Story | Connie Li Photography | Evaan Kheraj
Vanessa Yao believes she’s one very lucky lady.
As a child she would dream of becoming an actress. And from an early age she was destined to become one.
Yao grew up in a traditional Chinese family with parents from China. She began piano lessons at age three and performed in concerts, where she connected with audiences through music as a form of storytelling. That kindled her passion for acting.
Suit: Alexander McQueen
Born and bred in Montreal and growing up playing the piano, she headed to the Beijing Film Academy at a young age to obtain a degree in acting. Last year, she returned to Canada and was cast as Mia, a new character in the American TV series Kung Fu 2. She’s living up to her Chinese name, meaning vibrant and colourful. She loves storytelling, through the roles she plays and through her own life story.
While her parents were strict, placing her under “a lot of pressure,” they were nevertheless 100 per cent supportive. When they saw her passion for acting, they encouraged her to apply to the Beijing Film Academy. With their blessing and her determination to get into China’s sought-after film school, she flew alone from Montreal to Beijing for the audition—and made the cut.
“When I was chosen from amongst tens of thousands of people as the lucky 50 to enter into the Bachelor’s Degree program in performing arts, I knew at that very moment my life was going to change forever,” she recalls.
Having been brought up speaking Chinese, language was not an issue, and her piano training gave her the confidence to face the challenges and achieve her goals. The four years of studies at the Beijing Film Academy were demanding, but enjoyable, and they allowed the piano prodigy to morph into a young actress. Plus growing up in Montreal, Yao is fluent in English, French and Chinese, and she believes that is a real asset. “Being multicultural is really great,” she says. “You’re equipped with knowledge and experience from all cultures.”
Yet Yao concedes that when she received the academy’s admission letter, she had no idea of the ups and downs in the world of acting. She went on countless auditions while at the academy, recalling how “nerve-wracking it is when all the actors are just sitting next to each other, clearly in competition with each other.” But it’s those challenges and her ability to face them down that really paid off.
Top: Alice & Olivia Jacket: Acne Denim: Modern Vintage Boots: Valentino
During the seven years she was studying and living in China, Yao was cast as a lead in a host of film productions, including Wipeout in Mount Longhu, Seizing in Ridge Heihu, Struggling in Valley Daqing, Gunshots in Shaoguo Town and Father and Hero. That latter one won the Excellence Award in the Chinese New Style category at the 21st Shanghai International Film Festival in 2018. In that same year, Yao won the Best Actress Award at the Asia Pacific Film Festival in New Zealand for her role as Wei Wei in Father and Hero.
Yao believes a good actor ought to be “real” and “not try to fool yourself or the audience.” She contends that if one listens to what the other actor is saying, the feelings will come out naturally.
The Best Actress Award was a major boost to her career and “it really helped confirm that I was doing okay, and that this jump into the unknown was being recognized by others as well.”
Having said that, success in acting often comes down to chance and a bit of luck. Performers have to wait for opportunities to knock and there are often extended periods of time when there is no work. That happened to Yao, too.
She admits it crossed her mind to just give up, especially when the pandemic struck and the entire film industry was hard hit. Her filming in China was halted and the thought of giving up resurfaced. “Part of being an actor is knowing how to be comfortable with yourself,” she says. “Most of the time you will be alone, and you have to learn how to deal with it. I truly think that you need to never compare yourself with others.”
When she reflected upon how far she had come, and recognized that life is not always easy, she picked herself up and kept going, with renewed courage and determination.
During the hiatus caused by the pandemic, Yao had time to catch up with friends, one of whom introduced her to her current manager. That marked the beginning of another adventure in her career.
Jacket: Balmain Top: Open Edit Pants: Smythe
She was still in Beijing when told about the auditions for Kung Fu 2. So she submitted an audition tape and soon after got a callback. Her part as Mia was confirmed over a Zoom call—and it all happened within just 72 hours.
She packed quickly for her return to Canada and bade farewell to her life in China after seven years. With a mix of excitement and some sad goodbyes, she began the next chapter of her story.
Mia is a new character in Kung Fu 2, a cousin of Nicky Shen from Kung Fu 1. Mia Xue grows up in the woods with only her mother, away from society. She runs away later to see what life is about and ends up living on the street with other runaways. When her friends are killed and she finds out her mother has also been killed, she steps into Nicky’s world, trying to find out her family history and more about her mother’s death.
Yao says there was so much to unpack with this character, but that she empathizes with the character. She feels what Mia feels, and fights for the justice she truly deserves, which makes it “such a fun adventure.”
The story of Kung Fu 2 continues on from season one with many of the original cast, making it a kind of family reunion. But being new to the cast, Yao took a more novel approach. Rather than acquainting herself with fellow actors, she deliberately kept her distance before shooting. That’s because as Mia begins her story, she doesn’t know what’s ahead, nor about Nicky and the family. Yao initially kept to herself, she says, to help with the “authenticity of her [Mia] not knowing any of them at all.”
Yao says since Kung Fu 2 was shot during the pandemic, everyone was tested daily and wore a mask whenever the camera was not rolling. Despite these measures, she felt a strong sense of community, and the cast and the crew really felt like one big happy family.
Mia has plenty of fight scenes, and Yao worked closely with the stunt team to choreograph those intense moments. On the other hand, filming in North America was at a more relaxed pace than in China, and there was more time to get to know the cast and the extended family better. That made the trans-global transition relatively easy.
Dress: Mugler Earring: Jennybird
After six months of shooting, Kung Fu 2 was completed and eventually screened on the CW Network in March. Yao hopes her portrayal of Mia will resonate with the audience.
As an actress of Asian descent, she will no doubt face limitations in the choice of roles in North America, but says: “I will continue to focus on getting better and to widen the characters that I can play in the future.”
Yao is young. She has much more to tell in her story ahead. After Kung Fu 2, she’s happy to spend some time with her parents, and looks forward to returning to China for more productions. “I’ve always been curious about my roots from a young age,” she says. “I’ve always wanted to know more about where my family came from, where my parents grew up.
“I would say the biggest cultural difference between China and Canada is that the people are less direct and things move at such a fast pace over there. Coming back to Canada, after spending many years there, I truly feel that I’m a mix of both.”
As a Chinese-Canadian, she believes she can be “some sort of a bridge in the future, a bridge between two cultures” and “the voice to spread more kindness and love to others.”
