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Japan: 'Mimasu Tokujiro in the role of San'. Woodblock print by Katsukawa Shunko (1743-1812), c. 1780s. Katsukawa Shunkō I was a Japanese artist who designed <i>ukiyo-e</i>-style woodblock prints and paintings in Edo (modern Tokyo). He was a student of Katsukawa Shunshō, and is generally credited with designing the first large-head actor portraits (<i>ōkubi-e</i>). At 45, the right-handed Shunkō became partially paralyzed and ceased designing prints, although he continued producing paintings with his left hand.
Ken Domon (25 October 1909 – 15 September 1990) is one of the most renowned Japanese photographers of the 20th century. He is most celebrated as a photojournalist, though he may have been most prolific as a photographer of Buddhist temples and statuary.<br/><br/> Yoshiko Yamaguchi (12 February 1920 – 7 September 2014) was a Chinese-born Japanese actress and singer who made a career in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States.<br/><br/> Early in her career, the Manchukuo Film Association concealed her Japanese origin and she went by the Chinese name Li Xianglan, rendered in Japanese as Ri Koran. This allowed her to represent China in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war, she appeared in Japanese movies under her real name, as well as in several English-language movies under the stage name Shirley Yamaguchi.<br/><br/> She was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in the 1970s and served for 18 years. After retiring from politics, she served as vice president of the Asian Women's Fund.
Yoshiko Yamaguchi (12 February 1920 – 7 September 2014) was a Chinese-born Japanese actress and singer who made a career in China, Japan, Hong Kong, and the United States.<br/><br/> Early in her career, the Manchukuo Film Association concealed her Japanese origin and she went by the Chinese name Li Xianglan, rendered in Japanese as Ri Koran. This allowed her to represent China in Japanese propaganda movies. After the war, she appeared in Japanese movies under her real name, as well as in several English-language movies under the stage name Shirley Yamaguchi.<br/><br/> She was elected as a member of the Japanese parliament in the 1970s and served for 18 years. After retiring from politics, she served as vice president of the Asian Women's Fund.
Asmahan was an Arab Druze singer and actress of Syrian origins who lived in Egypt. Having immigrated to Egypt in childhood, her family knew the composer Dawood Hosni, and she sang the compositions of Mohamed El Qasabgi and Zakariyya Ahmad. She also sang the compositions of Mohammed Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash, a then rising star musician in his own right.<br/><br/> Hers was the only female voice in Arab music to pose serious competition to that of Umm Kulthum, who is considered to be one of the Arab world's most distinguished singers of the 20th century. Her mysterious death in an automobile accident shocked the public. Journalists spread gossip about her turbulent personal life and an alleged espionage role in World War II.
Aminah Tjendrakasih (Aminah Cendrakasih, born 29 January 1938 in Magelang, Central Java, is an Indonesian actress best known for her appearance as Lela in the television series 'Si Doel Anak Sekolahan' (Doel the Schoolchild, 1994–2005).<br/><br/> Beginning her career in her teenage years, in 1955 Cendrakasih had her first starring role in 1955's 'Ibu dan Putr'i (Mother and Daughter). She has since acted in more than a hundred feature films. In 2012 and 2013 she received Lifetime Achievement Awards from the Bandung Film Festival and the Indonesian Movie Awards, respectively.
Hu Die (1907-1989) had a career as a film actress from the late 1920s to the 1960s. She had her most brilliant period in the 1930s and the 1940s. Early in the 1930s, she played the leading role in China's first sound film, <i>The Singsong Girl</i>, in which she portrays a kindhearted but somewhat ignorant woman who endures her husband's mistreatment and oppression without the slightest resistance. In <i>The River Flows Rampant</i>, the first film made by left-wing dramatists, she plays the role of Xiujuan, a woman who is filled with the spirit of resistance and has a rich inner world in her heart.<br/><br/> Her performance won favorable comments. Hu Die played a full spectrum of characters, including a maidservant, a loving mother, a woman school teacher, an actress, a prostitute, a dancing girl, the daughter of a rich family, a laboring woman, and a factory worker. She had attractive, unconventional qualities, and her performances were gentle, honest, refined and sweet. Audiences call her a film queen. Hu Die lived both in the silent and sound film periods, and she was one of the most popular Chinese film actors and actresses in the 1930s and the 1940s.
