The Art of the Qipao

During my recent trip to Malaysia I stopped for a few days in Hong Kong, where I was lucky to catch an extraordinary exhibit at the Museum of History: The Evergreen Classic – Transformation of the Qipao. Tracing the evolution of the qipao (or cheongsam, as it's known in Cantonese) from its origins as the gown worn by Manchu women during the Qing dynasty to its golden age in 1930s Shanghai and subsequent efflorescence in post-war Hong Kong, the show features an astonishing 280 qipao as well as more than 400 photographs.

As you can see from my photos below, it's a sight to behold, whether you're a dedicated lover or just a casual fan. I was so overwhelmed by the sheer number and variety on display that I planned to return for a second visit but didn't have the time. Unfortunately, no catalog was published for this exhibit (a colossal missed opportunity that I'm still scratching my head about), so get yourself to Hong Kong by September 13 if you can't bear to miss this rare and precious spectacle.

A PDF of the exhibition pamphlet is available here.

Scenes from Shanghai's Night Life

Check out these wonderful postcards that went for auction on eBay recently. I'm not absolutely certain, but I think they're the work of cartoonist Friedrich Schiff, an Austrian Jew who lived in Shanghai during the 1930s and 40s.

Born in 1908 into an artistic family (his father was a painter, his mother an actress), Schiff studied at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna.

In 1930, at the invitation of his cousin, Schiff visited Shanghai and fell in love with the city and its people. He ended up living there for 14 years, until 1947 when he moved to Buenos Aires.

Schiff had worked as a newspaper cartoonist in Vienna and continued this line of work in Shanghai. Soon he became famous for his amusing caricatures of the city's inhabitants, from beggars and expats to sailors and sing-song girls.

In 1934, he began a fruitful collaboration with photojournalist Ellen Thorbecke (who was the wife of the Dutch ambassador to China). Like Schiff, Thorbecke was also a Sinophile. Together they created a series of illustrated travel books about China's major cities: Peking Studies (1934), Shanghai (1938), and Hong Kong (1938). From what I've read (see the link below), the books are quite charming. Unfortunately, I don't know if I'll ever get a chance to peruse them, since they apparently fetch a pretty steep price in the rare book marketplace.

However, there is a compilation of Schiff's Shanghai sketches called Vicissitude of Old Shanghai (老上海浮世绘), which I am dying to get my hands on. I found it for sale at a Chinese online bookseller only to discover, after I had successfully managed (with the help of Google Translate) to set up an account, that the book is currently out of stock. Boo-hoo for me... but I'll track it down. I don't give up easily once I'm on the hunt!

Further Reading

• Images from Maskee: A Shanghai Sketchbook by Schiff (ca. 1938)
• "Records of Hong Kong: Arthur Hacker profiles two out-of-the-box 1930s Hong Kong artists"

Margaret's Cammie Cheongsam

A great big thanks to Oldflames for sending this striking pinup of Margaret Tu Chuan in an eye-catching camouflage cheongsam. Margaret won't fade into the background wearing this outfit!

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 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

Grace Chang: Sweet as Chocolate

Gosh... this 1950s Cadbury's ad featuring "Chocolate Girl" Grace Chang is absolutely adorable. With her sweet smile and eye-catching, milky brown cheongsam, Gracie is as irresistible as a piece of chocolate.

A great big thanks as always to Oldflames for sharing his Hong Kong movie treasures with us!

Patricia Lam Fung: Hong Kong's Golden Girl

The more I see of Lam Fung in the pages of movie magazines, the more I am convinced that she wasn't your typical jade girl, not just your ordinary girl-next-door. With her ability to effortlessly adopt an endless array of looks and personas, she was more like a Super Girl-next-door.

Patricia had an expansive energy that cool, reserved jade girls like Lucilla Yu Ming and Grace Ting Ning lacked. Only the spirited, high-wattage Grace Chang could match her in sheer exuberance. Even so — and I'm going out on a limb by saying this, without having seen a single one of her early films — I believe that it was Lam Fung who was the brighter star.

The continued unavailability of Patricia's Shaw Brothers films is truly a great loss to the history of Chinese cinema and a dishonor to the memory of Hong Kong's beloved golden girl.


* Thanks to Oldflames for the absolutely amazing Happiness Pictorial cover. It's a perfect peach of a picture!

Anna May Wong and Her Technicolor Cheongsams

I was greeted with an unexpected surprise recently when I watched the DVD of The Good Earth (1937). The film adaptation of Pearl Buck's famous novel is mostly remembered nowadays for being the great denied opportunity of Anna May Wong's career. Before production started, there were reports of using an all-Chinese cast, including Anna May Wong, Soo Yong, and Shanghai star Hu Die. But, not surprisingly, the movie ended up featuring white actors in virtually all of the lead roles.

