Natalie Hsu, star of The Day We Lit Up The Sky, on the Chinese musical’s message, filming in Hainan and her ex-actress mother’s invaluable support

A huge fan of The Sound of Music and Hamilton, 17-year-old Natalie Hsu plays a downtrodden schoolgirl who pursues her dream of winning a dance competition

The daughter of 80s and 90s Hong Kong actress Ann Bridgewater admits she had not heard of superstars Sammi Cheng and Zhang Yi, who make cameos, before filming

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Natalie Hsu on the set of The Day We Lit Up The Sky in Haikou, the capital of China’s Hainan province.

Published: 7:15am, 20 Aug 2021Updated: 8:53am, 22 Aug 2021

Corrected [8:53am, 22 Aug, 2021]

[8:53am, 22 Aug, 2021]
Hsu attended secondary school in Hong Kong but did not complete her secondary education.

Natalie Hsu En-yi says that at some point in their lives every girl wants to be Julie Andrews, the star of classic US musical The Sound of Music. While that might remain wishful thinking for many, 17-year-old Hsu is living the dream with her singing and dancing debut in the Chinese youth musical The Day We Lit Up The Sky.

Released last month in cinemas across China and full of fizzy dance numbers, the musical has already earned 160 million yuan (US$21 million) at the box office.

“The Sound of Music is my favourite musical movie,” Hsu tells the South China Morning Post. “For live musical theatre productions, I am a huge fan of Hamilton. I have played it so many times during car rides and at home that even my parents know all the lyrics by heart.”

Set in Haikou, the capital of China’s Hainan province, The Day We Lit Up the Sky is the coming-of-age story of Xiao Huang (played by Hsu) and Old Dog (played by Chinese heartthrob Peng Yuchang) who pursue their dream of winning a dance competition.

Chinese media have compared Hsu’s ethereal loveliness with the beauty of Mitsuki Kimura, daughter of Japanese superstar Takuya Kimura. Yet despite her good looks, Hsu’s character in the musical is a down-to-earth, self-effacing girl whose small stature and family background (her father sells smelly salted fish for a living) make her a laughing stock at an all-female school full of tall and beautiful girls.