Chin Tsi-ang

Chin Tsi-Ang (February 22, 1908 – October 15, 2007), also romanized as Qian Siying, was one of the earliest martial arts actors of Chinese cinema and its first female star. She debuted in South China Dream (南华梦, Nanhua Meng) in 1925 at the age of 17 and played a leading role in Southern Heroine (江南女侠, Jiangnan Nüxia) in 1930. Biography Born and raised in Shanghai, when Chin was an infant a fortune-teller told her parents that to avoid an early death, she would have to be brought up as a boy. As a result, she was permitted to engage in activities usually reserved for males, although sometimes with her gender disguised. Chin began martial arts training at the age of eight, later going on to perform all her own stunts as well as choreograph scenes. An offer to invest in the new Langhua Movie Studio, made to her father by a close friend and businessman, started Chin's acting career. The studio's first production was to be a martial arts film entitled South China Dream. Her father showed initial enthusiasm until his friend suggested Chin's athletic and attractive daughter would be perfect for a role in it. The elder Chin held a low opinion of actors, but was eventually convinced his daughter might be essential to the new venture's success.. South China Dream (later retitled Dreams of Women) was released in two parts, 20 reels total, and box office receipts were good enough to permit the studio to make two more action films in which Chin Tsi-Ang again played important supporting roles. Chin's supporting roles in Langhua's successful first three movies launched what would become a long movie career. In 1928 she joined the Fudan Film Company, her first role for that studio being the female lead in The Swallow Heroine, after which she starred in three more for Fudan the following year. In 1930 she moved up a level to the Great Wall Film Company, making what would become her representative work, Southern Heroine, directed by Yang Xiaozhong and co-starring Zhang Zhizhi as her villainous adversary. Chin's performance impressed audiences in a film that came out just as Shanghai studios discovered the potential of marketing their product to Southeast Asia's Chinese community; Chin's emerging popularity amongst this group brought a steady stream of theater owners to Shanghai to buy copies of her films, regardless of the cost.