Anna May had been very keen to play the main character of O-Lan. It was an unprecedented chance to break out of the stereotype roles that she had been given by Hollywood throughout her career. When she was denied the role, the message could not have been more clear: Hollywood had no use for a Chinese American star.

Undoubtedly heartbroken, Anna May left at the beginning of 1936 for a nine-month tour of China. When she returned to the U.S., she appeared in the early Technicolor short Hollywood Party (1937), which is featured as an extra on The Good Earth DVD. I had no idea that Anna May appeared in this and only started watching it out of curiosity. I nearly stopped when I realized it was just a "yellow face" variety show. (Yet another missed opportunity, considering the abundance of talented Chinese American vaudeville performers.) But as I scrubbed through the film on my computer, I spotted two genuine Chinese girls on either side of a screen. I started watching again. One of the girls struck a gong, and who should emerge from behind the screen but Anna May Wong, modeling some of the exquisite cheongsams she picked up during her trip to China.

With the exception of her final film, Portrait in Black (1960) — in which she plays a maid — I believe Hollywood Party is Anna May's only other color film.* Okay, folks... here she is... the incomparable Anna May Wong in full Technicolor glory!



* I should mention that Anna May Wong does have the distinction of playing the lead in The Toll of the Sea (1922), the second two-strip Technicolor feature film ever made and the first to be given a wide release. Using only red and green, the experimental two-color process was an imperfect but impressive approximation of true color. The Toll of the Sea essentially launched Anna May's career. Just seventeen years old at the time, she was widely praised for her performance, both in the U.S. and overseas press.

In Memory of Ruan Lingyu (1910-1935)

Seventy-four years ago today, on International Women's Day, Chinese silent film actress Ruan Lingyu took her own life in response to problems in her personal life that were exacerbated by the mean-spirited scrutiny of the tabloid press.

Seventy-four years later, the alternately pathological and moralistic obsession with the personal lives of Chinese actresses has remained remarkably unchanged. (Click here if you don't know what I'm talking about.)

Anyway, I don't want to start a rant but merely pay my respects to the memory of one of the world's great actresses: Ruan Lingyu. It was largely her story and the clips of her films in the biopic Centre Stage (1992) that spurred my interest in vintage Chinese cinema.

To celebrate her life and career, I'd like to share this contemporary (though deliberately antiqued and often sold as vintage) reprint of a pictorial magazine devoted to the radiant star. Click here for the 4MB PDF file.

Glamorous Lam Fung

From the June 1961 issue of Southern Screen.

Sigh... what more needs be said...

Au Kar-Wai in the U.S.A., Part 1

Au Kar-wai a few days after her arrival in New York

On November 6, 1958 Shaw Brothers' Cantonese star Pearl Au Kar Wai arrived in New York City to prepare for her role in Otto Preminger's never completed The Other Side of the Coin. The director of such classics as Laura (1944), The Man with the Golden Arm (1956), Anatomy of a Murder (1959), and Exodus (1960), Preminger was known for tackling controversial subjects and challenging film censorship, and The Other Side of the Coin fit squarely with his penchant for presenting topical, polarizing issues in an objective manner that precluded easy judgments about right and wrong.

The film was going to be an adaptation of the just published novel by Pierre Boulle, author of The Bridge Over the River Kwai and Planet of the Apes. Set in British Malaya during the Malayan Emergency (the guerrilla war for independence waged by the Malayan Communist Party), The Other Side of the Coin is a terse satire of colonialism and Cold War politics. The book condescendingly observes what happens when the Pollyanna-ish American wife of a French rubber plantation manager decides to adopt and reform a young female Chinese rebel.

Preminger was quite serious about the project — and had even traveled to Kuala Lumpur in May 1958 to get permission from the Malaysian government and to scout for locations — but for a variety of reasons the production never got off the ground. It was probably a good thing that Au Kar-wai never made her Hollywood debut. Playing a communist rebel very likely could have ended her career in Hong Kong. Still, it would have been great to see her appear in a film by Otto Preminger.

Au Kar-wai appears to have stayed in New York until at least March, 1959 before returning to Hong Kong to continue her work at Shaw Brothers. Here are a few items concerning her U.S. sojourn, starting off with this article from the New York Times.

Au Kar Wai, who is obviously thousands of miles from her Hong Kong home, is quite at home in New York, too. The dark-haired, lissome 19-year-old Chinese actress, who was brought here the other day by director Otto Preminger to learn colloquial English for her role in the adaptation of Pierre Boulle's "The Other Side of the Coin," also could play the lead in a hypothetical film titled "A Chinese Girl in New York."

