United Artists publicity photo of Li Lihua, 1958
Li Lihua had sailed for the United States in 1956 under the impression that her Hollywood debut would be a musical called The Buccaneer produced by Cecil B. DeMille and directed by and starring Yul Brynner. As it turned out, she made a film called China Doll starring beefcake idol Victor Mature, directed by diehard romantic Frank Borzage, and produced by John Wayne's company Batjac Productions. Thankfully, the movie is not as bad as the odd recipe (or the poster below) makes it out to be.
I don't think I need to say that China Doll has its share of cringe-inducing moments, yet it nonetheless manages to be a sensitive portrayal of interracial romance. Remember that it was only in the 1950s that anti-miscegenation laws began to be repealed and overturned throughout the United States (beginning in 1948 in California and ending much later in the South). No wonder then that "the kiss" — or rather the lack thereof — became the crux of the film's publicity. Interracial kissing was strictly forbidden by the Hays Production Code, which was adopted in 1930 and not fully abandoned until 1968.
But if we are to believe the news items below, the real reason for the missing kiss is that Chinese actresses don't kiss onscreen!
BY HERSELF LiLi strikes about as daring a "cheesecake" pose as a self-respecting Chinese actress usually will agree to. Her "vital" measurements are 34-19-34.
LILI HUA FROM HONG KONG...
She's a living 'doll'
HOLLYWOOD
How do you make an English-language motion picture with a leading lady who speaks no English? This problem recently confronted veteran Frank Borzage here. It arose when actor John Wayne, who also heads up Batjac Productions, assigned Borzage to China Doll, co-starring Victor Mature and LiLi Hua, the No. 1 box-office favorite of the Far East.
LiLi had been brought to town from Hong Kong by Cecil B. DeMille, who wanted her for Buccaneer, then changed his mind. A veteran of 63 profitable Chinese films, she is a devout Catholic who left China when the Communists took over. At 30, she looks much younger; never married [in fact Li Lihua had married Yan Jun the previous month], she is considered the catch of the Orient because she owns her own movie company. But still she had that problem — no English.
Borzage solved it by sending her to language school for six weeks, then giving her a script of the movie with her dialogue reduced to the bare essentials: "Yes. I go" . . . "No, I stay." LiLi learned her lines phonetically, translated each into Chinese to get the meaning, then sailed through the part.
"It was a breeze," Borzage says, "except that she was shy about clinches. Apparently the Chinese don't like their screen stars to kiss. Vic Mature, however, got her into the spirit."
The picture done, LiLi returned to Hong Kong to star in a film for her own company. By then she had learned enough English to describe Mature. "I think," she told a reporter, "Vic is big, bad wolf."
—Parade, January 12, 1958
Not For Li Li Hua!
By GLORIA KLEIN
Central Press Writer
NEW YORK — Let other movie stars kiss handsome actors and display their feminine charms to a drooling public — not Li Li Hua!
East is East, and this Chinese film star refuses to meet Western standards by allowing her leading men to kiss her or by posing for Hollywood's favorite delicacy: cheesecake.
"I act. I do not pose," maintains this Eastern star from Hong Kong. "I do not believe my legs are a reflection of my ability as an actress!"
IT WAS while working on a forthcoming film called China Doll that Miss Hua absolutely refused to be kissed by her co-star, Victor Mature. "I've been kissed by leading ladies of all nationalities in over 30 pictures," Mature pointed out.
Although he marries Miss Hua in the picture, the ceremony is a kissless, Buddhist rite and there isn't a smack on the screen at any time.
"I have 63 pictures to my credit." Miss Hua declared, "and haven't been kissed in any one of them. In China things are different."
* * *
HOW VERY DIFFERENT they are, she again proved, by again refusing to pose for cheesecake photographs. "I will not pose in bathing suits or anything like that" the Oriental beauty said. "Besides, I can't swim."
"In China, movie fans are interested in the face, in dramatic poses, in dramatic accomplishment, not in the dimensions of the figure."
Miss Hua's idea of sultry fashion is the traditional form-hugging Chinese gown with its high neck and side slits. "Chinese gowns have been attractive to men for centuries," she points out, "and without revealing all. I'll leave cheesecake to the others."
In laying down her "austerity" policy, the Chinese actress follows in the no-cheese footsteps of such western stars as Bette Davis, Loretta Young, Greta Garbo and Olivia de Havilland.
—The Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, July 24, 1958
Judy Westbrook's Li Lihua fansite has this amusing anecdote about Li Lihua's "refusal" to kiss.
"May I have a kiss?"
During the filming of the last scene of "China Doll", Victor Mature moved forward to kiss Li Lihua on the lips, but she turned her head away and muttered, "You've been eating onions!" Humiliated, Victor stomped off to his dressing room. Li, too, returned to her room. Director Frank Borzage went after her to get an explanation. Li (via an interpreter) pointed out that there was no mention of kissing on camera in the contract. Borzage went to console Victor and later they both returned to finish filming the movie.
When news of this episode reached Hong Kong, Yien Chuen (Li's fiance) said it was just a Hollywood promotional campaign and that there was indeed no kissing in the movie contract.
Thirty years later, when Li was approached about the incident, she claimed that it was not true that she told Victor off. "In fact," she said, "Victor was very helpful and respectful and I am very grateful to him. He came to the set to be with me even when there was no shooting on his part. A few years later when a friend of his visited Hong Kong, he sent his regards to me."
The incident of Victor Mature's stinky breath is amusingly referred to in this article about Li Lihua's marriage to Yan Jun from the December, 1957 issue of International Screen. "Their marriage made big headlines. One of the headlines reads: 'Chinese Garlic is Better Than Foreign Onion'."
In a like manner, Hong Kong was definitely better than Hollywood for Li Lihua. China Doll is a testament to the limitations faced by Chinese actors working in the West. That it is the only one of Li's films from the 1950s (her most prolific period) currently available on DVD is one of history's great ironies.
Without further ado, here is a glimpse of the glorious Li Lihua in her first and last Hollywood film.
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