After an early and brief film career in Germany, which included a controversial film Ecstasy (1933), Lamarr fled from her husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer and secretly moved to Paris. There, she met MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood, where she became a film star from the late 1930s to the 1950s.<br/><br/> Lamarr appeared in numerous popular feature films, including Algiers (1938), I Take This Woman (1940), Comrade X (1940), Come Live With Me (1941), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and Samson and Delilah (1949).<br/><br/> At the beginning of World War II, Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes, which used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Though the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are now incorporated into modern Wi-Fi, CDMA, and Bluetooth technology, and this work led to their being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
Asmahan was an Arab Druze singer and actress of Syrian origins who lived in Egypt. Having immigrated to Egypt in childhood, her family knew the composer Dawood Hosni, and she sang the compositions of Mohamed El Qasabgi and Zakariyya Ahmad. She also sang the compositions of Mohammed Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash, a then rising star musician in his own right.<br/><br/> Hers was the only female voice in Arab music to pose serious competition to that of Umm Kulthum, who is considered to be one of the Arab world's most distinguished singers of the 20th century. Her mysterious death in an automobile accident shocked the public. Journalists spread gossip about her turbulent personal life and an alleged espionage role in World War II.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Umm Kulthum, born Fatimah Ibrahim as-Sayyid al-Biltagi, on December 30, and who died February 3, 1975, was an internationally famous Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress of the 1920s to the 1970s.<br/><br/> Four decades after her death in 1975, she is still widely regarded as perhaps the greatest Arabic singer ever.
After an early and brief film career in Germany, which included a controversial film Ecstasy (1933), Lamarr fled from her husband, a wealthy Austrian ammunition manufacturer and secretly moved to Paris. There, she met MGM head Louis B. Mayer, who offered her a movie contract in Hollywood, where she became a film star from the late 1930s to the 1950s.<br/><br/> Lamarr appeared in numerous popular feature films, including Algiers (1938), I Take This Woman (1940), Comrade X (1940), Come Live With Me (1941), H.M. Pulham, Esq. (1941), and Samson and Delilah (1949).<br/><br/> At the beginning of World War II, Lamarr and composer George Antheil developed a radio guidance system for Allied torpedoes, which used spread spectrum and frequency hopping technology to defeat the threat of jamming by the Axis powers. Though the US Navy did not adopt the technology until the 1960s, the principles of their work are now incorporated into modern Wi-Fi, CDMA, and Bluetooth technology, and this work led to their being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 2014.
From 1861 to 1890 the Munich publishing firm of Braun and Schneider published plates of historic and contemporary costume in their magazine Munchener Bilderbogen.<br/><br/> These plates were eventually collected in book form and published at the turn of the century in Germany and England.
After appearing in minor movie roles, Wray was contracted to Paramount Pictures as a teenager, where she made more than a dozen movies. After leaving Paramount, she signed deals with various film companies, being cast in her first horror film roles among many other types of roles, including in <i>The Bowery</i> (1933) and <i>Viva Villa</i> (1934), both huge productions starring Wallace Beery.<br/><br/> For RKO Radio Pictures, Inc., she starred in the film with which she is most identified, <i>King Kong</i> (1933). After the success of <i>King Kong</i>, Wray made numerous appearances in both film and television before retiring in 1980.
Umm Kulthum, born Fatimah Ibrahim as-Sayyid al-Biltagi, on December 30, and who died February 3, 1975, was an internationally famous Egyptian singer, songwriter, and film actress of the 1920s to the 1970s.<br/><br/> Four decades after her death in 1975, she is still widely regarded as perhaps the greatest Arabic singer ever.
Peking opera or Beijing opera (Jīngju) is a form of traditional Chinese theatre which combines music, vocal performance, mime, dance, and acrobatics.<br/><br/> It arose in the late 18th century and became fully developed and recognized by the mid-19th century. The form was extremely popular in the Qing dynasty court and has come to be regarded as one of the cultural treasures of China.<br/><br/> Major performance troupes are based in Beijing and Tianjin in the north, and Shanghai in the south. The art form is also preserved in Taiwan, where it is known as Guoju. It has also spread to other countries such as the United States and Japan.
'Hanatsubaki' is a monthly cultural magazine issued by Shiseido. It was first issued in 1937. Although it was temporarily discontinued out of necessity for a period of time during and after World War II, it resumed printing in June 1950, 10 years after the discontinuation.<br/><br/> A popular actress, Kyoko Kagawa of Shintoho Pictures, appeared on the first cover after printing was resumed.<br/><br/> Since 2007, the magazine alternately issued 'Miru Hanatsubaki', in which fashion, beauty, art, and culture were vividly expressed on color pages, and 'Yomu Hanatsubaki', in which various reading materials such as novels were included. However, these 2 forms were unified, and the magazine has once again been issued as 'Hanatsubaki' starting in 2012, which was Shiseido’s 140th anniversary and the magazine’s 75th anniversary.
