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China TV extra dies eight times a day as Japanese soldier

For one Chinese TV extra, playing with the enemy has proved the secret of his success – one that requires him to die as often as eight times a day.

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For one Chinese TV extra, playing with the enemy has proved the secret of his success – one that requires him to die as often as eight times a day.

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Shi Zhongpeng, 26, works at the Hengdian film studio in the eastern province of Zhejiang, where scores of productions are shot every year about the Japanese invasion of China that became part of the second world war.

He appeared as a member of the Japanese forces more than 200 times last year, the reported, sometimes dying on set eight times in a single day.

The secret to being picked by the casting teams, he was quoted as saying, was to “appear as sleazy as possible”, so he adopts a ferocious look at auditions, while stooping slightly.

His biggest wish, he added, was to change sides and play a soldier of the Eighth Route Army, a Communist-led force within the Republic of China’s military before and during the second world war.

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China and Japan have a bloody history, and are currently embroiled in a bitter territorial dispute over islands in the East China Sea.

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