Merry Christmas!

Here's a little holiday cheer for all of you from myself and from Oldflames — who has generously shared his amazing collection here on my blog all year long.

With lovely Grace Chang as Santa's helper, you're guaranteed double the joy this festive season!


from Oldflames

Or if you find yourself in the mood for a "blue" Christmas, why not let sexy Helen Li ring your bell!


from Duriandave

Remembering Kitty Ting Hao

Oldflames sent me these charming pinups of Kitty Ting Hao a few days ago, and I felt that I should pay tribute to Miss Kitty, just in case anyone got the impression from my recent post that I was a hater when it comes to MP&GI's "Little Darling".





Both photos exhibit that mixture of cute and spunky that made Kitty the cat's meow for movie fans then and now. It turns out that today happens to be her birthday (she would have been 70 years old). In memory of her unique charm and talent, here's a clip from one of her best films, Between Tears and Laughter (1960).

Helen Li Mei: She Wears It Well

Since a few of you expressed a liking for Helen dressed in cheongsam, here she is in a stunning cheongsam-inspired dress from The Screen & Stage Pictorial No. 32 (February 1964).

Helen Li Mei in the U.S.A.

Was Helen Li Mei deported from the United States in the wake of the Jantzen Swimsuit Affair? Did she immediately return to Hong Kong in defeat and shame? I don't think so... not our proud Helen!

Instead of being paraded around in a swimsuit, here's how Helen spent her four-month stay in the U.S.A.


Although she was dissed by Jantzen upon her arrival in the States, at least Helen got a little bit of aloha when she touched down in Hawaii on her way to New York.


In New York, Helen made personal appearances during screenings of A Girl Named Hong Hong (1956), a film that she financed and produced herself.


Here she is, signing photos for her young fans.


Hailed by Chinese Americans as the "most patriotic Chinese actress", Helen celebrated Double Ten Day in New York Chinatown.


She was even interviewed on WOR Radio. I'd love to hear this!


No visit to the Big Apple would be complete without meeting the mayor. Here she is with Mayor Robert F. Wagner, Jr.


Helen was given a tour of the United Nations Headquarters by Dr. T. F. Tsiang (on her right), the Republic of China's chief delegate to the U.N., and Dr. Victor Hu (on her left), the delegation secretary. Check out that cheongsam!


She also dined with Dr. George Yeh, the Republic of China's Ambassador to the U.S. Are you surprised? Well, Helen did major in political science before she became a movie star.


Here she is on the steps of the Capitol.


Helen visited with fellow Hong Kong actresses Siu Yin Fei (second from left, front row) and Pearl Au Kar-wai (second from left, back row), who were in New York at the time.


She also met Broadway's "Suzie Wong", France Nuyen. Was it cordial cattiness or sisterly love?


Anthony Quinn asked Helen to play the leading role in a film that he was planning on directing. Look at the camera, Tony!


Out on the West Coast, Helen visited the Twentieth Century-Fox studios. Is that Danny Kaye who is the object of her admiring gaze?


Finally, here she is in San Francisco, standing in front of the Golden Gate Bridge.

This wasn't Helen's only trip to the United States. After she retired from show business in 1967, she married Chinese American Robert Ruan, a CIA officer she met in Taiwan, and moved to his hometown of Portland, Oregon, where she lived until her death in 1994.

Helen Li Mei: Hong Kong's Bikini Queen

I've been waiting for just the right moment to post this 1960 calendar pinup of Helen Li Mei that Oldflames kindly sent me earlier this month.

Eat your heart out, Jantzen!

Helen Li Mei and the Jantzen Swimsuit Affair

"Fetchingly attired in an oriental style dress, Chinese actress Helen Lee Mei uses the Chrysler building as a backdrop as she poses atop a building here Oct. 3rd. Miss Mei, who was supposed to represent the Far East in swim suit fashions in New York, said Oct. 4th that she will not pose in a bathing suit because she considers it immodest. She will be flown back to Hong Kong by the swim suit manufacturer." —UPI Photo, October 4, 1958

Helen Li Mei refusing to pose in a swimsuit because she thinks it immodest? Hmmm... that doesn't sound like the Li Mei I know.

While not quite an international incident, Helen Li's unexpected refusal to model for Jantzen, after being flown to the United States by the swimsuit manufacturer, was nonetheless noted by International Screen as one of the "Ten Biggest Events in 1958" (ranking third, right after Our Sister Hedy's Best Picture Award and Lin Dai's second Best Actress Award at the 5th Asian Film Festival). While it's impossible to know what really happened, the wildly different accounts in the American and Chinese press hint at — to put it nicely — a lack of cultural respect and understanding.

