Wu Hsing-kuo


Wu Hsing-kuo is a Taiwanese film and stage actor, known for both his performance of complex movie roles as much as for his innovative adaptations of Western classics into traditional Peking Opera.

Life and career

Wu was trained in classical Peking Opera since the age of 11 in Taiwan's state-run Fu-Hsing Chinese Opera School, specializing in wu sheng roles. He was admitted with honors into the Theatre Department of Chinese Culture University in Taipei, trained under master Chou Cheng-jung and became the leading dancer of Lin Hwai-min's Cloud Gate Dance Theater. However, his teacher Chou Cheng-jung considered him as a pretentious student who didn't focus on study and finally abandoned him in 1989. After that, Chou Cheng-jung never met him again. In addition, most traditional Chinese opera audiences do not recognize him as a qualified actor.
In 1986, he and a group of enthusiastic friends founded the in Taipei, seeking to revitalize traditional Chinese theatre by adapting Western classical plays to the style and techniques of Peking Opera. He was the leading actor and director of four Shakespeare adaptations, including the critically acclaimed Kingdom of Desire, an adaptation of Macbeth, and King Lear, in which Wu plays all the parts.
In 1992, Wu was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to study in New York with Richard Schechner. That year, he also won the Hong Kong Film Award for best new actor.
Wu is currently artistic director of the Contemporary Legend Theatre, and continues to take on challenging roles in both the modern theatre and Chinese Opera. He crosses the fields of traditional opera, dance, modern theatre, cinema, and television.

Filmography

Films

TV series

Awards