Queen of Chinese TV dramas Sheren Tang on real love, getting respect in China, and why she won’t take on any more roles like the one that made her famous

The actress was lauded for her performance as Consort Yu in the palace intrigue drama War and Beauty, but Tang says she has sworn off the genre for good

She says she only wants roles that will positively affect people’s lives – and that she is taken more seriously as an actress in China than in Hong Kong

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Sheren Tang says her role in Rosy Business, in which she plays a businessman’s concubine who takes charge of his affairs after he died, is one of the acting jobs she has enjoyed the most.

Published: 1:15pm, 1 Jan 2021Updated: 1:39pm, 1 Jan 2021

Her role as a scheming consort in the 2004 imperial palace TVB drama War and Beauty – one she reprised in its 2013 sequel Beauty at War – made Sheren Tang Shui-man the queen of Chinese-language television drama.

Critics lauded the Hong Kong actress, now 54, for her portrayal of a complex character who was neither a heroine nor a villain. Her performance as Consort Yu, one of Jiaqing Emperor’s concubines, was loved by viewers in the city and in China.

Tang, however, says she has sworn off the genre for good. “I don’t want to star in palace intrigue dramas with endless fights for power any more. Playing unedifying roles is a waste of time,” she tells the Post.

When she looks back over her nearly four-decade-long showbiz career, the drama that catapulted her to stardom doesn’t even rank among her favourites. Instead, Tang names Rosy Business (2009) and No Regrets (2010) – which star her and fellow actor Wayne Lai Yiu-cheung as romantic leads – as the ones she likes the most.

Tang was surprised to learn that the relationship depicted between two middle-aged characters in No Regrets changed how young people viewed romance and real love.

The actress says the strong female roles in the two series – a drug lord’s righteous daughter who strikes up a complicated relationship with a police superintendent (Lai) in No Regrets; and a rice baron’s fourth concubine who takes over the family business from her late husband in Rosy Business – are exemplary women who have inspired viewers.