Asmahan was an Arab Druze singer and actress of Syrian origins who lived in Egypt. Having immigrated to Egypt in childhood, her family knew the composer Dawood Hosni, and she sang the compositions of Mohamed El Qasabgi and Zakariyya Ahmad. She also sang the compositions of Mohammed Abdel Wahab and her brother Farid al-Atrash, a then rising star musician in his own right.<br/><br/> Hers was the only female voice in Arab music to pose serious competition to that of Umm Kulthum, who is considered to be one of the Arab world's most distinguished singers of the 20th century. Her mysterious death in an automobile accident shocked the public. Journalists spread gossip about her turbulent personal life and an alleged espionage role in World War II.
Sarah Bernhardt (23 October 1844 – 26 March 1923) was a French stage and early film actress. She was referred to as 'the most famous actress the world has ever known', and is regarded as one of the finest actors of all time.<br/><br/> Bernhardt made her fame on the stages of France in the 1870s, at the beginning of the Belle Epoque period, and was soon in demand in Europe and the Americas. She developed a reputation as a sublime dramatic actress and tragedienne, earning the nickname 'The Divine Sarah'. In her later career she starred in some of the earliest films ever produced.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
The renowned female samurai, Tomoe-gozen in the 11th Century. Her husband or love was the Genji General Kiso Yoshinaka.<br/><br/> According to the 'The Tale of Heike', Tomoe was especially beautiful, with white skin, long hair, and charming features. She was also a remarkably strong archer, and as a swords-woman she was a warrior worth a thousand, ready to confront a demon or a god, mounted or on foot.<br/><br/> She handled unbroken horses with superb skill; she rode unscathed down perilous descents. Whenever a battle was imminent, Yoshinaka sent her out as his first captain, equipped with strong armor, an oversized sword, and a mighty bow, and she performed more deeds of valor than any of his other warriors.
The Korean War (25 June 1950 - armistice signed 27 July 1953) was a military conflict between the Republic of Korea, supported by the United Nations, and North Korea, supported by the People's Republic of China (PRC), with military material aid from the Soviet Union. The war was a result of the physical division of Korea by an agreement of the victorious Allies at the conclusion of the Pacific War at the end of World War II.<br/><br/>The Korean peninsula was ruled by Japan from 1910 until the end of World War II. Following the surrender of Japan in 1945, American administrators divided the peninsula along the 38th Parallel, with United States troops occupying the southern part and Soviet troops occupying the northern part. The failure to hold free elections throughout the Korean Peninsula in 1948 deepened the division between the two sides, and the North established a Communist government. The situation escalated into open warfare when North Korean forces invaded South Korea on 25 June 1950. It was the first significant armed conflict of the Cold War.<br/><br/>The United Nations, particularly the United States, came to the aid of South Korea in repelling the invasion. A rapid UN counter-offensive drove the North Koreans past the 38th Parallel and almost to the Yalu River, and the People's Republic of China (PRC) entered the war on the side of the North. The Chinese launched a counter-offensive that pushed the United Nations forces back across the 38th Parallel.<br/><br/>The Soviet Union materially aided the North Korean and Chinese armies. In 1953, the war ceased with an armistice that restored the border between the Koreas near the 38th Parallel and created the Korean Demilitarized Zone (DMZ), a 2.5-mile (4.0 km) wide buffer zone between the two Koreas. Minor outbreaks of fighting continue to the present day.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Xu Lai was a popular movie star of the Chinese cinema in the 1930s, and is best remembered for being the first Chinese actress to appear in a bath scene.
Hu Die (1907-1989) had a career as a film actress from the late 1920s to the 1960s.<br/><br/> She had her most brilliant period in the 1930s and the 1940s. Early in the 1930s, she played the leading role in China's first sound film, The Singsong Girl, in which she portrays a kindhearted but somewhat ignorant woman who endures her husband's mistreatment and oppression without the slightest resistance.<br/><br/> In The River Flows Rampant, the first film made by the left-wing dramatists, she plays the role of Xiujuan, a woman who is filled with the spirit of resistance and has a rich inner world in her heart. Her performance won favorable comments. Hu Die played a full spectrum of characters, including a maidservant, a loving mother, a woman school teacher, an actress, a prostitute, a dancing girl, the daughter of a rich family, a laboring woman, and a factory worker.<br/><br/> She had attractive, unconventional qualities, and her performances were gentle, honest, refined and sweet. The audiences call her a film queen. Hu Die lived both in the silent and sound film periods, and she was one of the most popular Chinese film actors and actresses in the 1930s and the 1940s.
