Career
One of her first leading roles was in the movie Anxious to Return (1979) or Eagerly Homebound (Guixin sijian).
Siqin Gaowa became initially known for her performance in this movie. In the movie, she portrays the widow Yu Zhen, an honest peasant woman, who during the Sino-Japanese War saves and falls in love with a wounded soldier who is "trying to grapple with his conflicting emotions." For her portrayal in this movie, Siqin Gaowa won the Ministry of Culture's Youth Creativity Award in 1979. Her portrayal of Yu Zhen was followed by supporting roles in the movies Xu Mao and his Daughters (1981) (Chinese: Xu Mao he tade nǚ'ermen) and Dragons and Snakes of the Big Lake (1982) (Chinese: Daze long she).
She achieved fame and wide acclaim with her portrayal of Hunui in Rickshaw Boy (1982), literally translated, Camel Xiangzi (Chinese: Luotuo xiangzi). The film is based on Lao She's novel of the same name. For her interpretation of Hanui in Rickshaw boy, Siqin Gaowa was awarded the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress and the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress in 1983.
In 1984 she was acclaimed for her portrayal of Azhen in the award-winning Homecoming (1984), literally translated, Time and Tide (Chinese: Sishui liunian). The film "tells the story of the journey of a woman, Shan Shan (Koo Mei-wah) from Hong Kong to her hometown in China to visit her childhood friends, Ah Chun (Siqin Gaowa), and Hao-chong (Tse Wai-hung)."
The movie was also selected as Hong Kong's entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 57th Academy Awards. For her performance in Homecoming she was awarded the 1985 Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress.
In 1989, Siqin Gaowa starred in Full Moon in New York (1989), where she acted again alongside Koo. The movie tells about three Chinese women who immigrated to New York City from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, with Siquin Gaowa playing Zhao Hong from the mainland. At one point in the move the women carouse, and each one sings Chinese songs that are popular in her culture. The three immigrant women find themselves in New York without a physical home nor a homeland, they "each live and enact personal dramas of loss and displacement," but are finally depicted as happily together in the last scene.
In 1993, Siqin Gaowa played the lead role in Woman Sesame Oil Maker (1993), which tells the story of a woman in a small village in Hebei who runs a small sesame oil business that becomes unexpectedly successful, but who then uses her money to buy a peasant bride for her mentally disabled son. It was said that the woman, Xiang, "unforgettably played by Siqin Gaowa," brilliantly incarnates "the dilemma of women today, in China and elsewhere, torn between restrictive old traditions and deceptive new freedoms."
The film won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival in 1993, and Siquin Gaowa was awarded the 1993 Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival.
In 2006, Siqin Gaowa starred alongside Chow Yun-fat in The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, presented at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie was positively received, and received several awards and nominations. For he performance in this movie Gaowa won several awards, including the 27th Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress, and was nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards.
