Evidently, Forbidden City dancer Noel Toy wasn't the only Chinese burlesque performer to get her start at the 1939 Golden Gate International Exposition. I was surprised to discover recently that Chun Siu-lei, Cantonese cinema's premiere sex symbol during the early 50s, also learned a few tricks there.
According to Law Kar in his article "The American Connection in Early Hong Kong Cinema", Chun Siu-lei traveled to the United States to perform with an acrobatic troupe at the expo. (If her birth date of May 13, 1925 in the Hong Kong Film Archive's online catalog is to be believed, that would mean she was just 14 years old at the time!) During her stay, she befriended an American performer named Helena who taught her burlesque dancing, contortionist techniques, and "other tricks".
In an oral history interview, excerpted in the HKFA's Newsletter #7 (February, 1999), Chun Siu-lei elaborates on her experience in San Francisco.
In 1939, there was an inaugural ceremony of the Golden Gate Bridge and many acrobatic troupes and performers were invited to take part. The head of the Guangdong Acrobatic Troupe, Au-yeung Fat, passed through Hong Kong to select a young girl performer. He saw me in Hua Mulan where I performed tricks with a bronze rod and did a sword dance and he praised my performance. After performing in America for several months, I was curious or otherwise bored and that was what led me to see how the Westerners perform acrobatics. I met a lady coach and thus I was trained in the 'body-bending' technique. I studied for three months and I also learned other tricks.
While it isn't explicitly stated what the "other tricks" were that Chun Siu-lei learned during her journey to the West, one can make a pretty good guess based on her subsequent career in Hong Kong.
After several years of war, we were all extremely gloomy and so we didn't want to make sad and tragic films. Being young and fearless, I did this seduction scene in Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh* (1949) where I put on a sexy costume, and this caused a sensation. At the time, stage people were very conservative. Women were either playing chaste wives or magnanimous lady knights. No one would expect them to put on erotic costumes.
Chun Siu-lei in her first film, Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh.
Chun Siu-lei's first appearance on the silver screen was an adaptation of her enormously popular Cantonese opera play, Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh. Tan Kei (or Daji) was the concubine of King Zhou, the last ruler of the Shang Dynasty. Although she was a historical figure, her portrayals have ranged from sadistic femme fatale to righteous avenging daughter. What's clear is that she was a powerful symbol of female power that evoked either fear and disgust or respect and understanding. An example of the later is her portrayal by Lin Dai in Last Woman of Shang (1964). I'm not sure where Chun Siu-lei's rendition fits into this spectrum, but I imagine that she knew how to play both aspects to maximum effect.
Chun's next film after Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh was Sex to Kill the Devil (1949), which sounds like it could have been a 1990s "Category III" movie. Indeed, one review complained that the film's unnaturally developed story and irrationally arranged sequences were "tuned only towards one objective: sex and the exposure of flesh."
Her third film was The Woman General Muk Kwai-ying (1949), about the Song Dynasty heroine who defended China against the Western Xia Dynasty. Shaw Brothers fans will recognize this story from its 1972 movie adaptation, The 14 Amazons, which featured Ivy Ling Po as the lady general. Chun Siu-lei played the role of another legendary woman warrior in her fifth film, Story of Fan Lihua (1949), which was retold in 1968 with Connie Chan in the title role.
In between those two movies was Romance of Rome Palace (1949), an Occidentalist erotic tale about a beautiful queen and a playboy king. BTW, all of these movies, and several of her later ones, were directed by But Fu, about whom I know absolutely nothing. But based on his films with Chun Siu-lei, and some intriguing titles from his filmography like Charlie Chan's Battle of Wits Against the Black Bully (1948), I'd love to know more about him.
Romance of Rome Palace (1949)
Chun Siu Lei's first few films are typical of what made her famous throughout her career. She specialized in playing strong and/or sexy women in a variety of genres from bastardized Cantonese opera and Occidental costume fantasies to martial-arts movies and contemporary urban comedies. Chun was so popular (obviously with male moviegoers, but perhaps with the ladies as well) that she made 22 films in 1950 and 22 again in 1951. The selling point for many of her movies seems to have been her burlesque-inflected dance numbers. In The Sword and the Pearl (1951), Chun even performed a snake dance — one of her specialties!
The Sword and the Pearl aka Ali Baba (1951)
Needless to say, I would love to see any of Chun Siu-lei's films, but if I had to choose just one, it would have to be The Battle Between the Handsome Hero and the Wild Girl (1950). The following description from the HKFA catalog makes it sound like some whacked-out mo lei tau film from the 90s.
The Handsome Master subdues the bandit Ku Lo-keung. Lo-keung's associate, Ngau Chun-hung tries to even the score by joining forces with the Wild Girl [played by Chun Siu-lei of course]. The Wild Girl uses her 'soul-luring whip' to seduce the Handsome Master and makes Suet-dip, wife of the Handsome Master, become jealous. Using gadgets invented by Dr Sze, such as a laser light box, flying boots, power pills, a transformation machine and other contraptions, the Handsome Master comes out the victor in all his encounters with the villain. Chun-hung, defeated, jumps off the cliff, while the Wild Girl is transformed into a virtuous woman.
Chun Siu-lei's film output began to slow down after 1952. Perhaps she was too much of a good thing and audiences had become satiated by her extreme "soul-luring" sexiness. Without a doubt, she was one of Hong Kong cinema's sourest beauties. Just one look at her makes my mouth pucker! Maybe it's just her flared nostrils or the way she bares her teeth, but Chun Siu-lei reminds me of one of Hollywood's own sour beauties: the legendary Mae West. Both were strong ladies, unashamed of their sexuality, who tested the limits of censorship and challenged cultural conservatism in their respective cultures.
In 1958, Chun Siu-lei returned one last time to her famous role as the concubine Tan Kei, and thanks to the wonders of YouTube, we can sample a taste of what drove audiences again and again to see the undisputed burlesque queen of the Cantonese screen and stage.
Chun Siu-lei in The New Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh (1958)
*I have decided to adopt and adapt Law Kar's translation of 肉山藏妃己 as Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh rather than the awkward-sounding translation used in the HKFA's online catalog, Tan Kei in the Meat Hill. The 1958 version, 新肉山藏妃己, translates as The New Lady Tan Kei and the Hill of Flesh.
References
Law Kar, "The American Connection in Early Hong Kong Cinema", The Cinema of Hong Kong: History, Arts, Identity (2002).
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