Rest in Peace, Cheng Pei-Pei (December 4th, 1946 - July 17th, 2024)
Cheng Pei-Pei is widely seen as a pioneer: the benevolent great-grandmommy of all contemporary martial arts movie actresses. The same way Come Drink with Me is oft considered the first modern martial arts movie--not considering Japanese jidai-geki films--it's star is considered the first modern martial arts--wuxia to be specific--herione. In tha way, she is like the female Jimmy Wang Yu, who set the standard for future male martial arts heroes.
If you had a family tree of female swordplay/kung fu movie actresses, Cheng Pei-Pei would occupy a special place at the center. Below her would be the likes of Polly Shang-Kuan Ling-Feng (who actually was something of a contemporay), Chia Ling, Shih Szu, Angela Mao Ying, and Kara Hui Ying-Hung. Below them would be your 1980s Girls n' Guns actresses, like Michelle Yeoh, Moon Lee, Cynthia Khan, Yukari Oshima and Cynthia Rothrock. Below them would be the likes of Zhang Ziyi, JeeJa Yanin, and Jiang Luxia.
Not that Cheng Pei-Pei was a martial artist. She was a classically-trained dancer. After the communists took over China in 1949, it wasn't long before her father, the owner of an ink factory and supporter of the deposed Kuomanting (Nationalists), was shipped off to Mongolia for "re-education," as the CCP was wont to do at the time. Cheng's mother gave her money to pay for dance lessons for her younger sister, but she was not interested. Cheng was. Cheng studied ballet and Chinese dance for six years, even after her mother and siblings fled Shanghai for Hong Kong. It was not until 1961, when Cheng was 15, that she finally left Shanghai and was reunited with her mother and siblings in Hong Kong.
The following year, Cheng Pei-Pei enrolled in the Performing Arts Training Program at the Shaw Brothers Studios. She also earned money teaching dance and performing with Peking Opera performances. Following her graduation from the program in 1963, Cheng signed a seven-year contract with the Shaw Brothers. Her first film was The Last Woman of Shang (1964), where she played a dancing girl and also worked behind the scenes as a dance choreographer. She played in both dramas and period fantasy films. But things came to a head in 1966, when she was chosen by King Hu to star in Come Drink with Me. In this wuxia pian, Cheng played the deadly Golden Swallow, who fights off an army of bandits in order to save her brother, the son of a Ming general. King Hu was fascinated with Peking Opera and his action director, Han Ying-Chieh, was trained in Peking Opera. Although Cheng Pei-Pei was not a martial artist, her dance skills were more than enough to allow her to perform Han Yin-Chieh's choreography, a mixture of Peking Opera and Japanese chanbara sensibilities.
Come Drink with Me was a success and Cheng Pei-Pei quickly became a top box office draw in Hong Kong. She followed with films like The Dragon Creek and The Thundering Sword. In 1968, she appeared in a sequel to Come Drink with Me, titled Golden Swallow, co-starring Jimmy Wang Yu and directed by Chang Cheh. In 1969, three of her films occupied the top six domestic releasess at the box office: Dragon Swamp; The Golden Sword; and Raw Courage. In 1970, her films Brothers Five and Lady of Steel were the third and ninth best films released domestically.
That same year, Cheng Pei-Pei married Taiwanese businessman Yuan Wen-Tung and eventually immigrated to the United States. It was customary at the time for actresses in Hong Kong and Taiwan to retire after getting married. Cheng did return to Hong Kong to make two films, Attack of the Kung Fu Girls and Whiplash, for Golden Harvest, her original benefactor's rival. This was likely done as a favor to director Lo Wei, who had directed a number of her films.
While raising her four children--including Eugenia, Marsha, and Harry--she also taught Chinese dance and studied business at U.C. Irvine. Around 1986, she founded a production company in the United States and started making documentaries about Chinese history for American consumption. She also had a Chinese-language show called "Pei-Pei Time," which was how she met a young Taiwanese director named Ang Lee. The bankruptcy of her production company contributed to the failure of her marriage and she divorced Yuan in 1987. Some time after her divorce, she decided to return to film and started making appearances in Hong Kong movies and shows.
As we all know, her biggest break was as the villain Jade Tiger in Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon. Interestingly enough, her pupil was played by Zhang Ziyi. Like Cheng, Zhang was not trained in martial arts, but had a background in dance. Cheng Pei-Pei stayed busy in film and television until 2020. Her final film was as the matchmaker in Disney's live-action adaptation of Mulan. It was at that time that she was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration, a neuro-degenerative disease. She retired from the screen to spend her final years with her family.
My Thoughts on Cheng Pei-Pei
Cheng Pei-Pei has always been something of a blind spot for me in my Hong Kong filmography. I saw her in a number of her later films like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon and Flying Dragon Leaping Tiger. My "introduction" to her was in Wing Chun when I saw that in the fall of 1997, but that was a) a cameo appearance and b) I had no idea of who she was or what her importance to the genre was at that time. I came to learn a little more about her, although her films were pretty elusive on video during the later 1990s. Shaw Brothers movies were harder to find on video--there were a few ballyhooed releases of Five Fingers of Death; The Five Deadly Venoms; and The 36th Chamber of Shaolin that reached Blockbuster Video shelves, but little more than that. Even when I found a grey-market retailer that sold Shaw films at a good price--shout out to the now-defunct Grandmaster Video--I was busier tracking down 1990s wire-fu films.
