Before turning to acting, David Chiang (or John Chiang, 1947-) worked stunts as a martial artist. His talent was spotted by Chang Cheh who Chang invited him to play the leading role in The Wandering Swordsman (1970). Chang wrote tailor-made scripts for David Chiang. In these stories, the protagonist displayed an image of an agile kid, rather than the big-built, strong and gallantry image created earlier for Jimmy Wang Yu. David Chiang won the Best Actor Award of the Asian Film Festival with Vengeance! (1970) and was in fact the first Hong Kong actor to have won this award. Afterwards, he starred in The Boxer from Shantung (1972), Four Riders (1972), The Blood Brothers (1973), Trilogy of Swordsmanship (1972), The Angry Guest (1972), etc. David Chiang was one of the important martial arts stars of Taiwan and Hong Kong in the 1970s.