Yao Yao, a Taiwanese Golden Horse Award winner for best new performer, is the lead actress in HBO Asia’s first original series told entirely in Chinese.

    In its continuous effort to create original Chinese-language content, HBO began principal photography in Taiwan on “The Psychic” last week.

    The supernatural coming-of-age drama follows a 16-year-old girl named Xiao Zhen (played by Yao Yao) who just wants to lead a typical teenage high school life. But, born with the ability to see spirits, she’s destined to be special. Xiao Zhen must juggle the pressures of teen life — first love, academic success and peer pressure — with the demands of the spirit world.

    Other cast regulars include Kent Tsai (“Mon Mon Mon Monsters”) and Chen Mu-yi (“Comes the Black Dog”).

    Born in 1990 in Taiwan, Yao Yao started working part-time at a restaurant to help support her family after her father died in May 2007. Two years later, in 2009, she entered show business as a model. After signing with Seed Music in 2009, she debuted as a singer and released a mini album, “Love,” on September 25 of the same year. Her movies include “Meet Miss Anxiety,” “Campus Confidential,” “Best New Performer” and “When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep.”

    Developed with Taiwan’s Public Television Service and co-produced with Singaporean production company InFocus Asia, the six-part hour-long series will be directed by 29-year-old Taiwanese writer-director Chen Ho-yu, who made the short film on which the show is based. The short, “The Busy Young Psychic,” won the best short film award at the Taipei Film Festival last year.

    (SD-Agencies)