Ａ Ｄｒｅａｍ Ｃｈａｓｅｒ’ｓ Ｔｏｕｇｈｎｅｓｓ

Wang Baoqiang was catapulted into national stardom in 2007 when a television series called The Soldier Charges， which dramatizes how a tough soldier gets going when the going gets tough， unexpectedly became a national blockbuster. Many fans believe that the tough soldier embodies the 24-year-old actor's personality and explains how he has metamorphosed into a success from a nameless countryside boy among the thousands of dreamers drifting in front of the Beijing Film Studio day in day out trying their luck for a movie career.

Wang Baoqiang was born into a farmer's family in central China's Henan Province. The family struggled to make a living. The youngest of the three children， he inherited the secondhand clothes from his brother and sister. A movie starring Jet Lee changed his life in June， 1992 when he was only eight years old. At the village's square that evening he was amazed by the kongfu in a movie called Shaolin Temple. The tough kid came back home and declared that he was going to the temple to learn kongfu. His parents were stunned. They objected strongly and resorted to force to dissuade the stubborn son. The junior refused to give in. Finally， the parents let him go. His mother wept the last night the boy spent at home. Wang Baoqiang swore to his mother he would do his best to become a kongfu master and he wanted to be a big star and make big money in the future.

Fortunately he was accepted by the temple. He spent the next six years at the Temple. The first three years were totally dedicated to basic training. His year was roughly divided into two seasons: winter and summer. He got up at five in winter and four in summer. The daily routine sounds deceptively simple: he ran all the way to the mountain top and then came down on all fours. After the up-and-down dash， he would do all kinds of basic leg moves. The following three years saw him practice complete kongfu stunts. During the six years， he wrote only three letters to his parents. His mother wept at a picture he sent home. In that picture， his head was shaved and one of his arms stuck out of the robe， the very way the Shaolin kongfu monks are dressed. Looking back at the six years at the temple， Wang now says it was the happiest time in his life.

Wang Baoqiang turned 14 in 1998 and decided it was time to try his luck in Beijing. He joined thousands of dreamers and hopefuls in their pursuit of becoming a movie star in the country's capital. Everyday he stood with the ever-present wannabes in front of the Beijing Film Studio in the hope of getting picked for as extra role by a casting director. This way he did get some bit parts. In order to survive， he had to work at construction sites. After some minor roles and more than 1，500 torturing days and nights in Beijing， his turn came. One day in March， 2002， his fellow worker's beeper sounded. He was paged. He rushed to call back from a nearby public telephone booth and learned that he was offered a lead role in a movie called Blind Shaft.

Director Li Yang had noticed Wang doing some kongfu stunts at a filming site and was impressed by Wang's toughness and hardworking no-complaint attitude. For the breakthrough role Wang received 500 yuan as advance payment. It was a fortune to Wang. Wang worked hard. One scene was taken in a mine several hundred meters down in the ground. Some actors refused to go down and walked away. Wang went down. His acting convinced the director， who believes in actors without academic acting training. Li Yang comments， \"This field teems with clever people chasing fame and fortune， but some flee at the first sight of risk. Wang did not run. He surely will go far.\"

By the winter of 2002， Wang Baoqiang had made his first movie. One day that winter， he called his parents for the first time in the four years after he had come to Beijing. He made the call from a public phone at a small store. His first remark was \"How are you all? How is the crop?\" And His father's answer was \"We thought you were dead since you didn't contact us for such a long time\". Then they both wept. In 2003， Blind Shaft was both a Gold Horse prize winner in Taiwan and Berlin Fest's 2003 Silver Prize winner. Feng Xiaogang， a celebrated movie director， saw the great potentialities in the face and personality of Wang Baoqiang.

In 2004， Wang Baoqiang was offered an important role in A World without Thieves， directed by Feng Xiaogang. The sensational movie made Wang Baoqiang's face known all over the country. Then he appeared in Dark Plots as a rural boy with a supernatural hearing capability. Though he was not the biggest star in the national television blockbuster drama， his successful acting clearly showed his potentialities for even bigger roles. On the strength of his promising acting， he was picked for the lead role of The Soldier Charges. The television series， in which he starred as a tough soldier who gives everything he has to see through his mission no matter how impossible it is， touched the hearts of millions of people across the country. The 2007 drama became a national phenomenon unexpectedly while numerous big-budget romances， court dramas， ancient myths and kongfu farces failed to cause a stir.

It was his toughness that helped Wang to finish the shooting of The Soldier Charges. One episode portrays how the soldier tries his best to win his squad an honor by doing 333 somersaults on the horizontal bar at one go. He did it himself without using a double and when he finished doing all the somersaults， his back was injured and some flesh on his hand was gone. In another scene， he crawled rapidly in a flood under the low wire netting. He tried to breathe above the rapid torrents and the overhead steel wire scratched his head. Wang comments that he put himself totally into the character and that in the end he felt he and the soldier were one.

Wang Baoqiang now doesn't have to wait outside the Beijing Film Studio for a job. The successful actor is happily busy. His 2008 is already fully scheduled and for a while every day he received at least five telephone calls requesting an interview. It is said that big companies line up for his appearance in their commercials.