Soft Film Valentine: Zhuang Xue Fang

Ever since I first laid eyes on Singapore songstress and Hokkien movie queen Zhuang Xue Fang (aka Chong Sit Fong), I was instantly mesmerized by her pixie charm. My buddy Dev Yang has already written an excellent overview of her career on his much missed blog The Golden Age of Chinese Language Cinema, so let me instead simply offer you a small assortment of treats: a pair of photos that exemplify Miss Zhuang's irresistible allure; a rare clip from one of her films; and a trio of 7-inch EPs. Enjoy!

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The following clip shows Zhuang Xue Fang singing her hit song "Making a Mark" (出人頭地) from the self-produced 1962 film Romance at Lung Shan Temple (龍山寺之戀). The film was shot in Taiwan and co-stars Tang Ching and Ling Yun, both of whom would later leave the Taiwan film industry to work for Shaw Brothers in Hong Kong. "Making a Mark" was adapted from the Indonesian song "Ayo Mama" with the lyrics changed to an inspirational (and typically Chinese) appeal to strive hard for success.


 The film is available on DVD (sans English subtitles) at YesAsia.

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Last but not least, here are three 4-song EPs that Zhuang Xue Fang recorded for Ruby Records in (I believe) 1967. You can download the complete collection here.


sample track:
小小寃家 / "Devil Woman" ((LISTEN))
Original by Marty Robbins (1962)


sample track:
昨夜夢見你 / "Send Someone to Love Me" ((LISTEN))
Original by Steve Lawrence (1962)


sample track:
二十里 / "20 Miles" ((LISTEN))
Original by Chubby Checker (1962)

Zhuang Xue Fang:Queen of Amoy Films

Zhuang Xue Fang in the April, 1959 issue of Southern Screen

I'm sure my buddy Ral never imagined I would end up in the obscure wilderness of late 1950s Amoy-dialect cinema when he introduced me to Hong Kong movies via Jet Li, Chow Yun Fat, and his legendary "girls with guns" clip videos more than ten years ago. But sometimes life takes us down unexpected paths, and so it is that I find myself very excited about Dev Yang's new post about Amoy movie queen Zhuang Xue Fang.

If you are like me, you probably thought that Chinese cinema was neatly divided into Cantonese and Mandarin, just like a VCD with the left audio channel devoted to one dialect and the right channel to the other. But for a brief period back in the late 1950s, films made in the Amoy dialect (which was the predominant dialect spoken by Chinese living in Taiwan, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, and the Philippines) actually outnumbered Mandarin films being made in Hong Kong at the time.

Although the boom was short lived and the movies were often cheaply produced copies of popular Cantonese and Mandarin films, the Amoy industry did produce its own share of beloved and memorable screen stars. To give you a taste of the world of Amoy-dialect cinema and its movie queen Zhuang Xue Fang, here is an article from Southern Screen No. 14 (April, 1959) about her film Beauty and the Beasts (1959), plus a rare clip from Shrews from Afar (1958). Zhuang's costar in that film was another popular Amoy actress named Xiao Juan — who would go onto even greater fame later in the 60s after she signed on with Shaw Brothers and became known as Ivy Ling Po.


Zhuang Xue Fang and Xiao Juan (aka Ivy Ling Po) in Shrews from Afar (1958)

Further Reading

• "The Rise and Decline of Amoy Films" by Wong Ching Ho
• "From Transnationalism to Nativism: The Rise, Decline and Reinvention of a Regional Hokkien Entertainment Industry" by Jeremy E. Taylor