Where is Wallace? | Clare

Oh my how long has it been?

Long before this Korean wave in the country (and the rest of the world apparently), Taiwanese soaps were the biggest thing here. Like most people, I had my share of favorites – the biggest one of which was that young man who caught my eye in the show At the Dolphin Bay, Wallace Huo.

Before I even knew who Daniel Henney was, I was a big fan of Wallace Huo (although my first big Asian/non-Filipino crush would have to be Van Ness Wu, but that’s for another post). This was around 2003 when At the Dolphin Bay made him so popular that he was eventually brought over to the Philippines to do a series of interviews and promotional activities for his other soap, 100% Senorita. I can still remember watching (and recording) every single TV show that he was a guest in (yes, including his cameo on Daisy Siete) and just enjoying every minute of it. After that, he just sort of fell out of the radar in these parts, which I thought was odd considering how popular he was at the time.

Apart from seeing a glimpse of him in a Chinese soap that was being reported on one of those Chinese channels on cable, I have never seen or heard about him again. I didn’t even understand the report because it was in Chinese so I didn’t really get what he was doing in China until recently.

I got so curious about Wallace when I saw a friend’s avatar on yahoo that had his photo so I decided to Google him. Turns out that Wallace left Taiwan for China at the height of his popularity in 2004 to start over and make a name for himself there because he was continuously given the same kind of roles in Taiwan.

…my life was filled with work. I didn’t have time to study the script in detail, and I couldn’t tell the difference between different characters. But that didn’t make a big difference: all the roles wanted me to look cool! – Wallace Huo

From what I’ve read about him online so far, it seems that he has had an even better career in China. I admire the fact that he made that choice to move to challenge himself as an actor. That was a big risk considering how set he was in Taiwan. I wish one of the local stations could get at least one of the shows he has worked on in China and air it here. I’d love to see him on TV again.

*quote from Wikipedia.com, photo from AX3Battery