LOS ANGELES—The Taiwanese model known as Ai Qiu got the word “scream” tattooed under her left eye.
“With the green pearl grass and the European heather, two plants that each represent disguise and loneliness,” Ai Qiu explains. “How many human smiles are genuine?
“Everyone can pretend and everyone has moments of hypocrisy.”
Ai tells AVN that when she was a student, “my smile was my mask.”
“I wore it 24 hours a day and never took it off,” she continues. “When various things happened that made me uncomfortable, I still smiled, but I knew that my heart was screaming all the time and there was no exit.
“Everyone is an independent individual. The disguise of a smile is on the face and behind it lies loneliness, so I have it tattooed on my face.”
The enchanting performer also has elaborate tattoos on her left hand, left foot and her neck.
She worked as a waitress for three years before porn.
“I was specializing in helping people order and serve drinks and listening to the minutiae of customers' lives,” says Ai, who lives in Taiwan but traveled to Las Vegas in January for the return of the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in person for the first time since 2020.
Ai represented Model Media Group, the upstart Taiwan-based company founded in 2019 that made significant inroads in America in 2022.
Already prominent in China, Taiwan and Japan, Model Media made a statement in the U.S. market in 2022, launching POV Adventure to go with its sister banners Jerkaoke and Delphine Films and casting big-name U.S. talent in dozens of scenes.
Model Media Group exhibited at the AVN Show for the first time, holding down a sizable booth in the main hall, where Ai Qiu and several of her fellow models signed autographs and posed for pictures with the fans.
Qiu, who broke into adult entertainment about three years ago after being introduced to the industry by an agent, says her first trip to the USA made a lasting impression on her.
“The staff took good care of us and I met fans who flew from overseas to meet me in the U.S. during this event,” Qiu says. “I was touched by the fact that I had never met fans before and was not confident enough to know my own value.
“And I love the American environment and culture very much. I had this opportunity to go to my favorite country. Everything there makes me feel the urge to kneel in the middle of the main road and lie on the ground and breathe the air there. I really feel happy to be unreal.”
Ai reveals that her favorite part of the AVN Show without question was “talking and interacting with Americans.”
“It was very refreshing and it was a good opportunity to practice my poor English language skills,” she says with a smile. “I saw a lot of girls in various costumes (too revealing/sexy in my country, Taiwan), and I was really envious.
“They were all very confident in showing their original human bodies to the public and the public praised rather than criticized them.”
Model Media Group announced their first-ever AVN Awards nominations at a press conference in late December in Taipei, Taiwan, where Model Media Manager Alex Tsang detailed the studio's U.S. accolades before a Taiwanese media throng that included TV, print and online outlets.
Ai Qiu tells AVN she is proud to be part of the Model Media Group team.
“I'm glad that the first company I started in this industry was Model Media,” Ai says. “In the shooting, work is not just a job. They can make you feel happy and relaxed, and record your most beautiful face without pressure, making many quality works very impressive.
“I can't count the number of works I've done, but my acting style always depends on the script and the characters I'm shooting at the time.”
Qiu continues, “Due to my appearance and the market, I often get dark or active but cold roles, even though my personality is always the opposite of my on-screen persona outside of my work. But in order to act well I will watch some BL comics to learn the sense of involvement and line presentation.”
Ai notes that what she enjoys the most about her job as an adult performer is “the relaxed but serious attitude that we all have when we are working on a shoot.”
“Whether it is in the face of a ridiculous plot or a variety of ridiculous lines, it always makes me laugh,” she jokes. “The seriousness of speaking some retarded lines and not laughing is a hurdle that I am still not used to and need to learn to cross after three years in this industry, and I sincerely admire the people who think about the content of the script.”
Photography courtesy of Model Media Group
