Angel Chiang plays the young version of Charmaine Sheh in When Heaven Burns. In reality, Angel is indeed similar to her role 'Ah Yan' as she will do anything to stay committed to her beliefs. Angel entered TVB 4 years ago at the age of 18, and has been playing guest roles in several different series. However, she hasn't really had much success until her role in When Heaven Burns which caught people's attention. When she walks out on the streets and people call her 'Ah Yan', that is already enough to make her day. If people can only remember she's Ah Yan 10 years later, then she may just leave the industry. "Unfortunately life is a pile of setbacks; Unfortunately life is just a compromise." She's only 22 years old, but already has so much distress in life. Youth Ignorance apparently can only be a song to sing, the reality is only a compromise.
When we watch The Voice, everyone says they fell in love with singing at a young age, so their dream is to become a singer. According to this rationale, if you want to shoot a TV series, then you will have to have loved TVB series at a young age. "Exactly. Since childhood, I have loved watching TV. I watch cartoons and my favorite TV series is Journey to the West. After I graduated from high school, I believed I wasn't study material and I really wanted to study acting. However, I applied several times and didn't even get one opportunity to audition. Later, I encountered a RTHK recruiter and entered the industry from there. Then I switched over to TVB and it was considered a dream come true for me. I decided to put 10 years of my youth at stake and see if my decision was right or wrong." Of course it is a joyous feeling to be acknowledged by audience for your works, but with repeated low ratings, the feeling is really discouraging: "It is not a happy feeling because the ratings got lower and lower. As one of the prime time shows, it is a very big deal when the ratings fall lower than the sitcom. However, poor TV ratings does not mean everything. I am most happy to have won the public praises. Also, I don't have any feeling for the series being in storage for two years, it just proves we are able to withstand the test."
Angel is an independent girl. Perhaps its because she's just too loved, but after a few words with her parents, it always ends up with yelling and screaming. On the inside both sides in fact really care for each other, it is just they lack a method of communication. "I really want to move out and live on my own because when I get home after work, my parents would always come chasing me with many questions. I am a person that lacks patience, and even suspect that I'm a little manic. If several questions are asked, I start getting upset and ultimately ruin the relationship between my family and I."
When speaking to her parents, there would be a smell of 'gunpowder', but when they sit on the couch together watching a TV series, it becomes a very warming family. You will have to thank TVB. "As long as I'm part of the series, my parents would sit still and support me. Some people said When Heaven Burns is new to TVB, the older population won't get it and at first my mother had the same problem, but when I explained this series is more like a movie, she started to accept. In fact, it is sometimes hard to accommodate audience. Like my other series A Fistful of Stances, the first 5 episodes was about the events happening in the 1920s, the whole picture was already pretty clear, but audience still said they didn't understand. No wonder series with bad endings still get 40 points." Aside from her commitment to her own beliefs similar to 'Ah Yan', her straightforwardness and bravely speaks her mind is a plus too.
Profile
Name: Angel Chiang Ka-Man
Birthday: November 10th
Age: 22
Education: High School
Debut: 2006 recruited by RTHK and has been in the Y2K Series. Later she encountered a TVB recruiter to be apart of TVbeople along with a group of newcomers. Thus, she had the opportunity to shoot series. Her first series was Love Exchange, where she played a young rebel. Her other series include: No Regrets, A Fistful of Stances, Yes Sir, Sorry Sir and When Heaven Burns.
Source: JET Magazine Issue #113, TVBChannel
Translated by: aZnangel @ AsianEU Forum