Yoshiko made her debut as an actress and singer in the 1938 film Honeymoon Express. She was billed as Li Xianglan, pronounced Ri Kōran in Japanese. The adoption of a Chinese stage name was prompted by the Film company's economic and political motives—a Manchurian girl who had command over both the Japanese and Chinese languages was sought after. From this she rose to be a star and Japan-Manchuria Goodwill Ambassadress. Though in her subsequent films she was almost exclusively billed as Li Xianglan; she indeed appeared in a few as "Yamaguchi Yoshiko." Many of her films bore some degree of promotion of the Japanese national policy (in particular pertaining to the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere ideology).<br/><br/> At the end of World War II, she was arrested by Chinese government for treason and collaboration with the Japanese. However, she was cleared of all charges, and possibly the death penalty, since she was not a Chinese national, and thus the Chinese government could not try her for treason. And before long in 1946, she settled in Japan and launched a new acting career there under the name Yoshiko Yamaguchi.<br/><br/> In 1974, she was elected to the House of Councillors (the upper House of the Japanese parliament), where she served for 18 years (three terms).
Yao Lee (姚莉), also known as Yiu Lei and Miss Hue Lee, was a Chinese singer from the 1930s to the 1970s. By the 1940s, she became one of the seven great singing stars.<br/><br/> Born in Shanghai, Yao began performing with a radio appearance there in 1935 at the age of 13. She was signed to Pathe Records. Yao was known as 'the Silver Voice' (銀嗓子) alluding to fellow Shanghai singer Zhou Xuan, who was known as 'the Golden Voice' (金嗓子).<br/><br/> Following the Communist seizure of power in China in 1949, popular music was considered ideologically suspect and Yao fled to Hong Kong in 1950 to continue her singing career there. She stopped singing in 1967 with the death of her brother, but took an executive position with EMI Music Hong Kong in 1969.<br/><br/> In 1970, she returned to performing and traveled to Taiwan to perform there for the first time and sought unsuccessfully to sign Teresa Teng to EMI for the Hong Kong market. She retired officially in 1975.
Yao Lee (姚莉), also known as Yiu Lei and Miss Hue Lee, was a Chinese singer from the 1930s to the 1970s. By the 1940s, she became one of the seven great singing stars.<br/><br/> Born in Shanghai, Yao began performing with a radio appearance there in 1935 at the age of 13. She was signed to Pathe Records. Yao was known as 'the Silver Voice' (銀嗓子) alluding to fellow Shanghai singer Zhou Xuan, who was known as 'the Golden Voice' (金嗓子).<br/><br/> Following the Communist seizure of power in China in 1949, popular music was considered ideologically suspect and Yao fled to Hong Kong in 1950 to continue her singing career there. She stopped singing in 1967 with the death of her brother, but took an executive position with EMI Music Hong Kong in 1969.<br/><br/> In 1970, she returned to performing and traveled to Taiwan to perform there for the first time and sought unsuccessfully to sign Teresa Teng to EMI for the Hong Kong market. She retired officially in 1975.
Yu So Chow (Chinese: 于素秋; pinyin: Yú Sù Qiū; Yale Cantonese: yū sou chāu) is a Chinese actress born in Beijing on July 9, 1930 to a Peking opera family. She is the daughter of late Master Yu Jim Yuen who ran the China Drama Academy, a Peking Opera School in Hong Kong, and teacher of many well-known actors.<br/><br/> She started her acting career in 1948 and made over 240 films in the wuxia, kung fu, action, detective and Cantonese opera genres. Her films were successful at the box-office and she was one of the most popular superstars of the 1960s in Asia and Hong Kong.