Filmography
The Last Woman of Shang (1964)[Actor/Dance Choreographer]
Lover's Rock (1964)[Actor]
Song of Orchid Island (1965)[Actor]
The Lotus Lamp (1965)[Actor]
The Monkey Goes West (1966)[Actor]
Come Drink with Me (1966)[Actor]
Princess Iron Fan (1966)[Actor]
The Joy of Spring (1966)[Cameo]
Hong Kong Nocturne (1967)[Actor]
Operation Lipstick (1967)[Actor]
The Thundering Sword (1967)[Actor]
The Dragon Creek (1967)[Actor]
Blue Skies (1967)[Actor]
Golden Swallow (1968)[Actor]
That Fiery Girl (1968)[Actor]
The Jade Raksha (1968)[Actor]
Dragon Swamp (1969)[Actor]
The Flying Dagger (1969)[Actor]
Raw Courage (1969)[Actor]
The Golden Sword (1969)[Actor]
Lady of Steel (1970)[Actor]
Brothers Five (1970)[Actor]
The Shadow Whip (1970)[Actor]
The Yellow Muffler (1971)[Actor]
None But the Brave (1973)[Actor]
Whiplash (1974)[Actor]
Chivalrous Shadow, Fragrant Footprints (TV, 1980)[Actor]
Lady Piranha (1982)[Actor]
All the King's Men (1983)[Actor]
The Legend Continues (TV, 1984)[Actor]
Painted Faces (1988)[Actor]
Ben Xiang USA (1990)[Actor/Producer]
Flirting Scholar (1993)[Actor]
Kidnap of Wong Chak Fai (1993)[Actor]
Kung Fu Mistress (1994)[Actor]
The Gods Must Be Funny in China (1994)[Actor]
Lover's Lover (1994)[Actor]
From Zero to Hero (1994)[Actor]
Wong Fei Hung Series: The Final Victory (TV, 1996)[Actor]
How to Meet the Lucky Stars (1996)[Actor]
The Pride of Chaozhou (TV, 1997)[Actor]
The Spirit of the Dragon (1997)[Actor]
Master Ma (TV, 1998)[Actor]
Master Ma II (TV, 1998)[Actor]
Four Chefs and a Feast (1999)[Actor]
A Man Called Hero (1999)[Cameo]
The Truth About Jane and Sam (1999)[Actor]
Young Master of Shaolin (TV, 1999)[Actor]
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)[Actor]
Lavender (2000)[Actor]
Young Justice Bao (TV, 2000)[Actor]
Heroes in Black (TV, 2001)[Actor]
Legendary Fighter: Yang's Heroine (TV, 2001)[Actor]
Flying Dragon, Leaping Tiger (2002)[Actor/Planner]
Shadow Mask (2001)[Actor]
Book and Sword: Gratitude and Revenge (TV, 2002)[Actor]
Naked Weapon (2002)[Actor]
Springs of Life (2002)[Actor]
Chinese Paladin (TV, 2004)[Actor]
The Miracle Box (2004)[Actor]
Sex and the Beauties (2004)[Actor]
Water Moon, Hollow Sky (TV, 2004)[Actor]
Insuperable Kid Huoyuanjia (2005)[Actor]
Li Wei Resigns from Office (TV, 2005)[Actor]
Women of Times (TV, 2006)[Actor]
The Yang Sisters (TV, 2006)[Actor]
The Counting House (2007)[Actor]
Shanghai Baby (2007)[Actor]
They Wait (2007)[Actor]
Home With Kids 5 (TV, 2008)[Actor]
Kung Fu Killer (2008)[Actor]
Love Under the Sign of the Dragon (2008)[Actor]
Basic Love (2009)[Actor]
Blood Ties (2009)[Actor]
Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun Li (2009)[Actor]
Taishan Kung Fu (2009)[Actor]
Flirting Scholar 2 (2010)[Actor]
Fortune King Is Coming to Town! (2010)[Actor]
A Weaver on the Horizon (TV, 2010)[Actor]
Coming Back (2011)[Actor]
Double Bed Treaty (2011)[Actor]
Imperial Bodyguard (2011)[Actor]
The Legendary Amazons (2011)[Actor]
Let Love Come Back (2011)[Actor]
My Wedding and Other Secrets (2011)[Actor]
Shanghai Hotel (2011)[Actor]
Speed Angels (2011)[Actor]
The Patriot Yue Fei (TV, 2012)[Actor]
Singular Puzzle (2012)[Actor]
Xuan-Yuan Sword: Scar of Sky (TV, 2012)[Actor]
Daughter's Return (TV, 2013)[Actor]
The Vintage (2013)[Actor]
The Eyes of Dawn (2014)[Actor]
The Scroll of Wing Chun White Crane (2014)[Actor]
Streets of Macao (2014)[Actor]
The Bat Night (2015)[Actor]
Bright Wedding (2015)[Actor]
The Face (2015)[Actor]
Lost in Wrestling (2015)[Actor]
The Lost Tomb (TV, 2015)[Actor]
Cooking For Two (2016)[Actor/Producer]
Goldstone (2016)[Actor]
Good Take, Too (2016)[Actor]
Ice Fantasy (TV, 2016)[Actor]
Love of Hope (2017)[Actor]
Meditation Park (2017)[Actor]
Tao Li Xian Chang (2017)[Actor]
Bell Chamber (2019)[Actor]
Flirting Scholar from the Future (2019)[Actor]
In a New York Minute (2019)[Actor]
Mulan (2019)[Cameo]
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