Child Acting Business
With a big smile on her face, Ms. Zhang is taking photos of her son and his new colleagues.
39-year-old Zhang, a stay-at-home mother, quit her job as a kindergarten teacher two years ago, in order to accompany her son to study and work. Besides being a pupil, Ms. Zhang's son has a special status as a child actor, so Ms. Zhang accompanied her son to work in the film or TV drama crew almost every weekend.
Liu Yueze, Ms. Zhang's son, seems to be a much more outstanding boy than his peer. At the age of eight, he can play the violin, draw pictures, do taekwondo, and his grades are at the top of his class. To boost her son's confidence, Ms. Zhang enrolled him in a modeling class. Then she made friends with different mothers in the children's modeling circle and they sent their children to participate in the casting for the TV station. Finally, Ze got a chance to be a child actor and started his career.
In just over a year, Ms. Zhang met almost all the agents in the child actor's circle in the city which she lived. Sometimes she can even provide other child actors jobs through her network of friends, just like a professional agent. ‘I never take profits like a real agent, I just want to help other children,' she said.
It's not hard to see that she is also a strict mother. Apart from school, Ze works at least two days a week, if he misses class, Zhang will contact the teacher to make up the lessons or teach him by herself. In addition, she will find time to take him to talent classes on weekends. But Ze is an energetic child all the time. ‘He likes drawing best, especially cartoons, believe it or not, he wants to be a special forces soldier in the future,' Zhang said.
She is also a mother who loves her son very much. If you click on her Wechat moment, you’ll see that every message is about Ze, including photos, and video clips of him. ‘I don’t regret resigning because I can witness every stage of my son’s growth,’ Ms. Zhang said firmly. Whenever Ze works in a film or TV drama crew, she pulls a small suitcase. There are snacks, vacuum cup, medicine and clothes in the suitcase, she always plans everything for him.
As a child actor, Ze is successful. He earns 1000RMB per day, he could earn 6000RMB a month if he only worked on weekends, equal to the salary of an adult in other industries. There is no doubt that it's a high salary for a kid. According to an agent, many children's parents are willing to accept a low price like 300 per day or even for free, as long as their children can act in a movie or ads. Sometimes opportunity is more significant than money in child acting business.
With the popularity of all-kids cast of ‘Dream of the Red Chamber' TV series, more and more parents want their children to be child actors and stars. Some parents send their children to learn performance, make a crafted resume for them, and take them to join the interview of different film crews. Is it really important to be famous?
In recent years, the performance training class is also very popular. Many children art training centers promise to let the children join some TV plays and films after training even said they can create child stars. This kind of educational mode seems to be popular with parents because that’s what they expected.
Actually, some kindergartens have started to offer educational drama courses in order to free children's nature. Most kids at this age don’t know what acting is, but they have created theatrical activities in class. Learning acting is not just a way to be an actor, it can play a significant role in children’s life.
