"It is difficult to believe that the first prize I receive in my life should be won abroad," the 48-year-old Pan said, after being chosen over younger South Korean and Japanese stars, including the much-hyped Korean winner, Yoon Eun-hye.
Pan began her career in 1982 as a performer with the famous Yang Li-hua Taiwanese opera troupe. In the 1990s, Pan released several Holo-Taiwanese music albums and "Spring Blossom" became the campaign song for the Democratic Progressive Party during the 1994 Taipei mayoral election. Recently, however, Pan has achieved a certain fame acting in TV dramas and series, where she is often assigned the role of a mother.
In "Artemisia," Pan plays a 58-year-old career mother, Wu Ai-tsao, who defied the conservative ideas of her mother's generation to lead an independent life, while trying hard to adapt to the surroundings and understand her children's values.
Pan was already nominated once for the Taiwan's Golden Bell TV Award in 2002 but failed to clinch it. "Artemisia," directed by Chiang Hsiu-chiung, also failed to be nominated for this year's Golden Bell Awards. It was chosen, however, to screen as the closing film at the 15th Women Make Waves Film Festival in Taipei, which was held from Oct. 17 to 26.
"Because of Pan's cheerful character and the roles she usually plays, people tended to think she was the comic type, light and funny, yet she showed her understated wisdom at every important moment of her life," critic and writer Ho Ying-yi said Oct. 19. Pan's life was not a bed of roses. Born in Taitung County, the future star set her eyes on a friend, who later became a farmer in Lishan, a mountain in central Taiwan, but had to overcome her family's opposition and wait 14 years before marrying him. To help support her family, Pan kept performing. However, since she had to travel extensively around the island with the opera troupe, Pan was forced to leave her children in Taitung with their grandparents and live separated from her husband. The early years working as a Taiwanese opera singer were difficult, and when there was no work, she helped her husband plant fruit trees in Lishan.
The love Pan and her husband have for each other, as well as the singer's natural talent, touched many in the music circle, prompting renowned poet Wang Zhi-cheng, whose pen name is Lu Han-hsiu, and composer Chang Hung-da to write songs for Pan. This resulted in an album titled "Painting Eyebrows: Open Love Letters." The painting of eyebrows refers to the make-up opera singers apply before a performance and is an allusion to Pan. Published by Crystal Records in 1994, the album consists of a series of poems based on the singer's life story. "Painting Eyebrows: Open Love Letters" together with the artist's first album "Spring Rain," released in 1992, helped Holo-language music expand its audience to all music lovers.
Even after knowing her for so many years Ho, who collaborated in producing Pan's music albums, is still impressed by the performer, both as a person and an artist. "Her voice is heart-wrenchingly beautiful, and her acting exudes a tranquil and subtle body language that reveals an inner wisdom," Ho said. "The beauty of Pan's performance doesn't catch people's immediate attention. It just takes a quiet mind to appreciate it."
Write to June Tsai at june@mail.gio.gov.tw