Remembering Hong Kong's great actress Cheng Pei-Pei (6 January 1946 in Shanghai, China - 17 July 2024 in San Francisco Bay Area, California, USA) whose career continued on for decades with over a 100 films behind her, making a name for herself among the best-known actors. She was lead actress in King Hu's 1966 film Come Drink With Me, played Jade Fox in the Ang Lee directed 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and also acted in Disney's 2020 remake of Mulan.
She was born Jiang Pei-Pei in Shanghai. she was the eldest of four siblings; she had a brother and two sisters. Her father, Jiang Xuecheng, was a Kuomintang member who worked for the Shanghai Municipal Police in Shanghai International Settlement. After World War II, Jiang established China's first ink factory. In 1952, when Cheng was 6, her father was labeled a counter-revolutionary and sent to a labor camp in Inner Mongolia; she never saw him again, he died in 1963 without his family knowing. Cheng's mother was initially her father's secretary and later decided to change the children's surname to her own to protect them from their father's political consequences.
Cheng attended World Elementary School in Shanghai where she was a schoolmate of future movie stars Grace Chang and Chen Hou. She went to the Shanghai No. 3 Girls' High School, where she was a schoolmate of Lydia Shum. She also studied ballet for six years in Shanghai. In the mid-1950s, Cheng's mother and siblings moved to Hong Kong, leaving Cheng in the care of a nanny in Shanghai before the nanny also left. Cheng lived independently for several years and following her mother finally moved to Hong Kong in 1960. In 1963, she was admitted to the training program at Shaw Brothers Studio. After graduating she joined the studio and made her film debut in The Lotus Lamp (1965), playing the male scholar Liu Yanchang opposite Lin Dai. Cheng followed this with her first female lead role in the Taiwanese drama film Lovers' Rock (1964).
Due to her Mandarin skills and dance background, she quickly worked her way up in the Hong Kong film industry at a time when the Mandarin-language productions commanded higher budgets and wider distribution than Cantonese works. Cheng gained fame for starring in the Hong Kong wuxia film Come Drink with Me directed by King Hu in 1966. The story of the film was set during the Ming Dynasty, Cheng playing 'Golden Swallow' who is a skilled swordswoman on a mission to rescue her brother. Cheng continued to play expert swordswomen in a number of films throughout the 1960s.
In 1970, at the peak of her career, Cheng married and subsequently retired from acting, moving to the United States for her husband's business endeavors. She attended business school at the University of California, Irvine and also taught Chinese dance in Southern California. In the 1980s she founded a television production company in the United States and traveled across Hawaii and Northern California at her own expense to produce a documentary series about Chinese Americans. Both Cheng's TV business and her marriage failed around the same time. In 1987 she divorced from her husband but continued to live with him for two years. In 1989, her company declared bankruptcy and Cheng moved out of their house.
With the comedy Flirting Scholar (1993), Cheng successfully returned to acting in the 1990s Hong Kong. In 2000, she returned to international attention with her role as Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon directed by Ang Lee, whom Cheng had befriended in the 90s when she was host of KSCI's Mandarin talk show, Pei-Pei's Time.
Into the 21st century, she became active across Greater China with Chinese TV dramas such as Young Justice Bao (2000), Chinese Paladin (2004), and The Patriot Yue Fei (2012), as well as Singaporean TV dramas Spring of Life (2002) and Women of Times(2006). She gained new popularity among the younger generation with Chinese reality show Divas Hit the Road (2014). Her notable international credits included the action film Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li (2009), the British drama Lilting (2014), the Canadian drama Meditation Park (2017), and Disney's live-action remake of Mulan (2020) as the match maker.
Upon receiving a lifetime achievement award in Hong Kong in 2015, Cheng reflected on her acting career as follows: "I always remember that I represent the Hong Kong people. So no matter where I am in the world, I will always identify myself as a Hong Kong actress and maintain the professionalism that a Hong Kong actress should have."