On October 1st, 1958, Helen arrived in New York to help publicize Jantzen's latest international collection of swimsuits and sportswear. Here's a news item showing her doing some preliminary publicity on the day of her arrival with the three other models participating in the promo tour.

INTERNATIONAL VIEWERS . . . The international model set was well represented by this quartet of lovelies who attended the premiere of the film "The Big Country" as Astor Theatre in New York Wednesday. From left, they are Helen Connor, England; Fay Vitucci, Rome; Mamo Howell, Hawaii; and Helen Lee Mei of Hong Kong. The first three are wearing variations of the chemise while Miss Lee Mei is wearing a traditional style Chinese dress.

—The Daily Review, October 6, 1958

However, it was soon being reported in the American press that Helen was refusing to wear a swimsuit for Jantzen.

No Swimsuit, No Publicity

NEW YORK (AP) — A Chinese model-actress from Hong Kong, flown here to help publicize a line of bathing suits, is being sent back home. She won't wear a bathing suit.

The wasted trip of beautiful Helen Lee Mei was described by a spokesman for the swimsuit manufacturer. He said Miss Mei agreed to come here and appear in the Jet Age International Show at Idlewild airport Tuesday, along with top-flight models from other countries.

Miss Mei arrived in New York Wednesday, and it soon became apparent there had been a misunderstanding.

"The other girls have created no difficulties," said the spokesman. "However, Miss Mei refuses to wear a swimsuit."

Miss Mei was not available for comment.

—Albuquerque Journal, October 5, 1958

So, what happened? Like I said earlier, Helen was no stranger to the swimsuit. In fact, she was one of Hong Kong's top pin-up girls, as this July 1958 calendar photo clearly attests.



According to Oldflames, International Screen had a quite different account of the Jantzen affair. Apparently, when the company had approached Helen's studio (MP&GI) and invited her to the United States to promote their new collection, they weren't very organized and never showed her the contract. However, since a press conference had already been held by MP&GI to announce the tour, she decided to just go ahead with it.

Evidently, when Helen finally arrived in New York, instead of welcoming her like the top star that she was, Jantzen only sent a low-ranking promotions assistant to get her signature on the contract. It is at this point, according to the American press, that Helen became "difficult" and refused to wear a swimsuit out of an alleged (and implied as inscrutable) modesty. But according to Helen, the real reason that she refused to cooperate with Jantzen was because their assistant was rude to her and the company had acted unprofessionally.

Rather than try and patch things up with her, Jantzen warned Helen that she might be deported if she did not change her mind. Upon hearing this, Helen became so angry that she decided to sever her relations for good. She even went so far as to make a public statement that she was not at all adverse to wearing a swimsuit but rather did not like the way that Jantzen treated her.

Again, it's hard to say what really happened, yet it is not so difficult to imagine a possible chain of events from Helen's perspective: a less than respectful welcome; continually, and incorrectly, being addressed as Miss Mei rather than Miss Li (see the news items above); and perhaps even being given the "China doll" treatment (this happened, after all, during the "Suzie Wong" era).

Perhaps I'm reading too much into this. Maybe Helen was a bit of a diva... I don't know. But looking at Helen, especially in the picture at the top of this post, I see a proud woman who was willing to stand up for the respect she deserved.

Further Reading
Helen Li Mei biography by Paul Fonoroff

More Treasures from the People's Repubic of YouTube

Here's a rare find: Xiao Juan (before she became famous at Shaw Brothers under the name Ivy Ling Po) singing a cover of Patti Page's "Changing Partners" in the Amoy-dialect Shrews from Afar (1958), directed by Wong Tin-lam.

The next two clips are courtesy of Dev Yang, who has recently launched a YouTube channel to accompany his blog The Golden Age of Chinese Cinema. I'm very eager to see what other rarities he can pull out of his sleeve!


The one and only Bai Guang in Blood Stained Begonia (1949). It's an absolute shame that none of her films are available on DVD.


I never thought I'd see this: the opening scene of Calendar Girl (1959), featuring the enviable Peter Chen Ho sandwiched between the fetching Helen Li Mei and Diana Chang Chung-wen. Calendar Girl has long been a "holy grail" film of mine. It's the movie that set the mold for the Eastmancolor Mandarin musicals of the 60s, from director Tao Qin's own subsequent efforts — like Les Belles (1961), Love Parade (1963), and The Dancing Millionairess (1964) — all the way to Inoue Umetsugu's Hong Kong Nocturne (1967) and Hong Kong Rhapsody (1968).