Wu was born to an intellectual family with her father a chemical engineer and mother a doctor. She enjoyed singing to radio tunes at an early age. She originally wanted to go to the Shanghai Academy of Music, but her parents opposed the idea and claimed that the music industry was for individuals with no real ambition. She later began singing for radio stations at night, particularly for the children's programs.<br/><br/> Wu had a soft singing voice that made her a success. She continued to sing without her family knowing so and used the stage name 'Wu Yingyin'. In 1945 she became a nightclub singer and garnered acclaim for her performances. Most of her vocal techniques were self-taught. At the age of 24, she participated in a nightclub competition. Winning the crown, she was discovered and immediately signed to a contract with Pathé Records (China) record company. Her first record (我想忘了你 'I Want to Forget You) became a hit. In total, Pathé Records produced 30 albums for her. She was affectionately nicknamed 鼻音歌后 ('Queen of the Nasal Voice').<br/><br/> She relocated to Hong Kong in 1957 where she continued her singing career. She returned to China for recordings in 1983 in Guangzhou. In July 1984, she moved from Hong Kong to Pasadena, California. At the age of 80, she was still singing in overseas Chinese neighborhood community events for charitable causes. At the time, she was regarded as one of the world's oldest active singers.<br/><br/> She would also sing in Singapore, and on January 3, 2003 she was invited to perform at the Shanghai Grand Theatre. Wu died in Los Angeles on 17 December 2009.
Li was born Qian Zhenzhen in Beijing, 1915. Her father, Qian Zhuangfei, was an important figure among the early heroes of the Communist Party. In 1927 she moved to Shanghai, where her father encouraged her to join the China National Song & Dance Troupe, later renamed Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe. Li Jinhui, later known as the Father of Chinese popular music, was the conductor of the troupe and adopted her as his god-daughter, and she adopted his surname.<br/><br/> The troupe were very popular in 1920s Shanghai. Li Lili, Wang Renmei, Xue Lingxian and Hu Jia were known as the Four Divas. The troupe joined the Lianhua Film Company in 1931, and disbanded the troupe the next year. Li became an actress, and starred in Sun Yu's 1932 Loving Blood of the Volcano. Set in the South Seas with plenty of dancing, this allowed Li to play to her strengths. She and Wang Renmei then acted together in Poetry Written on the Banana Leaf.<br/><br/> After war with Japan broke out in 1937, she joined the China Film Studio in Chongqing. There she met and married Luo Jingyu, a section head, who became head of the studio. In 1939 she filmed Cai Chusheng's Orphan Island Paradise in Hong Kong; it was another hit. Back in Chongqing, she starred in another hit film Storm on the Border, for which she was highly praised.<br/><br/> Li travelled to the United States in 1946, studying acting at Catholic University in Washington, language and singing in New York, and make-up at the University of California. She also observed filmmaking at Hollywood. She returned to China, and to acting at the Beijing Film Studio. In 1955, she studied at Beijing Film Academy, and later taught in the acting department. Her son, Luo Dan, married the daughter of Marshal Ye Jianying; Ye became China's head of state in the late 1970s.<br/><br/> During the Cultural Revolution, Li and her husband were denounced and tortured on the orders of Mao's wife Jiang Qing. Li had acted with her, and outshone her, in films such as Blood on Wolf Mountain. Li later told her family that she refused to denounce anyone. Luo, however, was killed.<br/><br/> In 1991, she was given the 'Special Honour Award' by the Chinese Academy of Motion Picture Arts. By the end of her life, Li Lili was the last living Chinese movie star from the silent era. She died of a heart attack in Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing on August 7, 2005, aged 90.
At a young age Bai joined the Bright Moonlight Song and Dance Troupe, where she entered the Shanghai entertainment industry. She used the stage name (白虹), which translates as 'White Rainbow'.<br/><br/> By the 1930s, she was a popular icon, known for her mastery of language and clarity in expressing lyrics, which helped her gain many fans. In the 1930s, she was recognized as one of the three great 'mandopop' singers with Zhou Xuan and Gong Qiuxia.<br/><br/> Her career peaked in the 1940s, when her music style changed more to uptempo jazz. She was married to the composer Li Jin Guang(黎锦光), though they later separated in a divorce in the 1950s. She stayed in China after 1949 and continued making films. During the Cultural Revolution her past association with the old Shanghai days caught up to her, and she was subjected to persecution and abuse. In 1992, she died at the age of 73.