Filmography
2022 The King of Wuxia - as Self
2020 Mulan - as The Matchmaker
2019 Iron Fists and Kung Fu Kicks - as Self
2019 Bell Chamber - as Qin Yi
2019 In a New York Minute - as Amy's Mother
2019 Flirting Scholar from the Future - as Mistress Hua
2017 Meditation Park - as Maria
2017 Blind Date (52 episodes)
2017 Little Valentine (40 episodes) - as Niu Zhenzhen
2016 Goldstone - as Mrs. Lao
2016 Dragon Girls! - as Herself
2016 Good Take, Too! - as (segment "The Lighthouse of My Life")
2016 The Sleeping Beauty (80 episodes) - as 秦奶奶
2015 Lost in Wrestling - as Yuanyuan
2015 回到未來錢 (1 episode)
2014 The Eyes of Dawn
2014 The Scroll of Wing Chun White Crane
2014 Lilting - as Junn
2014 Divas Hit the Road (8 episodes)
2014 The Legend of Run Run Shaw - as Herself
2013 千金归来 (50 episodes) - as Mother Rong
2013 Legend of Hua Mulan (57 episodes) - as Grandma Xia
2012 Singular Cay
2012 非常后妈 (30 episodes) - as 杜奶奶
2012 自古英雄出少年 (38 episodes) - as 贝婆婆
2012 Time and Tide Wait for No Man: A Touch of King Hu - as Self
2011 Speed Angels - as Auntie Fen
2011 Coming Back - as God Ni
2011 Legendary Amazons - as She Taijun
2011 Shanghai Legend (16 episodes) - as 毛坚
2011 The Guardsman
2011 My Wedding and Other Secrets - as Mrs Chu
2010 一一向前冲 (28 episodes) - as Dr. Tian
2010 A Weaver on the Horizon (36 episodes)
2010 Flirting Scholar 2 - as Madame Wah
2010 Fortune King Is Coming to Town! - as Mrs Liang
2009 Remembrance Of Dreams Past (42 episodes) as 陆老夫人
2009 Blood Ties - as Madam Lee
2009 Taishan Kung Fu
2009 Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li - as Zhilan
2009 Basic Love
2008 Kung Fu Killer 2 - as Myling
2008 Kung Fu Killer - as Myling
2008 Love Under the Sign of the Dragon - as Tham
2008 Special Boys - as 兰姑妈
2007 They Wait - as Aunt Mei
2007 The Counting House - as Lia
2007 Shanghai Baby - as Conny
2006 Book and Sword: The Final Battle
2005 House of Harmony - as Amah
2005 李卫辞官 (42 episodes) - as 李卫母
2005 Dandelion (22 episodes)
2005 Strange Tales of Liao Zhai (36 episodes) - as 苗婆婆【阿宝】
2005 A Century of Light and Shadow - as Herself
2005 Insuperable Kid Huoyuanjia
2004 The Miracle Box - as Joanna's Mom
2004 Shui yue dong tian (30 episodes) - as 龙婆
2003 Cinema Hong Kong: The Beauties of the Shaw Studio as Herself
2003 Cinema Hong Kong: Wu Xia - as Herself
2002 Springs of Life (1 episode) - as Yun Shu Heng
2002 Naked Weapon as Faye Ching
2002 The Art of Action: Martial Arts in the Movies - as Self
2002 Romance of Book and Sword (46 episodes) - as Empress Dowager Chongqing
2002 Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger - as Liu Ru Yan
2002 Book and Sword - as Huang Tai Hou
2001 Grit & Polish: Heroines from Hong Kong - as Self
2001 Shadow Mask - as Red Goddess
2001 Legendary Fighter: Yang's Heroine (40 episodes) - as 佘赛花
2001 Heroes in Black (20 episodes) - as 冯 母
2000 Lavender
2000 Young Justice Bao (40 episodes) - as Bao's Mother(包夫人)
2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon - as Jade Fox
2000 Fist Power - as Brian's mother
1999 The Truth About Jane and Sam - as Sam's mother
1999 A Man Called Hero - as Bai Sulian
1999 Hua Mulan (48 episodes) - as Li Liang's Mother
1999 Four Chefs and a Feast
1999 Young Master Of Shaolin (40 episodes) - as Wumei
1999 Lord Of Imprisonment (56 episodes) - as 老板娘
1998 马永贞之争霸上海滩 (22 episodes)
1997 Master Ma (42 episodes)
1996 Top Fighter 2 - as Self (Archive Footage)
1996 How to Meet the Lucky Stars
1996 Wong Fei Hung Series : The Final Victory
1995 Wong Fei Hung Series (20 episodes)
1994 From Zero to Hero
1994 Lover's Lover
1994 The Gods Must Be Funny in China
1994 Wing Chun - as Ng Mui
1994 Kung Fu Mistress
1993 Kidnap of Wong Chak Fai - as Kung Tse Sam
1993 Flirting Scholar - as Madame Wah
1988 Painted Faces - as Ching
1984 Huo Dong Ge (30 episodes) - as 陈士超
1983 All the King's Men
1982 Lady Piranha- as Jo 'Lady Piranha' Chan
1974 Whiplash - as Hu Pien-Tze
1973 None But the Brave - as Shao Ying
1972 The Yellow Muffler - as Singer
1971 The Shadow Whip - as Miss Yun/Yang Kai Yun
1971 The Lady Hermit - as Leng Yu Shuang (Lady Hermit)
1970 Brothers Five - as Heroine Yen Hsing-kung
1970 Lady of Steel - as Fang Ying Qi
1969 The Golden Sword - as Ngai Jin-Feng
1969 Raw Courage - as Shangguan Xiuyi
1969 The Flying Dagger - as Yu Ying
1969 Dragon Swamp - as Qing-Erh / Fan Ying
1968 The Jade Raksha - as Leng Qiu Han (The Jade Raksha)
1968 That Fiery Girl - as Hot Chilli/Pearl
1968 Golden Swallow - as Golden Swallow Xie Ru Yan
1967 Operation Lipstick - as Li Bing
1967 Blue Skies - as Chen Yun
1967 The Dragon Creek - as Kuo Erh Niu
1967 The Thundering Sword - as So Jiau Jiau
1967 Hong Kong Nocturne - as Chia Chuan Chuan
1966 The Joy of Spring - as Herself (Cameo)
1966 Princess Iron Fan - as White Bone Demon
1966 Come Drink with Me - as Golden Swallow
1965 The Lotus Lamp - as Liu Yan-Chang
1965 Song of Orchid Island - as Olan
1964 Lover's Rock - as Lin Chiu-tzu
1964 The Last Woman of Shang - as Dancing girl