The fans of Chen Sheng-tzai call him “the Best Male Jester of Taiwan”. However, Chen Sheng-tzai thinks that he is not yet good enough to take this honor because there are still lots of things he needs to learn from others. In one of his class of Taiwanese Opera in Xihu Elementary School, he told the students that in fact, he is a very introverted man. After his makeup is removed, he would become a shy guy who stutters in front of audiences.
In every drama of the Ming Hwa Yuan, Chen’s professional performance always causes a great sensation. He may not be the male lead, but his interaction with the male lead Suen Tsuei-feng always creates charismatic effects that grasp the audiences’ attention from the beginning to the end. We once had an interview with two big fans of Chen Sheng-tzai. They told us they traveled far from another county just to see Chen Sheng-tzai’s vivid and hilarious performance.
We asked Chen how he managed to fathom to cross-cast the san hua（female jester） character. He told us at first he tried to perform different kinds of characters. After a long time, he had the opportunity to choose which types of character suits him best. Based on his looks and performing characteristic, he chose the male jester. There are four requirements to be a male lead（siao sheng）or a female lead（siao dan）: first, appearance that catches the fancy of audiences; second, excellent stagecraft to enact both intellectual characters and martial artists; third, good command of music for voices and fourth, extraordinary performing skills. Chen said that judging from his appearance, the jester could be his best choice. We think that he is an amiable person. Because of his kindness, we all feel relaxed and delighted during the interview. However, we had to keep reminding him to slow down during the interview, because he spoke Taiwanese really fast.

Chen Sheng-tzai thinks that to be a good male jester, he tries to learn stage experience of his predecessors, familiarize with different types of stages, and be aware of any contingencies. It is easy to simply finish the play. However, a good jester should also know how to respond to the audience reactions moment to moment. When other characters forget their lines on the stage, the jester would have to fill in for them and “save the scene” from falling apart.
He often watches different types of dramatic performances from movies or TV, as well as opera, mummery, Hollywood movies and Hong Kong movies. From these sources, he observes different types of humor. Chen said Taiwanese Opera is just a-hundred-year-old baby that is like a sponge to absorb more water and nutrients. However, if Taiwanese Opera absorbs everything from other types of theatric forms, it would become a strange opera. It is important that by filtering out what’s good and suitable for Taiwanese Opera and incorporate it into Taiwanese Opera to make it “Taiwanese”.
Chen emphasized that Taiwanese Opera has many diverse aspects. It consists characters and costumes of Peking Opera, acrobatic combat of Fuzhou Opera, gimmickery background of Shanghai Opera, and tunes like dou ma diao and huang mei diao. Taiwanese Opera is almost the only theatric form that has no traditional burden with most all-embracing characteristics. From the 1940s’ kao diao（the weeping tune）, the 1950s’ reformed drama, and the late 1950s’ Guan Gong martial arts play, to the to 1960s’ transformation from indoor-stage performance to outdoor-stage performance, as well as the prosper of televised Taiwanese Opera, television opera which has told us that Taiwanese Opera has no tradition or creation, these changes only signifies chronological change instead of a clear-cut division between tradition and innovation.

We asked him why he could make such a beautiful lady like Miss Jeng Ya-sheng, to marry him. He happily told us a proverb. “Men have three assets, talents, servants, and wealth.” He had neither servants nor wealth, so perhaps talents are his only asset to win Jen Ya-sheng’s heart. He said they were attracted to each other because of their performance on stage and therefore they often encouraged each other.
To compare the differences between actors of northern and southern Taiwanese Opera, Southern actors are more introverted, and they may be afraid to exaggerate their stagecraft and music for voices. Besides, sometimes actors need to change performances due to different background of audiences. For example, they never mention “shipwreck” when they perform in coastal areas.
After the interview with Mr. Chen Sheng-tzai, we came to realize the reason that whenever he shows up on stage during the performance, audiences’ would immediately fall for him. His extraordinary sense of humor and excellent command of his performing skills are the reason. It is a great leap for Taiwanese Opera to evolve into delicate drama played in modern theater houses. The interaction between the jester and audiences preserves the atmosphere of outdoor-stage performance. The fans of Chen Sheng-tzai remarked that without Mr. Chen’s jester character, the drama wouldn’t be so fantastic.