Zhou was born Su Pu (蘇璞), but was separated from her natural parents at a young age and raised by adoptive parents. She spent her entire life searching for her biological parents but her parentage was never established until after her death.<br/><br/> According to later family research, a relative who was an opium addict took her at the age of 3 to another city and sold her to a family named Wang, who named her Wang Xiaohong. She was later adopted by a family named Zhou, changing her name to Zhou Xiaohong.<br/><br/> At the age of 13 she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan' (璇) meaning 'beautiful jade' in Chinese. Zhou started acting in 1935, but she achieved stardom in 1937 in Street Angel, when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl.<br/><br/> 'Golden Voice' (金嗓子) was Zhou's nickname to commend her singing talents after a singing competition in Shanghai, where she came in second. Zhou rapidly became the most famous and marketable popular singer in the gramophone era up to her death, singing many famous tunes from her own movies. Her light but eminently musical voice captured the hearts of millions of Chinese of her time.<br/><br/> After introducing 'Shanghai Nights' (夜上海) in 1949, Zhou returned to Shanghai. She spent the next few years in and out of mental institutions owing to frequent breakdowns. Through the years, Zhou led a complicated and unhappy life marked by her failed marriages, illegitimate children, and suicide attempts. In 1957 she died in Shanghai in a mental asylum at the age of 39 during an Anti-Rightist Movement.
Zhou was born Su Pu (蘇璞), but was separated from her natural parents at a young age and raised by adoptive parents. She spent her entire life searching for her biological parents but her parentage was never established until after her death.<br/><br/> According to later family research, a relative who was an opium addict took her at the age of 3 to another city and sold her to a family named Wang, who named her Wang Xiaohong. She was later adopted by a family named Zhou, changing her name to Zhou Xiaohong.<br/><br/> At the age of 13 she took Zhou Xuan as her stage name, 'Xuan' (璇) meaning 'beautiful jade' in Chinese. Zhou started acting in 1935, but she achieved stardom in 1937 in Street Angel, when director Yuan Muzhi cast her as one of the leads as a singing girl.<br/><br/> 'Golden Voice' (金嗓子) was Zhou's nickname to commend her singing talents after a singing competition in Shanghai, where she came in second. Zhou rapidly became the most famous and marketable popular singer in the gramophone era up to her death, singing many famous tunes from her own movies. Her light but eminently musical voice captured the hearts of millions of Chinese of her time.<br/><br/> After introducing 'Shanghai Nights' (夜上海) in 1949, Zhou returned to Shanghai. She spent the next few years in and out of mental institutions owing to frequent breakdowns. Through the years, Zhou led a complicated and unhappy life marked by her failed marriages, illegitimate children, and suicide attempts. In 1957 she died in Shanghai in a mental asylum at the age of 39 during an Anti-Rightist Movement.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
The leading member of a Saigon theatre troupe, c.1905. 'Annamite Theatre' owed much to Chinese influence, and was especially popular in Cholon, Saigon's Chinatown.
Yoshiko made her debut as an actress and singer in the 1938 film Honeymoon Express. She was billed as Li Xianglan, pronounced Ri Kōran in Japanese. The adoption of a Chinese stage name was prompted by the Film company's economic and political motives—a Manchurian girl who had command over both the Japanese and Chinese languages was sought after. From this she rose to be a star and Japan-Manchuria Goodwill Ambassadress. Though in her subsequent films she was almost exclusively billed as Li Xianglan; she indeed appeared in a few as 'Yamaguchi Yoshiko.' Many of her films bore some degree of promotion of the Japanese national policy (in particular pertaining to the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere ideology).<br/><br/> At the end of World War II, she was arrested by Chinese government for treason and collaboration with the Japanese. However, she was cleared of all charges, and possibly the death penalty, since she was not a Chinese national, and thus the Chinese government could not try her for treason. And before long in 1946, she settled in Japan and launched a new acting career there under the name Yoshiko Yamaguchi.<br/><br/> In 1974, she was elected to the House of Councillors (the upper House of the Japanese parliament), where she served for 18 years (three terms).
Yoshiko made her debut as an actress and singer in the 1938 film Honeymoon Express. She was billed as Li Xianglan, pronounced Ri Kōran in Japanese. The adoption of a Chinese stage name was prompted by the Film company's economic and political motives—a Manchurian girl who had command over both the Japanese and Chinese languages was sought after. From this she rose to be a star and Japan-Manchuria Goodwill Ambassadress. Though in her subsequent films she was almost exclusively billed as Li Xianglan; she indeed appeared in a few as 'Yamaguchi Yoshiko.' Many of her films bore some degree of promotion of the Japanese national policy (in particular pertaining to the Greater East Asia Co-prosperity Sphere ideology).<br/><br/> At the end of World War II, she was arrested by Chinese government for treason and collaboration with the Japanese. However, she was cleared of all charges, and possibly the death penalty, since she was not a Chinese national, and thus the Chinese government could not try her for treason. And before long in 1946, she settled in Japan and launched a new acting career there under the name Yoshiko Yamaguchi.<br/><br/> In 1974, she was elected to the House of Councillors (the upper House of the Japanese parliament), where she served for 18 years (three terms).
