1. Childhood
Born in Taiwan in 1953, Chang migrated first to Hong Kong, and then the US with her family. She returned to Taiwan when she was 15, and started working as a radio show host after school.

2. Debut
Her first movie role was in The Flying Tiger, a 1971 kung fu gangster movie. Chang won the Best Supporting Actress at the Golden Horse Awards in 1976 for her role in Posterity and Perplexity. In the same year, she started working as assistant director to Hong Kong filmmaker Patrick Lung Kong on a comedy.

3. A director
The first film she directed on her own was Once Upon a Time (1980), which was originally meant to be directed by Taiwan-based director Larry Tu. Tu died in a car crash before the production started and Chang took on the role.

4. Myriad images
Throughout her acting career, Chang has impressed audiences with her portrayals of characters who face relationship hurdles. But one of her most unexpected—and therefore memorable—characters is the gung-ho police inspector in the 1982 action-comedy film Aces Go Places, which is a humorous take on the James Bond franchise.

5. Double win
In 1986, Chang won the Best Actress prize at both the Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards for Passion, which she wrote, directed and acted in.

6. Queen of the screen
The three-time Golden Horse Best Actress winner has received a total of 20 nominations from Golden Horse, which makes her the current record holder for the most nominations at the awards.

7. Favourite genre
Comedy. “It’s the most challenging: you have to understand where the humour is; you need to know the pacing and create surprises for the audience. There’s a lot in this art form. I like the challenge.”