Sylvia Chang (born in Chiayi, Taiwan, in 1953 and formerly known as Chang Ai-chia) is a Taiwanese actress, screenwriter, director and singer who has worked for more than fifty years and appeared in over a hundred films. She chaired the Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival executive committee from 2014 to 2018 and was a non-official member of the Hong Kong Film Development Council from 2019 to 2025. A radio DJ at sixteen and a singer and host at seventeen, she became a leading star in the 1970s, notably in the Aces Go Places series, which made her a household name in Hong Kong. Her first directing credit came in 1981, and she went on to write and direct Passion (1986), Siao Yu (1995), Tempting Heart (1999), Princess D (2002), 20 30 40 (2004) and Love Education (2017), noted for delicate depictions of women. She has twice won best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, for Passion (1986) and Forever and Ever (2001), twice its best screenwriting prize, for Tempting Heart (1999) and Love Education (2017), and three times best actress at the Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan, along with a best supporting actress award there. In 2018 she took both best actress and a lifetime achievement honour at the 12th Asian Film Awards, and in 2021 she received Taiwan's 22nd National Award for Arts. She has also long supported young directors across Taiwan, Hong Kong and the mainland. Her father, an air force officer, was killed when his transport plane crashed into a mountain in Hsinchu in February 1955, when she was barely a year old; her maternal grandfather headed the Broadcasting Corporation of China, served as government information chief and led the Central News Agency.
Working across acting, writing and directing, Sylvia Chang has kept exploring women's lives in films such as Passion, Tempting Heart and Love Education, winning major awards in both Hong Kong and Taiwan while long championing new directors across the Chinese-speaking world and serving in film-development bodies.
Achievements
- 1986 · Won best actress at the 23rd Golden Horse Awards and the 6th Hong Kong Film Awards for Passion
- 1999 · Won best screenplay at the 19th Hong Kong Film Awards for Tempting Heart
- 2017 · Won best screenplay at the 37th Hong Kong Film Awards for Love Education, shared with You Xiaoying