Tseng Jing-hua: Growing Through His Craft
One of the leading faces of Taiwan’s new generation of cinema, the 28-year-old Tseng Jing-hua has enjoyed a remarkable run over the past few years, showcasing his versatility and emotional range with every role.
Ever since rising to prominence in the 2019 blockbuster Detention — which earned him a Best New Performer nomination at the Golden Horse Awards for his stirring performance — the actor has quietly built an impressive body of work.
Many will remember him for Your Name Engraved Herein, in which he portrays Chang Jia-han, a reserved teenager navigating first love and self-discovery against the backdrop of 1980s Taiwan. The coming-of-age film became a critical and commercial success, cementing his place as one of Taiwanese cinema’s most compelling actors.
From a student navigating complex societal expectations to a serial killer confronting past traumas, his ability to move between romance, horror and psychological drama speaks to the remarkable breadth of his craft. It’s been seven years since Tseng made his acting debut, and along the way, he’s picked up a few valuable lessons that have shaped his growth as an actor. What emotions does he find most challenging to portray? And what does success mean to him now?
On how he’s learned to communicate in his own way:
“I still think communication is a weakness of mine, but I’m slowly learning that it’s okay. When I stopped caring so much about how I communicated with others, I began to observe and feel instead. It gave me my own way of understanding things and allowed me to see things from a different perspective.”
On redefining what success means to him
“Initially, I thought things like success were very important. They motivated me to improve. But slowly, I became a little afraid. The fear is that when you achieve what you once wanted, your desires and appetite grow bigger. You begin to look for people in first place, for those running ahead of you. But looking back, once you achieve these things, they somehow become smaller and smaller. I found something more important than success: focusing on my present state.”
On capturing the complexity of returning emotions
“The hardest scenes for me are those that echo something from the beginning of the story. It feels as though the character has gone through a cycle and experienced something, but when they return to the same place, the question is: what do they feel now?
That emotion is the hardest to present.”
On portraying the complexity of human nature
“I think what makes a film interesting is the humanity within it. That includes, for example, a character’s desires, social goals and preferences, which shape their personality. I also think there are many sides to human nature.
A bad person may still have traces of kindness within them, while a good person may also have a little evil within them. These are very important parts of how I portray characters now.”
Photography Mr.Triangle
Creative Direction Jenine Oh
Styling Kevin Tew
Hair Styling Ben
Makeup Yi Li
Production/Set Design Whynot Advertising
Photo Assistants Hsu Kai Chieh, Dozz Che and Lucy Chang
Fashion Bottega Veneta, Ferragamo, Coach and Maison Margiela
Accessories Pedro
Jewellery Chaumet
Cover Star Tseng Jing-hua
