- Bowie Tsang is the daughter of successful Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang but has forged her own way in the entertainment industry without his help
- Tsang began her career behind the cameras, but got her big break in 1999 when she was discovered by TV host Zhang Xiaoyan
Bowie Tsang Baoyi has spent years trying to prove she is more than just the daughter of successful Hong Kong actor Eric Tsang Chi-wai " and it's something she has succeeded in doing.
Tsang, who celebrates her 47th birthday today, is known for being a versatile television host, Mandopop singer, actress and author.
While studying at National Taiwan University, Tsang worked part-time as an assistant producer at Zhen Yan She, a subsidiary company of Rock Records " a record label based in Taipei.
After graduating in 1995, she returned to Hong Kong, where her father " who has been vocal in his support of the Hong Kong police force " refused to introduce her to his professional contacts as he did not want her to enter the entertainment industry.
Tsang did not let this deter her, and she found work behind the cameras as a script supervisor and production assistant.
She returned to Taiwan in 1997, where she was employed as a producer for an entertainment news programme at broadcaster CTN. That year also marked her first appearance in front of the camera.
Tsang was discovered by Zhang Xiaoyan, a prominent Taiwanese television host and producer, in 1999 and she signed a contract with Zhang's management company. Tsang went on to become a popular TV host in Taiwan.
"On the day I became a host, I received a telephone warning from my father: 'You can choose to be a star, but if you are bullied … don't use my name.' So, when I entered the entertainment industry, I already knew that I shouldn't become known as Tsang Chi-wai's daughter. I should make my own way," she said in a 2008 interview with Sichuan newspaper Tianfu Daily.
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In 1999, Tsang turned her talents to singing, and she released six Mandopop albums over the course of the next four years, including A Bao (which is her nickname), Want to Love and Our Fairytale.
Tsang accepted an acting role in a mainland Chinese television drama series in 2002. Two years later, she had become a household name on the mainland thanks to her performance in the historical fantasy TV drama Ming Yang and Hua Gu.
The series follows the story of a lost princess, played by Tsang, who is living as a commoner and the power struggle between two parties as they both look for her. While the royal family wants to restore her to her true position, the secretary of the state wants to get rid of this potential threat to his power.
Tsang starred in Ma Po Xi Fu, a TV comedy drama about the complex relationship between mothers-in-law and daughters-in-law, in 2005. That year, she was named favourite Hong Kong and Taiwan actress at the Third TV Dramas Wind and Cloud Festival, which was hosted in Beijing.
For the next decade, Tsang hosted entertainment programmes across Greater China, on Hong Kong's Asia Television, Phoenix Television, Taiwan Television, China Central Television and Shenzhen Television. In 2013, she won the gong for best entertainment programme host at the Golden Bell Awards, which is Taiwan's equivalent of the Emmys.
On talk show Celebrity Study in June last year in Taiwan, where she is still based, Tsang said she has enjoyed being a TV host the most out of all the things she has done.
"To me, being an actress and singer have given me rich experience in this industry. So when I am a TV host, I am able to see many perspectives," she said.
Tsang has also dabbled in writing, and published a motivational book titled 50 Most Healing Speaking Exercises.
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Last year, she was an interviewer for the documentary series The Eve of Tomorrow, which was produced by Chinese internet giant Tencent and Oscars best documentary winner Grain Media.
The four-episode miniseries discussed scientific, social and cultural issues faced by the human race " such as whether we should have the right to euthanise, whether robots can become human partners, the technology of human immortality, and relationships on the US-Mexico border.
On the day before its screening, Tsang said: "When I became host, it never occurred to me that one day I would have the opportunity to interview people on the other side of the globe, so far away from my life but so close to my future, in a language that I was not familiar with."
She added that when she was offered the opportunity to be a part of the team, she had been afraid she would fail to live up to its expectations. Gradually, though, she lost this fear.
"Why not me? Why do you have to be qualified to care about the world? Aren't we all part of this world? If I don't care about what kind of tomorrow we're facing, what kind of today can I control?"
Her efforts to stop being known as "Tsang Chi-wai's daughter" have paid off, and Tsang has forged her own identity " something even her own father has acknowledged. In 2014, Eric Tsang appeared on the reality show I am Not a Star, and introduced himself with the words: "I am not a star. I am Bowie's father."
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