Staging an act

Career changing

Song Yuhe, 26, was a staff member at a bank in Guangzhou, Guangdong province, in 2019. When he saw the recruitment information for the training course being held by actress Liu Tianchi, he thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime chance for him to realize his dream. He quit his job and signed up right away.

He prepared so hard for the interview for Liu's class, he recalls, that one time he kept miming his words outside on the street by his apartment building, he was so immersed in the act that he simply didn't take any notice of the pedestrians around him. Song successfully obtained the offer to be enrolled in the class, so he moved to Beijing.

"The courses are practical for me, someone who had no previous acting experience," Song says. "The teachers taught us how to look better in front of camera and how to communicate with directors on set."

After graduation, Song got a small role in the TV series In Love With Your Dimples in 2020.

Luckier than Song, 28-year-old Yang Shize, who plays a major role in the same TV series, fell into the career due to a chance meeting and has since landed several acting roles.

With a bachelor's degree in landscape design, being an actor was not on Yang's radar until five years ago, when he met Li Mei, a teacher at TC Hug, the acting workshop founded by Liu, while on his way to visit his grandmother. He had been working as a salesperson for two years and was considering a new job in postproduction of films and TV shows.

His handsome looks impressed Li, so she invited him to take part in the acting class.

"I thought it would be fun to learn to act, because I had no experience in acting before. Everything they taught in class was fresh to me," Yang recalls.

He soon got his first role in a TV show, but, on set, he realized how different it could be between the classroom and an actual scene.

"When I first stood in front of the camera, I was so nervous-and everyone on set was waiting for me-that I broke down," Yang recalls.

Yang says he was once quite shy, but being an actor gradually enabled him to open up. As he continues to play different roles, Yang realizes that there is always more to learn.

"I've met actors who are good at dialogue, or who have strong sensibilities. The more I see the strengths in other actors, I realize that there is much that I need to improve," he says.

In Yang's eyes, for actors who graduate from professional academies, they have more control after four years' intensive study, so he needs to work harder to catch up.

On the other hand, his working experience has helped him to understand his characters better than the professional graduates, especially when he plays roles in workplace dramas.

Yang plans to take acting courses again whenever he has time. "It's like a haven for me. It's where my acting career started, and when I feel incapable, I can come back to recharge myself," he says.