When it comes to showbiz career portfolios, veteran Taiwanese star Sylvia Chang’s is impressively diverse, having done everything from singing to acting to directing to producing to writing (phew!).

However, the “greatest challenge” she has faced in her life, as the 68-year-old revealed on Chinese variety show Searching for Youth, was the birth of her son Oscar Wang, 31.

“Being a mother is the most difficult role I have ever encountered,” she shared.

In the final episode of Searching for Youth, Oscar made a special guest appearance, marking one of the rare times mother and son have been seen together in public.

While his social media feed isn’t exactly flooded with photos of his famous mum, Oscar does post sweet tributes to her from time to time, such as this #throwback that shows Sylvia expertly carrying him as a baby with one arm while performing at the same time:

In addition to being a successful artist and designer, the “serial entrepreneur” — as we saw one media outlet put it — also runs a talent management company, a PR firm, a creative agency, a clothing label, and several F&B businesses (again, phew!).

Things weren’t always smooth sailing for him, though.

During the show, Oscar showed the notice of termination he had to write to his employees in the past, explaining that he was once forced to lay off staff when he ran into problems in his early days of starting a business.

According to Sylvia, she and her husband had thought about how much they should try to help Oscar back then, but they eventually decided to let him deal with it by himself.

After hearing this, Oscar thanked her for letting him be independent.

The reason Sylvia keeps her private life fiercely under wraps — or used to, at least — has something to do with the very scary time Oscar was kidnapped when he was a child.

In 2000, a then-nine-year-old Oscar was grabbed on his way to school and his abductors reportedly demanded a ransom of HK$15mil (S$2.6mil) in exchange for his safety.

Sylvia herself was said to have calmly bargained with the kidnappers to buy some time, and seven days later, she managed to rescue her boy with the assistance of the police.

Since then, Sylvia became more aware of the importance of life and family. She took a three-year hiatus to dedicate all her time to her son and is now a life-long volunteer for World Vision so she can help other families.

Photos: Searching for Youth/Weibo, China Times, Oscar Wang/Instagram