Lim Ruey Yan
Updated
Jul 19, 2024, 07:58 PM
Hong Kong-American veteran martial arts actress Cheng Pei-pei has died at the age of 78. She was best known for her roles in films such as Come Drink With Me (1966), Flirting Scholar (1993) and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Her death was first disclosed on the morning of July 19 by Chinese director Hu Xuehua, Chinese film critic Sun Mengjin and Chinese host Cao Kefan, who paid their tributes to her on social media.
Cheng’s agency Supreme Art Entertainment confirmed her death later that morning, writing that she died on July 17, United States time.
“Thank you all for your love and care for Sister Pei-pei, who had been unwell in recent years,” the agency wrote in Chinese. “She chose not to make the news public as she was trying to cope with her illness, and she hoped to spend more time with her family.”
According to the Hong Kong media, Cheng suffered from corticobasal degeneration, a rare condition that causes movement, memory and speech problems similar to Parkinson’s disease.
Cheng was born in Shanghai on Jan 6, 1946. She joined Hong Kong’s Shaw Brothers Studio in 1963 and made her film debut in The Lotus Lamp (1965), playing the male scholar Liu Yanchang opposite late actress Lin Dai.
Cheng shot to fame after starring in director King Hu’s martial arts film Come Drink With Me. She played skilled female pugilist Golden Swallow, who tried to rescue her brother from a group of bandits. The late actor Yueh Hua played the titular swordsman nicknamed Drunken Cat.
The film cemented Cheng’s status as a martial arts star, and she reprised the role in the 1968 spin-off Golden Swallow, which also featured late actors Jimmy Wang Yu and Lo Lieh.
Cheng went on to star in other martial arts films such as The Flying Dagger (1969), Brothers Five (1970) and The Shadow Whip (1971).
One of Cheng’s memorable roles was in Flirting Scholar, starring Hong Kong actor Stephen Chow and actress Gong Li, in which Cheng played the matriarch Madam Wah.
Cheng is also known for playing the legendary heroine and matriarch of the Yang warrior family She Taijun in the Chinese television series Legendary Fighter – Yang’s Heroine (2001).
The veteran actress gained international attention when she acted as Jade Fox in Taiwanese director Lee Ang’s martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film won four awards at the Academy Awards in 2001, including for Best Foreign Language Film and Best Art Direction.
Cheng’s last movie role was in the Hollywood live-action film Mulan (2020), which starred Chinese-American actress Liu Yifei as the titular character. Cheng played a stern matchmaker trying to pair off Mulan.
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懷著沉重的心情公告,我們的佩佩姐鄭佩佩女士于美国时间2024年7月17日離世。凱藝娛樂全体仝人對此深感痛心及惋惜。公司及佩佩姐的子女,藉此感謝所有佩佩姐的朋友、同事和支持者,一直在她的生命中燃亮著愛:感謝大家多年來對佩佩姐的愛護,佩佩姐近...
Posted by 凱藝娛樂 Supreme Art Entertainment onThursday, July 18, 2024
Cheng left the industry briefly after she tied the knot with Taiwanese businessman Yuan Wen-tung in 1970 and moved to the US. The couple have three daughters, including actresses Eugenia Yuan and Marsha Yuan, and a son. They divorced in 1987.
There were concerns about Cheng’s health in July 2021 when Marsha Yuan shared on social media a photo of herself with her baby son and Cheng.
Cheng seemed to have had a support belt around her waist and a plaster on her chest.
Yuan, 46, paid tribute to her mother in a post on July 19. “It has been an emotional time for me in the past two years with moving my family back to the US to be closer to my mother. But I feel blessed and lucky to have had these last few years of quality time with her,” she wrote.
“My mother was one of the most unselfish people I know. Up until her last breath of air, she was only thinking about her children. And she had us all there by her side with her, loving her and giving back the care and devotion that she had always given to us.”
She concluded: “I miss you so much, but I know you will be with me forever in my heart because you are in me.”
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