Tristan Fewings/Getty Images, Moet British Independent Film Awards
Chen PeipeiThe film includes Ang Lee’s Oscar-nominated Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and King Hu’s martial arts masterpiece,Come drink with me” has passed away. He was 78 years old.
Chen, who was considered a pioneer in martial arts roles for female actors, died Thursday in the San Francisco Bay area. She had long suffered from a progressive brain disease and had donated her brain for medical research.
Born in Shanghai on January 6, 1946, Cheng moved to Hong Kong in 1962. Trained in ballet and dance, Cheng soon found herself working at the famed Shaw Brothers Studio. After making her feature debut in the drama Lovers Rock, Cheng’s breakthrough came in King Hu’s Come Drink with Me in 1966, making her a major star in martial arts, action and swordplay films. The film set the tone for a sequel (1968’s Golden Swallow), an unrealized remake by Quentin Tarantino, and a host of East Asian female-led action films. At the time, the film was considered Hong Kong’s submission for the Academy of International Feature Films awards, but was not nominated.
Chen then emigrated again, moving to California in the 1970s, where she raised her four children and attended business school at the University of California, Irvine. All four of her children are active in the entertainment field: Harry Yuan was a presenter for National Geographic; Eugenia Yuan was a US Olympic gymnast who appeared in the Hong Kong films 3 Extremes II and The Eye 2, the Australian TV series Secret City, the US-produced Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, and the revived Hawaii Five-O TV series.
Chen’s career has seen a major resurgence since her role as the venomous Jade Fox in the 2000 film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film won four Academy Awards and grossed $128 million in North America, making it the first foreign-language film to gross over $100 million.
Her career has since spanned both sides of the Pacific, with roles in Hong Kong action film Naked Weapon (opposite a young Maggie Q) and Hyde Park Entertainment’s Capcom game adaptation Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li. Her most recent credits include a starring role in 2014’s Lilting and as the Matchmaker in Disney’s 2020 live-action remake of Mulan.
“We would like to thank all her friends, colleagues and fans for their support of her over the years. Our mother, Cheng Pei-Pei, wanted to be remembered as a legendary martial arts queen best known for her roles as Golden Swallow (Come Drink With Me), Madame Wah (The Flirting Scholar) and Jade Fox (Hiding Hidden Dragon). She was a versatile, award-winning actress whose film and television career spanned six decades, working across Asia and internationally, with roles including ‘Jun’ (Lilting), ‘Maria Wang’ (Meditation Park) and ‘The Matchmaker’ (Mulan),” the family statement said.
“My mother loved being an actress and, despite how hard she worked, she knew how lucky she was to have the profession she did. She was humble, approachable, patient and kind, always generous with her time and always trying to help others in any way she could. She will be truly missed.”
In 2019, Chen was diagnosed with neurodegenerative atypical parkinsonism, informally known as corticobasal degeneration (CBD), a rare condition with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, but whose progression cannot be slowed by current treatments. Chen’s family explained that she has chosen not to make her diagnosis public, but to deal with her condition privately and spend the rest of her time with her four children (Eugenia, Jennifer, Harry, and Marsha) and grandchildren. In lieu of flowers, Chen has requested donations to the Brain Support Network (BSN), to which her brain was donated.