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Xia Meng, a.k.a Hsia Moon or Miranda Yang; born Yang Meng, on 16 February 1932 in Shanghai, China) is a Hong Kong actress and film producer. She was the key figure of Hong Kong's Left Wing Mandarin movie scene.
Hu Die (1907-1989) had a career as a film actress from the late 1920s to the 1960s. She had her most brilliant period in the 1930s and the 1940s. Early in the 1930s, she played the leading role in China's first sound film, The Singsong Girl, in which she portrays a kindhearted but somewhat ignorant woman who endures her husband's mistreatment and oppression without the slightest resistance. In The River Flows Rampant, the first film made by left-wing dramatists, she plays the role of Xiujuan, a woman who is filled with the spirit of resistance and has a rich inner world in her heart.<br/><br/> Her performance won favorable comments. Hu Die played a full spectrum of characters, including a maidservant, a loving mother, a woman school teacher, an actress, a prostitute, a dancing girl, the daughter of a rich family, a laboring woman, and a factory worker. She had attractive, unconventional qualities, and her performances were gentle, honest, refined and sweet. Audiences call her a film queen. Hu Die lived both in the silent and sound film periods, and she was one of the most popular Chinese film actors and actresses in the 1930s and the 1940s.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Cholon or 'Big Market' in Vietnamese has long been the ethnic Chinese quarter of Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City, and remains so into the 21st century. In Vietnamese ethnic Chinese residents are called 'Hoa'.
Xia Meng (Chinese: 夏梦; a.k.a Hsia Moon or Miranda Yang; born Yang Meng (杨濛) on 16 February 1932 in Shanghai, China) is a Hong Kong actress and film producer. She was the key figure of Hong Kong's Left Wing Mandarin movie scene
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Jiang Qing (Chiang Ch'ing, March 1914 – May 14, 1991) was the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Communist Party of China power figure.<br/><br/> She went by the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life. She married Mao in Yan'an in November 1938, and is sometimes referred to as Madame Mao in Western literature, serving as Communist China's first first lady.<br/><br/> Jiang Qing was most well-known for playing a major role in the Cultural Revolution (1966–76) and for forming the radical political alliance known as the 'Gang of Four'. When Mao died in 1976, Jiang lost the support and justification for her political activities. She was arrested in October 1976 by Hua Guofeng and his allies, and was subsequently accused of being counter-revolutionary.<br/><br/> Though initially sentenced to death, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment in 1983, however, and in May 1991 she was released for medical treatment. Before returning to prison, she committed suicide.
A 1958 pinup of Diana Chang Chung-wen, popular movie star and sex symbol in Hong Kong cinema during the late 50s, billed as: 'The Most Beautiful Creature in Free China...' by her studios.
An onna-bugeisha (女武芸者) was a type of female warrior belonging to the Japanese upper class. Many wives, widows, daughters, and rebels answered the call of duty by engaging in battle, commonly alongside samurai men. They were members of the bushi (samurai) class in feudal Japan and were trained in the use of weapons to protect their household, family, and honour in times of war.<br/><br/> They also represented a divergence from the traditional 'housewife' role of the Japanese woman. They are sometimes referred to as female samurai. Significant icons such as Empress Jingu, Tomoe Gozen, Nakano Takeko, and Hōjō Masako are famous examples of onna bugeisha.
The leading actress in a Saigon theatre troupe, c.1905. 'Annamite Theatre' owed much to Chinese influence, and was especially popular in Cholon, Saigon's Chinatown.
Hu Die (1907-1989) had a career as a film actress from the late 1920s to the 1960s. She had her most brilliant period in the 1930s and the 1940s. Early in the 1930s, she played the leading role in China's first sound film, 'The Singsong Girl', in which she portrays a kindhearted but somewhat ignorant woman who endures her husband's mistreatment and oppression without the slightest resistance.<br/><br/> In 'The River Flows Rampant', the first film made by the left-wing dramatists, she plays the role of Xiujuan, a woman who is filled with the spirit of resistance and has a rich inner world in her heart. Her performance won favorable comments. Hu Die played a full spectrum of characters, including a maidservant, a loving mother, a woman school teacher, an actress, a prostitute, a dancing girl, the daughter of a rich family, a laboring woman, and a factory worker.<br/><br/> She had attractive, unconventional qualities, and her performances were gentle, honest, refined and sweet. The audiences call her a film queen. Hu Die lived both in the silent and sound film periods, and she was one of the most popular Chinese film actors and actresses in the 1930s and the 1940s.
