THOSE who had the pleasure of watching "Cigars, Roses and Snooker", a play about urban Shanghainese men, will surely remember it for the tantalizingly seductive performance of actress Wang Xiaonan.

　　Playing two characters, Su Fei and Liu Hong, Wang teased and enticed her male counterparts, at one time posing suggestively as she put on lipstick, at another lying spread-eagled across a pool table.

　　It was a more than accomplished display, but off-stage Wang modestly diverts the praise away from herself and onto the Shanghai Theatre Academy, where she learnt her trade.

　　"Before I studied at the Academy I was a very quiet girl. I would never have thought that I could perform on stage. The Academy gave me the self-belief to do this," Wang said.

　　Wang joined the Academy in 1995,shavingsspent the first 18 years of her life in China's Northeastern Province of Heilongjiang. She felt at home in Shanghai almost immediately, particularly liking its "modern city feel".

　　And after four years learning her trade at the Academy, Wang graduated in 1999. She admits that she has improved as an actress since then but believes that much of the groundwork was done at the Academy.

　　"I developed my imagination there through mime acting," she explains. "For example, I had to pretend to drink a glass of water without actuallyshavingsa glass in my hand. You have to imagine the glass being in your hand. This kind of thing helps you open up yourself and find out what's inside your mind."

　　Already, at the age of 26, Wang has appeared in a number of theatre productions, including "Home" and "Mayor Chen Yi". She has also played parts in TV dramas such as "Blue Moon", "A Half Pair of Scissors" and "City Forest".

　　It was in "City Forest" that Wang experienced the most nerve-racking moment of her career so far. She was asked to ride a horse, something she had never done before. By her own admission she was "very, very scared" but she decided to go ahead with it because she wanted the part so much.

　　"When I got off the horse my legs were still shaking," she says with a look of fright, obviously reliving the terrible ordeal. "I was sure I had blown my chance but somehow the director thought I was good enough to carry on playing the part."

　　This terrifying experience did not put Wang off TV dramas, although she does suggest a preference for stage performance.

　　"It's difficult to say which is better," she muses, deep in thought, "but I like theatre because acting in front of an audience gives me a buzz. I get a sense of power. But with both, so much depends on whether the script is good or not."

　　And what about acting in general? What is the appeal?

　　As well as "tasting lots of different lives" through acting many different characters, Wang enjoys the mental workout with which her profession provides her.

　　"You have to find out about the character you are going to play," she states. "You have to analyze your character. You have to become your character. Your brain is working every single minute. I think this process helps you to better yourself."

　　Wang's ambition is to become "an expert in performance". She believes the best way of achieving this may be to go abroad. In China the only system of acting used is the Stanislavsky "method", which stresses that the actor must be "believed". In the West, a variety of different styles are employed, and it is this which appeals to Wang.

　　"The training method in, say, France or the US is different from that in China," she says. "There is more emphasis on body language, and that is something I'd like to learn more about.

　　"Last year, the Royal Shakespeare Company came to our theatre from England and performed 'The Merchant of Venice'. I saw the performance and liked it very much. I would like to go to the National Theatre in London."

　　Going by her performance in "Cigars, Roses and Snooker", she could, at some point, make the visit as an actress, not a spectator.