When Jau-ting was at sixth grade, her school held a talent show. After the homeroom teacher discussed with parents, their class decided to play Taiwanese Opera. Their performance raised everyone’s attention. Wow! Their splendid costumes, the resonant voice and their graceful dancing movement caught the fancy of audiences. This class performance inspired Xihu Elementary School. The next year, pushed by principal Peng Wei-shin, the Students’ Taiwanese Opera Club is founded with full support from the Ming Hwa Yuan. Jau-ting helps the club a lot. Sometimes she helps the young actors practice stagecraft of Taiwanese Opera, while sometimes she helps them put on makeup before each public performance of the club. Jau-ting is popular with these little actors.
Tsai Yi-shiuan attended the Xihu Students’ Taiwanese Opera Club at the very first year. She said, “Jau-Ting’s voice is really tender; also, she looks majestic when she demonstrates stagecraft, and when she puts her makeup to perform on stage, she is absolutely stunning. ” In our interview with Jau-ting, she talked a lot about Xihu Students’ Taiwanese Opera Club, and also mentioned her future career planning.

After she graduated from the Dance Department of Taipei Private Hwa Kang Arts School, Jau-ting decided to devote herself into her family business. However, before she was ready to play leading characters, she needed more discipline. She went to Yi-Shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe owned by her uncle, Mr. Suen Rong-huei, in order to sharpen her acting skills before she officially joins the Ming Hwa Yuan.
Yi-Shin Taiwanese Opera Troupe is a famous outdoor-stage opera troupe in Taipei. Therefore, Jau-ting has a lot of opportunities to practice performance on outdoor-stage.
In 2004, at the “Cross-Strait Taiwanese Opera Art Festival”, Jau-ting entered the Top Ten Young Actors of Taiwanese Opera Contest. There were thirty young actors from Taiwan, Xiamen and Zangzou in the contest to compete for the Top Ten. The result came out. Among Top Ten Young Actors of Taiwanese Opera, eight were from the Mainland China, and two from Taiwan. One was Jau-ting, the first daughter of Chen Sheng-fu. She won the fifth prize. The other one was Dong Ru-ling, the daughter-in-law of Chen Sheng-guo. Dong Ru-ling won the seventh prize. Because Jau-ting’s chreographic foundation is very solid, and the plot she chose to act was amazing, she was highly acclaimed in the contest. Even so, Jau-ting never felt content. She thought she still had lots of room for improvement. From this trip to the Mainland, she learned that actors from China tended to focus more on their basic stagecraft skill, while actors from Taiwan paid more attention to the essence of the drama. Both the two advantages are worth learning.

While Jau-ting talked about her parents, Miss Suen Tsuei-feng, the male lead of the Ming Hwa Yuan, and Chen Sheng-fu, the chief of the Ming Hwa Yuan, she began to smile unconsciously. She said that her parents are always very busy. They have more than two hundred performances to do in a year. They also have to give speeches and lectures. When they get home, they are always very exhausted. But they still takes good care of her and her younger sister, Jau-shien. Jau-ting also told us a secret. She said that her mom is a really bad cook! We all burst into laughter when we heard that. Recently, Miss Suen released an album. She filmed the music video with Jau-ting. The lyrics are about care and interaction between a mother bird and a baby bird. We can hear Miss Suen’s expectation of her daughters from this song. We sincerely believe that Jau-ting will have outstanding achievements in the Ming Hwa Yuan in the future.