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SCMP Reporter

Forty years after her screen debut as an orphan in Nobody's Child, award-winning actress Josephine Siao Fong-fong is now helping children.

  After graduating in the summer with a degree in clinical child psychology from Regis University in Denver, Colorado, Siao has started work at Queen Mary Hospital.

  The world of a child psychologist seems light years removed from that of a top movie actress, so why did Siao make the change?   'After 40 years in the film business, I thought it was time to branch out and try something different. I wanted to take a break from acting and it was my dream to get a degree,' she said.

  It took the former child star four years to accomplish the task, but she still found time to cram in three movies in the course of her studies, including the Golden Horse-winning Summer Snow.

  Siao arrived from Shanghai with her mother in the 1950s and started her film career at the age of five.

  From that early success, the top actress never looked back.

  'My childhood was quite boring because I had no friends my age in the film studio, but they were also happy days without the restrictions of classrooms and homework.

  'At that time, it was hard to have to cry and laugh in a short period; the actors usually beat me when they wanted to make me cry,' Siao said.

  At the height of her popularity in the early 1970s, Siao left the film industry and prepared to study overseas.

  She spent three months performing in San Francisco to collect enough money to pay for her school fees in the United States.

 'I had wanted to further my studies since I was 14, but I had too much work and needed to get the agreement of my mother,' she said.

  Siao, who is partially deaf, said she was an anonymous high school student in the US, dressed in jeans and T-shirt. 'I didn't need to keep up my image there. I went everywhere in casual clothes without make-up,' she said.

  'I did what I wanted to because I was just a student and no-one knew I was a star actress,' Siao said with a giggle.

  While studying in San Francisco, she made many good friends.

   Siao said they were more sincere than her 'star friends' in Hong Kong.

   Although she has an impressive array of achievements on and off the screen, none seems to be more important than tackling the hidden problem of child sexual abuse.

  A mother of two teenage girls, Siao's pet project is to set up a foundation by the first half of next year to help combat the growing trend.



Siao stars as a 'child saviour'