AFTER a 20-year hiatus, top star Brigitte Lin surprised many by making her TV comeback via a reality program, Hong Kong’s Ming Pao newspaper reported.

    The 60-year-old Taiwan-born actress, who will be seen on the upcoming reality show “Up Idol” alongside other stars such as Ada Choi and Athena Chu, revealed at a press conference for the show that she had a lot of fun shooting the series.

    “I was excited because I was playing myself and not some character,” she said.

    Lin admitted that she was hesitant at first, as she had no experience filming a reality show.

    She stated, “Playing more than 100 games was not the difficult part. The hardest part was facing so many cameras. To be able to show my true self is a big breakthrough for me.”

    The actress also expressed her hope that the viewers will be as entertained watching the program as she was filming it.

    The Hunan TV reality program divides 10 actresses into two teams and then pits them against each other in various sporting challenges.

    Reports say that the actress agreed to join the program for 1.5 million yuan (US$236,000) per episode. She reportedly refused an offer from Beijing Satellite TV for a show that offered 5 million yuan per episode earlier this year.

    Lin is one of the most well-known stars from Taiwan, with a large following of Chinese mainlanders and overseas Chinese. She shot to fame overnight after her debut in the film “Outside the Window” in 1973. Lin played the lead role in that movie, which was adapted from a book by famous Taiwan-born novelist Qiong Yao.

    She has acted in more than 100 films, giving life to many classical characters. Fans still remember some of her timeless performances, including several leading roles, with fond nostalgia.

    After bidding farewell to the film industry in 1994, Lin started a totally different life. She wrote an essay on Ming Pao in 2004, and the positive feedback motivated her to become a writer.

    Lin’s first book was an autobiography titled “In and Out of the Window.” It became an instant hit among readers after it was published in 2011. But her eldest daughter told her, “If you wrote a popular book that didn’t focus on your own life, it would be a real success.”

    Therefore, Lin wrote 23 short stories for her second book, which shared some of her deeper thought and feelings. The book was published in November 2014.

    (SD-Agencies)