There was a wealth of movie material in her description of her first bewildering day at the Berlitz School for Languages. "I was the only Chinese girl," she said. There was also her first view of the Manhattan skyline — "nothing so beautiful, so much colors!" Her first, and last, subway excursion — "not good. Many people, coming and going at once." And, some homey fare when she was reunited with "auntie," a former Hong Kong actress, and other relatives who have settled in Chinatown.

How did Au Kar Wai get involved? Mr. Preminger had seen footage from six Chinese films she had made and "he called me and ask if I can help him make picture but I tell him sadly I know no English. He said, 'never mind, I will find someone to teach you.'" So, Miss Au Kar Wai will be here until she masters the language, undoubtedly adding "scenes" to "A Chinese Girl in New York."

—"By Way of Report" by A.H. Weiler, New York Times, November 30, 1958

Here is a picture (from the March, 1959 issue of International Screen) that shows Au Kar-wai standing besides Helen Li Mei, who was in the U.S. at the time on a four-month tour. Sitting next to Li Mei is veteran Cantonese actress Siu Yin Fei, who had recently retired and moved to New York. Hmm... was Siu the "auntie" referred to in the New York Times article? A few years later Siu produced and starred in Murder Case in Chinatown (1961), a true-crime story set and partially shot in New York Chinatown. The director of the American scenes was none other than Esther Eng, the pioneering Chinese American filmmaker who owned and managed a restaurant in New York at the time this photo was taken. She often played host to visiting Chinese actors.

Finally, let me end on a Hollywood note by quoting New York gossip columnist Dorothy Kilgallen's March 10, 1959 report that "Cary Grant captured most of the attention at Otto Preminger's recent party by monopolizing an adorable little Chinese girl, Au Kar Wai, who just arrived in Hollywood for 'The Other Side of the Coin.'" I'll have a little more to share about the two of them later...

Li Lihua: All Hail the Queen

This is one of my favorite photographs of Li Lihua (shot by American photographer Peter Samerjan and featured in Southern Screen No. 8, July 1958). It beautifully captures Li's regal stature.

Woefully misused as a "china doll" in her Hollywood debut, Li wisely returned to Hong Kong, where she continued her reign as one of Hong Kong cinema's top stars. In November, 1959, nearly two years after her marriage to Yan Jun, she gave birth to a child (her second). In those times, most Chinese actresses retired after getting married, usually before the age of 30. But not Li Lihua. Well into her 30s and just months after giving birth, Li resumed her film career — at Shaw Brothers now — with A Shot in the Dark (1960), a crime thriller directed by husband Yan Jun. She even appeared in Southern Screen No. 26 (April 1960) as that issue's centerfold: "Li Li-Hua, Ravishing Beauty"!

The 1960s were Li Lihua's third decade as an actress, and her star power shone brighter than ever. No 'china doll' roles for this screen queen. Li gave iconic performances in Yang Kwei Fei (1962), The Empress Wu Tse-tien (1963), and The Goddess of Mercy (1967) and refused to let herself be relegated to minor roles supporting the new generation of starlets.

In the early 70s, Li finally stopped acting to take care of her family, but she was coaxed out of retirement to make a few more films, including King Hu's The Fate of Lee Khan (1973), in which she played the leader of a group of female patriots fighting against the Mongols. This movie was my first time seeing Li Lihua. At the time, I had only read about her, but as soon as she appeared on the screen, I knew by her majestic presence that this was Hong Kong cinema's legendary evergreen queen.

Here then is Li Lihua — almost 50 years old and in her fourth decade on the Chinese silver screen — in The Fate of Lee Khan.

Dynamite-Packed Heat Wave: Fanny Fan

Dynamite-Packed Heat Wave! I couldn't have said it better myself. Fanny Fan is hands-down my favorite Hong Kong bomb shell, and I'll be posting more about her in coming weeks. This stunning centerfold appeared in Southern Screen No. 31 (September 1960), accompanied by the following English text.

Dynamite-Packed Heat Wave: Fanny Fan

Original name: Fan Wai-chuan
Native of: Shanghai
Has appeared in: "The Pink Murder", "Les Belles", "Kiss Me Again" and "The Wrong Man".

Thousands of cameras were focused on that dynamite-laden package clad in a bikini — Fanny Fan — at the recent photographic contest sponsored by Sing Tao Man Po of Hong Kong.

One look at Fanny and it is enough to know why she is the centre of attraction of the thousands of eager shutterbugs taking part in the contest.

Nature's generous gifts to her has destined her to climb the ladder of success and take her place among the galaxy of Hong Kong film stars.

Her Mandarin film debut in "The Pink Murder" was an immediate success. She not only captured the hearts of countless men in Hong Kong but also those in Taiwan.

Fanny is also a wonderful dancer. That was the reason why Shaw Studio picked her for the Eastman-colored film "Les Belles", which was shot partly in Japan.

Since then Fanny has been given a chance to go straight dramatic. She shares star billing in the film "Kiss Me Again".