Taiwanese screen goddess Lin Ching Hsia, who retired from acting over two decades ago, keeps fans updated on her life with the occasional post on Weibo, but new photos of the 66-year-old are few and far between.

However, thanks to media outlet China Times, we now have very recent pictures of Ching Hsia, and spoiler alert: She is looking absolutely fabulous (as usual).

In an exclusive interview with the paper, she revealed that she had shed 11kg in six months, and her shoot with them was the first time she had photos taken of herself after her weight loss.

According to Ching Hsia, who is 1.68m-tall, she weighed 68kg before Christmas last year, and had a ‘spare tire’ around her waist. She didn’t like having her picture taken then and started buying clothes in larger sizes.

“My daughters often persuaded me to lose weight for the sake of my health, and my friends would shake their heads when they saw me,” she shared.

When asked if her weight gain was due to her love of good food (she once admitted that she doesn’t really watch what she eats), Ching Hsia said she’s not really a foodie and mostly enjoys peanuts, peanut butter, and food made from wheat flour.

She also had odd sleeping habits: “There were days when I would fall asleep at dawn and wake up at night.”

One day, she decided that she shouldn’t keep up with this lifestyle, and made up her mind to be healthier. She started sleeping at more regular hours and controlled her diet, making sure to take less oil, less salt, less sugar, less starch, and to cut down on her snacking and late-night suppers.

In addition, she exercised for at least an hour every day by playing badminton twice a week, doing Pilates once a week, and hiking in the mountains for an hour-and-a-half once a week.

Something else she recommended was table tennis, which she claimed is a good way to engage parts of the brain that aren’t normally used, promoting blood circulation and preventing conditions like dementia and Alzheimer’s.

With her new habits, Ching Hsia successfully dropped nine kilos in just two months. She now weighs 56kg and says she feels very accomplished.

When asked if she has any tips for maintaining her age-defying beauty, Ching Hsia laughed that she actually “doesn’t have any secret methods”, and that she doesn’t even consider herself that youthful-looking.

“Everyone, please never learn from me ‘cos I’m someone who sleeps late and wakes up late, has irregular meals, doesn’t eat vitamins, doesn’t eat healthy, and doesn’t take care of her face,” she warned. “It’s probably ‘cos we Shandong people have good genes.”

Ching Hsia went on to confess that she used to worry about making headlines for her beauty after entering her 60s, but now, she’s a lot more carefree about it.

“I no longer care about whether I’m old or not, or beautiful or not,” she mused. “I think ageing is simply a part of life and there’s no reason to fear it. It is the law of nature and you have to accept it even if you don’t want to, otherwise you’ll just make things hard for yourself.”

Photos: China Times, Lin Ching Hsia/Weibo