Connie Chan: The Girl with Long Hair

OK, folks! It's time to bring on Hong Kong's beloved ass-kicking, cross-dressing, opera-singing teen idol of the 1960s: the one and only Connie Chan.

Here's the soundtrack EP for Connie's 1967 film The Girl with Long Hair (長髮姑娘), in which she plays a cop assigned to capture the "Filial Thief", a righteous Robin Hood who steals from the rich who treat their parents poorly. The "Filial Thief" is played by opera star Lam Kar-sing.

You'll notice right away that these songs are more traditional than you might expect from the modish EP cover. Drawing on Cantonese opera and folk music rather than Western pop, they are an example of the grassroots influence in the early development of Cantopop.


Lam Kar-sing and Connie Chan, heroes on opposite sides of the law
* Photo comes from the Yau Leung collection 昨夜星光 (1940s-1960s)

雌雄鬥口曲
(play song)

掃蕩羣魔 ["Root out the Demons"]
(play song)

長髮姑娘賊孝子 ["The Girl with Long Hair and the Filial Thief"]
(play song)

Back cover of the EP with Chinese lyrics, plus another picture of Connie as she appears during the scene featuring the first song presented above:

Ting Hao: What's Up, Tomcat?

This post goes out to YTSL, who mentioned Kitty Ting Hao's gender-bender You Were Meant for Me (1961) as one of the Cathay films whose DVD release she had been eagerly awaiting. Alas, it failed to materialize before the series was discontinued, and the movie now remains tantalizingly just out of sight.

I'm sure that YTSL and I aren't the only ones turned on by the notion of seeing Kitty in drag. Doesn't she look dashing with suit and cigarette? Whenever I look at this photo, I can't help but think of Anita Yuen in She's the Man, He's the Woman (1994) — that wonderful film which helped turn me into a Hong Kong movie fanatic so many years ago.

Hopefully, Kitty's You Were Meant for Me will become available to the masses some day in the not so distant future. In the meantime, long live the People's Republic of YouTube!



* Photo of Kitty comes from the Yau Leung collection 昨夜星光 (1940s-1960s).

Yau Leung: Photographer of the Stars

This portrait of legendary singer and actress Bai Guang is just one of countless photos taken by Yau Leung during his career as stills photographer for the Hong Kong movie industry. I don't know too much about him, except that he worked for both Shaw Brothers and Cathay/MP&GI and, judging from his output, many other studios as well. But it's clear from his work that he was an important contributor to Hong Kong movie culture. Besides helping to create the publicity that fueled the fantasies of the silver screen, he also trained his camera on the regular folks who lived and worked in Hong Kong. Yau Leung's photographs of everyday life are just as beautiful as his glamor shots, and placed side by side, both aspects of his work create a unique historical record of the city and its dreams.

Here's a recent article from Time magazine bemoaning the lack of greater recognition for Yau Leung's work.

There are two volumes featuring his movie star portraits, which I highly recommend, but unfortunately they can be quite difficult to track down. Two of his other books can be ordered from YesAsia (although you might want to shop around for a better deal).

But you don't need to spend a dime to see the wonderful selection of Yau Leung's photographs at the Yesterday Hong Kong website.