The Siamese were avid theatre-goers at the turn of the 20th century. Mime, dance, plays and shadow puppetry were all very popular. Many of the stage plays involved dancers, mostly female, who adorned themselves in jewellery and exhibited lithe movements portraying beauty and flexibility, especially in bending the fingers back. The most common plays were called ‘khon’, which essentially feature scenes from the ‘Ramakien’, the Thai version of the Hindu epic ‘The Ramayana’.
Xu Lai was a popular movie star of the Chinese cinema in the 1930s, and is best remembered for being the first Chinese actress to appear in a bath scene.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Anna May Wong (January 3, 1905 – February 3, 1961) was an American actress, the first Chinese American movie star, and the first Asian American to become an international star. Her long and varied career spanned both silent and sound film, television, stage, and radio.<br/><br/> Born near the Chinatown neighborhood of Los Angeles to second-generation Chinese-American parents, Wong became infatuated with the movies and began acting in films at an early age. During the silent film era, she acted in The Toll of the Sea (1922), one of the first movies made in color and Douglas Fairbanks' The Thief of Bagdad (1924). Wong became a fashion icon, and by 1924 had achieved international stardom. Frustrated by the stereotypical supporting roles she reluctantly played in Hollywood, she left for Europe in the late 1920s, where she starred in several notable plays and films, among them Piccadilly (1929). She spent the first half of the 1930s traveling between the United States and Europe for film and stage work.<br/><br/> Wong was featured in films of the early sound era, such as Daughter of the Dragon (1931) and Daughter of Shanghai (1937), and with Marlene Dietrich in Josef von Sternberg's Shanghai Express (1932). In 1935 Wong was dealt the most severe disappointment of her career, when Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer refused to consider her for the leading role in its film version of Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth, choosing instead the German actress Luise Rainer to play the leading role. Wong spent the next year touring China, visiting her family's ancestral village and studying Chinese culture.<br/><br/> In the late 1930s, she starred in several B movies for Paramount Pictures, portraying Chinese-Americans in a positive light. She paid less attention to her film career during World War II, when she devoted her time and money to helping the Chinese cause against Japan. Wong returned to the public eye in the 1950s in several television appearances as well as her own series in 1951, The Gallery of Madame Liu-Tsong, the first U.S. television show starring an Asian-American. She had been planning to return to film in Flower Drum Song when she died in 1961, at the age of 56.
Bai Guang (birth name Chinese: 史永芬; pinyin: Shǐ Yǒngfēn; 1921, Beiping, now Beijing, China – August 27, 1999 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia) was a famous movie star and singer. Her stage name was (白光), which means 'white light'. In an age and culture where light, higher voices were usually favored, she had a slightly deep and hoarse voice, which helped her become a big star in Shanghai. People called her the 'Queen of the Low Voice' (低音歌后).<br/><br/> Bai's big screen career started in 1943. She was known for playing seductive roles due to her flirtatious image on screen and has also played villains at times. She lent a more dramatic tone or sexy attitude to her songs. Some of her hits include 'Autumn Evening' (秋夜), 'Without You' (如果沒有你), 'The Pretender' (假正經), 'Revisiting Old Dreams' (魂縈舊夢), and 'Waiting For You' (等著你回來).<br/><br/> After the Communist takeover in 1949, Bai moved to Hong Kong. In 1969 she resettled in Malaysia. On August 27, 1999 she died in Kuala Lumpur at the age of 78.
Hu Die (1907-1989) had a career as a film actress from the late 1920s to the 1960s. She had her most brilliant period in the 1930s and the 1940s. Early in the 1930s, she played the leading role in China's first sound film, 'The Singsong Girl', in which she portrays a kindhearted but somewhat ignorant woman who endures her husband's mistreatment and oppression without the slightest resistance.<br/><br/> In 'The River Flows Rampant', the first film made by the left-wing dramatists, she plays the role of Xiujuan, a woman who is filled with the spirit of resistance and has a rich inner world in her heart. Her performance won favorable comments. Hu Die played a full spectrum of characters, including a maidservant, a loving mother, a woman school teacher, an actress, a prostitute, a dancing girl, the daughter of a rich family, a laboring woman, and a factory worker.<br/><br/> She had attractive, unconventional qualities, and her performances were gentle, honest, refined and sweet. The audiences call her a film queen. Hu Die lived both in the silent and sound film periods, and she was one of the most popular Chinese film actors and actresses in the 1930s and the 1940s.