| Pai Ping-ping | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 白冰冰 (Traditional) |
| Chinese name | 白冰冰 (Simplified) |
| Pinyin | Bái Bīngbīng (Mandarin) |
| Origin | Republic of China (Taiwan) |
| Born | 17 May 1955 Keelung, Taiwan, Republic of China |
| Occupation | Singer, Actress, Media personality, Social activist |
| Years active | 1973-present |
| Spouse(s) | Ikki Kajiwara(1979~1981, divorced) |
| Children | Pai Hsiao-yen (deceased) |
| Official Website | Pai Ping-ping Official Blog |
Pai Ping-ping (Chinese: 白冰冰; pinyin: Bái Bīngbīng; born May 17, 1955 in Keelung, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese singer, actress, media personality and social activist.
Born to an impoverished family in Keelung, Pai dropped out of formal education in her teenage years. In 1973 she won a prize in a singing contest held by Taiwan Television and following this success she pursued a career in the local entertainment business. In 1975 she moved to Japan to study singing and acting. At this time she had a relationship with Japanese comics writer Ikki Kajiwara and they later married. Their daughter Pai Hsiao-yen was born in 1980 but their marriage was quickly dissolved the next year after Kajiwara committed an extramarital affair and engaged in domestic violence. Pai Ping-ping had to return back to Taiwan and raised Hsiao-yen as a single mother. Since mid-1980s, Pai has been gaining popularity for her bantering style, becoming one of the best-known Taiwanese entertainers. Richard Lloyd-Parry of The Independent described Pai as the "Cilla Black of Taiwan".[1] Besides her entertainment career, Pai also had significant investments in local catering service industry.
In 1997 Pai Hsiao-yen, then 16 years old, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered. This event subsequently made her into a social activist to advocate the use of death penalty; Pai founded the Swallow Foundation and chaired it to date to advocate capital punishment as well as provide legal support to local crime victims. Lloyd-Parry described the attention around the murder of Pai's daughter as giving Pai "a greater, though more terrible, fame than she had as an entertainer."[1] In 2010, in the wake of the global anti-capital punishment movement, Pai successfully held a protest against former ROC Minister of Justice Wang Ching-feng, resulting in Wang's resignation and the resumption of executions in the Republic of China.[2]