eBay Find of the Week: Li Ching at Seventeen

Li Ching fans will be tempted by this photo currently up for auction on eBay. It was probably taken in 1965, when the seventeen-year-old newcomer was awarded Best Actress at the 12th Asian Film Festival for her role in The Mermaid and subsequently dubbed the "Baby Queen" of Shaw Brothers.

Let's Play Stardolls!

A few readers were game enough to submit some of their creations after wasting precious moments of their lives at Stardoll. First up are Maggie Cheung and Zhang Ziyi, dressed up courtesy of ewaffle, who specializes in observant and amusing fashion commentary at his blog Favorite Hong Kong Actresses. He's dressed Maggie (one of his "favorites") much as she might look in real life; while for Zhang Ziyi, he's imagined an outfit she might have worn if Zhang Yimou had made a Category III wuxia film — House of the Naked Killers, anyone?

Next on the runway are Faye Wong and Maggie, both dressed in a funky mix-and-match mode by sbk and dleedlee (respectively). sbk is an Asian movie fan and Holga mistress who loves to double expose at her blog Pictures, Thoughts and Comments. dleedlee is the unsung hero who trawls the World Wide Web for all the latest Chinese movie news and gossip, which he presents fresh daily on his blog Roast Pork Sliced from a Rusty Cleaver.

Finally, here's Bai Ling dressed by me. Although she is much maligned for her nip slips and funky outfits, I have a soft spot for kooky individualists like Miss Bai. I'm not exactly a fan (although I loved her in Dumplings), but I will always stand in her defense.

Anyway, many thanks to dleedlee, ewaffle, and sbk for sharing their outfits! If anyone else wants to join the fun, send me your looks and I'll post them next week.

Hong Kong Fashionistas: Sweet and Sour

Don't you just love Wong Gam Oi's sweet bobby-soxer look, with silk jacket in lieu of a sweater.


Holy mother of funk! Liu Qi's knit leotard struts that fine line between sexy and nappy. Looking at it makes my eyes pucker with pleasure!

Hong Kong Fashionista: Patricia Lam Fung

After dressing up Maggie Cheung, I feel inspired to post a few more fashion-related items. Here are three photos of the always stylish Patricia Lam Fung. I believe they originally appeared as glossy cardstock inserts in local newspapers. The cards could be cut out, and of course collected. They're not as fabulous as her color "Teen Fashion" cards but still quite nice.

Dressing up Maggie Cheung

Don't ask me to explain, but somehow I ended up at this website called Stardoll, where you can dress up your favorite celebrities, including — to my surprise — Maggie Cheung. (Sorry, guys! Lo Lieh is not available for dressing up.)

To the left is my first attempt ever at this kind of thing. (Don't laugh!) If anyone else wants to play... lol... just email me your outfits and I'll post them. I'm certainly not advocating that any of you join Stardoll. Just use your computer's "print screen" function and then crop the resulting screen capture with whatever image editing software you happen to have.

If no one wants to join me, that's fine. I'm just as happy playing by myself!

Josephine Siao: Deadlier Than a Man

Here's one final Fong Fong EP for you. This one's from her 1967 film Blood Stains the Iron Fist / 血染鐵魔掌 (aka Deadlier Than a Man). Just click on the link and the song should play automatically in your browser.

Coming up next time: Connie Chan!

沉醉春宵 ("Tonight is a Wonderful Night") (play song)

等待 ("Waiting") (play song)

* Here's the back cover of the EP with Chinese lyrics.

Lo Lieh: The Black Whirlwind

Every once in a while I feel the need to inject a little testosterone into this blog before it becomes too soft. Hence, this fabulous pinup of Lo Lieh, my favorite of Shaw's mid-60s crop of young male stars.

I was first introduced to Lo in more recent fare such as Jackie Chan's Mr. Canton and Lady Rose (1989) and Glass Tears (2001), which I believe was his final film. He had the effortlessly commanding look of a veteran actor, and indeed he was: Lo starred in more than 70 films during his twenty-plus years at Shaw Brothers and was fairly active onscreen for the following 15 years, until his death in 2002.

Don't throw eggs at me if I confess that I've not yet seen some of his most signature films, like King Boxer (1972), Kidnap (1973), and Human Lanterns (1982). But I've always enjoyed him in the countless — and addictively watchable — wuxia films he made for Shaws.

Here's a piece about Lo from Southern Screen no. 131 (January 1969). You can view the original article here. The pinup comes from the same issue.

"Black Whirlwind" Lo Lieh

Perhaps the best Shaw actor around these days is Lo Lieh. Among his recent and current films are "Twelve Deadly Coins", "Dragon Swamp", "Swordswomen Three", and "The Singing Thief".

Not the debonair type, he nevertheless exudes masculinity with his rugged good looks and fine physique. Equally adept as hero or villain, he has established a strong screen image. Lo is nicknamed "The Black Whirlwind", a sobriquet as much due to his black costume and dark complexion as to his fiery temperament.

An Indonesian Chinese, Lo came to Hong Kong six years ago and joined the Southern Drama Group on completion of his studies. On graduation, he was signed up by Shaws. His debut took place in "The Butterfly Chalice", followed by "Tiger Boy". Since then he's made some 15 films, among them "Temple of the Red Lotus", "The Sword and the Lute", "The Golden Swallow" and "Trapeze Girl".

