust， Caution” catapulted Tang Wei into stardom overnight in China. While busily traveling around the world to appear at grand premiers of the film， she talked little about herself. Compared with the journalists who are anxious to find out everything about the newest heartthrob， I am lucky， for I did my homework a year ago. When I learned a year ago that Tang Wei， a girl from Hangzhou， was picked for the lead role in Ang Lee’s latest film， I decided to go all out to find more about Tang Wei.

I started with a phone number. Nobody answered my calls. Then I tried to figure out where the target phone rang in the city. This tactic finally helped me narrow the search down to a downtown community of apartment buildings， but I had no idea exactly where the family lived. After days of roaming the community and asking neighbors and passersby persistently， I managed to locate the apartment.

Tang Wei’s mother was surprised to see me at the door， but she was affable. She declined to talk about what her daughter was doing or where she was， citing her daughter’s contract with a clause acting like a gag order. However， she was willing to talk about her daughter’s past and themselves.

Tang Wei’s father Tang Yuming is a painter. He runs a gallery in his hometown Yueqing and a gallery in Wutai Mountain， a Buddhist sanctuary in Shanxi Province in the north. Her mother Shi Xifeng used to be a dancer in Yueqing. The best moment she enjoyed as a dancer was when she appeared on the stage as a dragon’s daughter in a fable drama in Yueqing.

Shi Xifeng said， “We are a family of artists pure and simple. We hoped that our daughter would have a college education. We did not expect her to be in showbiz.” The small apartment had two bedrooms and a sitting room. Three drawings on the wall above the bed in the master bedroom caught my eyes. On the right was the father’s drawing featuring peonies in freehand brushwork. Side by side on the left was a still life of fruits painted by the mother. Below the two works was a drawing with cartoon figures by Tang Wei at a young age. The three pieces vividly epitomized a life of shared happiness and passion for artistic expression.

I had the opportunity of knocking on the doors of neighbors on the same floor and it turned out that most neighbors I could find were elderly. I asked them about their impressions of the girl. They did not have deep impressions of the little girl， but they did know that the girl was now a popular star. It seemed to me that they were polite and philosophical about the girl in particular and showbiz in general， implicitly trying to explain away why they hadn’t foreseen the girl would make it big in showbiz one day. “All the actors are like this. In everyday life， they are by no means impressive. It solely depends on how a director reinvents her in showbiz. Isn’t Zhang Ziyi the best case that proves my point?” These grandpas were truly showbiz savvy.

Shi Xifeng wanted her daughter to have a college education and Tang Wei followed the route mapped out by the parents. She went to No 14 Middle School for junior high school education. Her personality won her a lot of friends there. Jovial， straightforward and almost like a boy， she was popular with boys and girls in her class. She went to the May Fourth Vocational School (the forerunner of Hangzhou Vocational Arts School) for senior high school education with a focus on fine arts. In her senior high days， Tang Wei joined the acting activities and appeared as minor roles in some school shows. Her mother was unhappy about the daughter’s acting activities and talked with Xiao Hong， the homeroom teacher. The mother explained to the teacher that her daughter should focus on academic studies to ensure that her scores would be good enough for college.

Xiao Hong was willing to talk about her star student. Tang Wei was appointed as a teaching assistant， for she was the class’s best student in Chinese language. Tang Wei was a good writer; she wrote in a style suggesting her personality: she never preferred flowery words and she was fluent in expressing herself. Xiao Hong said that she as the homeroom teacher did not worry too much about the class administration， for Tang Wei as the dutiful class monitor and as an all-round girl took many things into her hands. Tang Wei functioned almost like a teacher. Xiao Hong remembered that Tang came to see her after receiving the acceptance notice from the Central Academy of Drama. In Xiao’s eye， Tang Wei at that age did not look special， nor did she dress herself fashionably. Tang chose to study how to be a director at college， not to be an acting artist， for the reason that a director would be profound in art and thought while an actor could easily find herself become the target of unpleasant comments and rumors.

Tang Wei’s mother said to me， “Tang Wei’s good luck is closely associated with her hard work. She never brags what she does and she prefers to succeed in a low profile. My daughter did her best to keep herself out of limelight after she was chosen as the lead woman for Lust， Caution.”

Tang Wei was an active student in the academy. She was discovered by Lai Shengchuan， a prominent film and stage director from Taiwan， when she was in the second year at the academy. Lai came to teach there in 2001. Tang Wei caught the attention of the director when he met with a large group of second-year director-major students to pick candidates for acting in some scenes from his “A Dream that Resembles Other Dreams”. Lai found Tang Wei quiet and active and very committed to her assignments and she took initiative to help rehearsals without being asked to. In the eyes of the director， Tang’s diligence and initiative was by no means contrived; it was her personality. He even compared Tang Wei with a star student he had once taught， a student who later became a big star.

Yuan Hong， a theater producer， recalled that Tang Wei honored her promises and kept her word， which， in his opinion， made her a rare phenomenon in the showbiz circles. Yuan Hong once asked Tang Wei to help out at a college drama festival and Tang Wei accepted the assignment. On the day， however， Tang fell so ill that she was unable to go. But she knew her commitment. She asked a classmate to go to the festival and do the job on her behalf. Yuan Hong was touched by Tang’s seriousness about her commitment.

When Lai Shengchuan finished his two-year teaching at the academy， he asked Yuan Hong to take care of Tang Wei and make sure that the promising girl would not fall victim to the showbiz’s corrupting influences.

Tang Wei has kept in touch with Lai Shengchuan and entertained Lai whenever Lai came to visit Hangzhou. Lai played a role in Tang’s getting the big offer. He recommended Tang Wei to Ang Lee.

Zhu Ming， who used to be Tang’s agent， is deeply impressed by Tang Wei. “I found her extremely straightforward and cheerful. She is by no means a calculating girl. She is in sharp contrast with some girls who are craftily cautious in saying what they think. Tang puts you at ease and you will never think you need guard against her. She works hard and she plays like crazy. Her personality attracts friends and makes friendship last. Ang Lee appreciates her largely for her personality.” Zhu Ming remembers meeting Tang Wei at an auditioning for the first time. The 19-year-old Tang Wei caught everyone’s immediate attention because of her body. Zhu comments， “She had a body that thrills every man at first sight. At 19， she had a dream body. She wore jeans which showed all the nice curves.”

Eight years ago， Tang Wei was definitely not the best model for a commercial. Nobody sought her out. She got 1，000 to 2，000 yuan for a television commercial and 500 for a minor role. “Today， she is a girl from Ang Lee’s film and advertisers are lining up waiting for her to appear in their commercials. Now they are offering 1.5 million for her to agree to appear in a commercial.”

Tang Wei and her parents have moved to Beijing. As the family is unwilling to sell the apartment， it is entrusted to a housing rental company to lease. I went to see the apartment the other day. It was empty. Still on the door frame were some cartoon stickers， precious traces of the childhood years of a girl that did not impress her next-door neighbors.