Southern Screen: First 50 Covers

Here is a slideshow of the first 50 covers of Southern Screen, the Shaw Brothers' official studio magazine. It covers the period of Shaw's production history (1957-1962) that I'm most interested in and which — sadly for me — is least represented by the recent restoration and release of the Shaw Brothers film library.

For a more casual viewing, you can view a photo album of the covers. If you're like me and like to tabulate things, you'll notice that the cover representation pretty accurately reflects the hierarchy of Shaw stars at that time. Lin Dai is the number one queen with 9 covers, and Loh Tih and Li Lihua follow in second and third place with 8 and 6 covers respectively.

Of the new generation of stars, good girls Ting Ning and Ting Hung clock in with 5 and 4 covers, while bad girls Fanny Fan and Tu Chuan each score with 3 covers. Then there's Shaw's Cantonese stars Lam Fung and Au Kar-wai with 3 and 2 covers each. Chang Chung-wen graces only 2 covers, which neatly illustrate her attempt to evolve beyond a sex symbol.

Special mention goes to Peter Chen Ho for being the lone cover guy; Shaw's male stars were usually relegated to the back cover when they couldn't sell it as advertising space.

Some other things I noticed are Loh Tih's love of tiaras. She certainly was a princess.

The coolest cover has to be No. 2, which shows Li Lihua decked out in cowboy duds and superimposed against the wide open expanse of the American West.

Two other favorites of mine are No. 30 and No. 46, featuring Tu Chuan in her characteristic pose: face tilted slightly upwards and often with mouth seductively open. And of course, I musn't fail to mention her thick eyebrows and eyeliner! All of these things made me fall for Tu Chuan, but by the late 60s this look was looking not so good on her and couldn't hide the tragic trajectory of her life.

Speaking of sexy, I still find myself a little surprised by that overhead cleavage shot of Li Lihua on No. 11! Not even sex bombs Fanny Fan, Tu Chuan, and Diana Chang showed as much in their covers. Only a star of Li Lihua's stature could pull it off and look supremely elegant at the same time.

When it comes to girl-next-door glamor, I've got to give a shout-out to Au Kar-wai and her cool and colorful shirt on No. 16.

And finally, I just love the picture of Lam Fung on No. 7: her fresh look, the bright red of her sweater and lipstick, and the umbrella which forms an enchanting halo behind her head. A classic portrait!