A big thanks to Dev for identifying the pretty lady behind the ugly face. It turns out that she is none other than Chang Lye Lye, older sister of Landi Chang. The multi-talented Chang sisters hailed from Singapore and came from a showbiz family. Their father was a pioneering circus performer, and their mother was allegedly the first ballerina in China. Leaving war-torn China, the family moved to Singapore in 1941 and joined the Shen Chang Fu Circus. Lye Lye and Landi grew up under the big top and learned singing, dancing, and acrobatics at a young age. They soon became the star performers of the troupe.
In 1954 the sisters traveled with the Shen Chang Fu Circus to Hong Kong. Around this time Chang Lye Lye's career as a singer took off, and she soon started appearing in films singing a song or two and sometimes in a featured role. Her name first shows up in the credits of Selamat Tinggal Kekasihku [Goodbye My Love], a 1955 Malay film made by the Cathay-Keris Company. She broke into Chinese movies shortly thereafter thanks to Lo Wei who asked her to play a role in his film Love River (1957) and who probably also arranged for her to appear with him in Lady Sings the Blues, a Jeanette Lin Tsui vehicle released later that year.
Lo Wei and Chang Lye Lye in Love River (1957)
Photo from The Age of Shanghainese Pops, 1930-1970
In 1959, Chang Lye Lye had a singing cameo playing herself in Miss Songbird, with Julie Yeh Feng taking the title role. Lye Lye finally got a chance to be leading lady when Shaw Brothers invited her to shoot two Amoy-dialect films, Storm in a Teacup and I Love That Young Man. Evidently, she also taught singing classes at the studio. Around or after this time, she decided to produce, direct, and star in her own film, My Love in Malaya. According to an interview she gave the National Archives of Singapore, it won Best Film at the Malay film awards.
Chang Lye Lye (left) and Landi Chang (right) in My Love in Malaya
Click here for the full flyer
I couldn't find much information about what Chang Lye Lye did in the 60s. The online synopsis of her National Archives of Singapore interview says that she became a dance teacher at Shaw Brothers on the recommendation of director Chun Kim (who was married to Jeannette Lin Tsui, whose brother Kenneth Tsang Kong was married to Lye Lye's sister Landi Chang by this time). So it's very possible that she taught Jenny Hu how to shake her thing for her debut in Till the End of Time (1966).
Chang Lye Lye's film career ends on an odd but definitely cool note: she appears in and sings the theme song for Golden Skeleton (1967), a Cantonese "Jane Bond" film starring Josephine Siao. I've got to see that one the next time I visit the Hong Kong Film Archive!
References and Other Links
The Age of Shanghainese Pops, 1930-1970 by Wong Kee Chee
Access to Archives Online Singapore (search for Chang Lye Lye)
Cool photos of Chang Lye Lye
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