Hong Kong actress Angie Chiu is probably one of the busiest artistes for the upcoming Year of the Snake.
Better known as Zhao Yazhi, the 70-year-old has been invited by nine Chinese television stations to appear in their respective “chunwan”.
The Spring Festival Galas are the annual TV shows broadcast in China around Chinese New Year, which begins on Jan 29 in 2025.
The star of many TVB serials – such as The Heaven Sword And Dragon Sabre (1978), Chor Lau Heung (1979) and The Bund (1980) – famously played Lady White Snake in the Taiwanese drama serial, The Legend Of White Snake (1992).
The show also starred Hong Kong actresses Cecilia Yip, now 61, as the male scholar Xu Xian, and Maggie Chan, now 67, as White Snake’s maid Green Snake.
Chiu kicks off the “chunwan” run at Hunan Television’s Spring Festival Gala on Jan 23. She will also appear on Shanxi Television on Jan 26, as well as Jiangsu Television and Beijing Radio and Television Station on Jan 29.
She shared the posters of the shows on Chinese social media platform Weibo. Some netizens commented that she is the busiest woman during the Year of the Snake, and that 2025 is the Year of Angie Chiu.
Most of the provincial chunwan shows were pre-recorded, except for the China Media Group Spring Festival Gala (formerly known as China Television Spring Festival Gala), which is aired live in Beijing on Chinese New Year’s Eve.
Chiu, who is married to former Hong Kong actor Melvin Wong, 75, has not been active in the entertainment industry in recent years.
She sparked a wave of nostalgia in July 2024 when she appeared at a concert in Hangzhou with Yip and Chan to mark the 30th anniversary of The Legend Of White Snake. – The Straits Times/Asia News Network