Noel Toy: Caught in the Act

By chance I came across a fabulous series of photos of Noel Toy at Google's LIFE image archive. They were taken by Nina Leen, one of the magazine's first female photographers. The February 9th, 1942 issue of LIFE featured an article about the flourishing wartime nightclub scene in New York City. Noel Toy, who was fan dancing at Leon & Eddie's at the time, appeared in the piece, and these photos look like they might be outtakes from the assignment.

In the fall of 1941 Noel left San Francisco, where she had got her start at the Forbidden City, for a gig at Leon & Eddie's, which according to the LIFE article was the place to go for "sly ditties, fan dancers, smoky jokes and a general old-style, hot-spot atmosphere". She was so popular that she stayed at the club for half a year. Noel once told a reporter, "If I'd stayed there any longer, they would have had to reverse the name 'Leon' and made it 'Noel and Eddie's'."


Ad from Billboard (February 21, 1942)


Here's the caption about Noel that appeared in the LIFE article:

Chinese Fan Dancer
Noel Toy provides a traditional dash of nudity to Leon & Eddie's floor show. Miss Toy majored in French in college, never drinks, goes out with New York dramatic critics. She is named Noel because she was born on Christmas.

The mention of "New York dramatic critics" refers to George Jean Nathan, who was Noel's "little pet monkey" for a time (according to columnist Dorothy Kilgallen). I don't know how long the romance lasted, but Noel soon settled down with actor Carleton Young in 1945. They were together for nearly 50 years, until his death in 1994.


* Photographs courtesy of LIFE.com

One World under a Groove: Help Keep 60s Malaysian Pop Alive

I have a soft spot for working artists and independent scholars, so when I read about Carl Hamm's project to document the "Pop Yeh-Yeh" movement of 1960s Malaysia, I couldn't help but open my heart (and wallet) to his labor of love. In a nutshell, Carl is raising money for a trip to Malaysia to interview the Malaysian pop stars of yesteryear and obtain permission to publish their songs in a CD compilation. You can learn more about this worthwhile venture in the video below and at his Kickstarter page, where you can pledge your support of as little as 5 bucks and as much as 100 dollars (or more).

I don't know Carl personally, but I'm impressed with his sincerity and determination — and most of all, his evident love and respect for this music and the artists who made it. All investment is a risk, but this project is one that I feel good about supporting. If you like the music in the video below and want to hear more, then consider making a donation to Carl Hamm's Pop Yeh Yeh Research Trip.

But do it soon: there are just three more days for Carl to reach his all-or-nothing goal!

Josephine Siao: The Golden Cat

Here's the soundtrack EP for Josephine Siao's 1967 film The Golden Cat (飛賊金絲貓), another one of her sadly unavailable "Jane Bond" movies. The embedded mp3 players I was using before suddenly stopped working, so just click on the link and the song should play automatically in your browser.

Enjoy!

花嬌不似玉人媚 ("Love Potion No. 9") (play song)

結伴遊春 ("Summer Holiday") (play song)

狂歡舞曲 ("La La La Song") (play song)

* Here's the back cover of the EP with Chinese lyrics

Anna May Wong's Painted Knees

Ever hear of painted knees? Nope? Me neither. Evidently it was quite the fashion accessory for flappers back in '25. Reminds me of the body painting of the sixties. I guess the flappers were the original mod girls.

The following headline and blurb accompanied this cute photo of Anna May, which appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle on August 1, 1925:

Painted Monkey Graces Knee of Almond-Eyed Film Star
Anna May Wong, Chinese screen actress, who has adopted the fad of having her knees painted. The much-discussed evolution monkey adorns Anna May's limbs.

Pretty cool, huh! However, I'm of the opinion that it's not Scopes' monkey who's climbing Anna May's calf — but mischievous Sun Wukong, the Monkey King!

Anna May and Her Automobiles

Anna May Wong and her Moon "6-60" coupe (1926)

Anna May sure loved her cars. One of her first was a six-cylinder Willys-Knight, which she wrecked on a bridge trying to evade a motorcycle cop. Below is a little piece about a Buick she bought in 1924 — perhaps as a replacement for that Willys-Knight!

CLEVER LITTLE CHINESE MOVIE STAR
JOINS FAMILY OF BUICK OWNERS



Anna May Wong, the little Oriental film star who is taking a prominent part in the support of Douglas Fairbanks in "A Thief of Bagdad", spends her leisure hours in motoring.

The above picture of little Miss Wong was caught by the photographer while she was taking a "constitutional" in her favorite car, a Buick.

— San Antonio Express, June 22, 1924

P.S. I just found the following driving-related item about Anna May from The Oxnard Daily Courier (February 3, 1925). Seems like she was a bit of a daredevil!

Anna May Wong, a well known Chinese actress of Los Angeles, was arrested in Ventura Saturday night. She was driving at the rate of 35 miles an hour and will appear before Judge Meilandt tomorrow.

Scooter Girls: Essie Lin Chia and Shu Pei-Pei

December calendar girls Essie Lin Chia (at the handlebars) and Shu Pei-Pei from Southern Screen's 1967 annual special, the extra thick issue that Shaw Brothers published every January to promote its talent and the year's coming attractions. These two bright young actresses would star together in Spring Blossoms (1968) and A Taste of Cold Steel (1970).