"That's what I want when I'm dying: a big, warm hug. It reminds me of the warmth of being alive."

Chin's real life has been one of dramatic changes. Born in Pingtung, southern Taiwan, he was a veterinarian working in a farming area. He liked singing to animals and telling them stories, he says.

But when he turned 27, he thought: "I want to find a job of writing or telling stories to real people."

He then moved to Taipei, and in 1980, opened a theater with friends, including the veteran actors Ku Pao-ming and the late screenwriter and theater director Hugh K S Lee. At the time, Taiwan's contemporary theater scene was in its infancy.

One of his most well-known roles is that of Jiang Binliu, the leading man in the play Secret Love in Peach Blossom Land by the Taiwan director Stan Lai. The play was performed in 1986, and Chin played the role hundreds of times over the next 20 years.

Lai once said that though Chin had played the role that long, he never ceased to bring something new to it at every performance.

For years Chin has followed a relatively simple lifestyle, eschewing cars and mobile phones, and preferring to wear second-hand clothes. Though he acts in movies and TV series he has said the thespian love of his life is theater.

In 2005, he worked with the Taiwan director Wu Hsing-kuo as artistic director, presenting the Samuel Beckett classic Waiting for Godot in a Peking Opera format.

Chin married in 2009, and he is the father of twins, a boy and a girl, now aged 4.

Having his own family has made him softer and happier, he says.

"I used to consider myself my own biggest rival. I'm now a lot more relaxed."