Zhi-Gong Chen

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Zhi-Gong Chen (also Tsi-(H)Ang Chin and Chi-Ang Chi) (born 1909 in Shanghai) was one among the earliest martial-arts actors of the Chinese film industry, and its first female star.[1] She debuted in The Lady Swordfighter of Jiang-Nan (also called The Heroine of Jiangnan) in 1925 at the age of 16, the first of a series of serials in which she played wuxia heroes.

When she was an infant, her parents were told by a fortune-teller that in order to avoid an early death, she would have to be brought up like a boy. She was therefore permitted to engage in activities usually reserved for males, although her gender sometimes had to be disguised. She began martial arts training at the age of 8, [2] later going on to perform all of her own stunts as well as choreograph scenes.[3]

She married director Chung-Ho Hung, with whom she had seven children (one of her grandchildren is Sammo Hung), and having become a star in Shanghai, they moved to Hong Kong, where they formed the Sanxing Film Company, which specialized in wuxia and produced the first Fong Sai-Yuk film in 1938.[4][5] It existed until 1963, when the Chinese government requisitioned its properties.[6][7] Her husband died not long afterwards. She largely retired from filmmaking at this time, although she has since appeared in cameo roles, one of the most recent being in Kar Wai Wong's In The Mood For Love at age 90.

Almost all of her early films have been lost. The only one which still survives to this day is Uproar At The Baolin Temple, the first of 13 films in the series The Swordswoman of Huangjiang (1930). [8]