Cheng Pei-pei
Cheng at Old Billingsgate, London in December 2014
Born	(1946-01-06)6 January 1946 Shanghai, China
Died	17 July 2024(2024-07-17) (aged 78) California, U.S.
Years active	1964–2020
Spouse	Yuan Wen-tung ​ ​ ( m. 1970; div. 1987)​
Children	4, including Eugenia Yuan
Awards	Hong Kong Film Awards – Best Supporting Actress 2000 Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	鄭 佩 佩
Simplified Chinese	郑 佩 佩
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Zhèng Pèipèi Wade–Giles Cheng4 P'ei4-p'ei4 IPA [ʈʂə̂ŋ pʰêɪpʰêɪ] Yue: Cantonese Jyutping Zeng6 Pui3-pui3
Musical career
Also known as	The Queen of Swords
Origin	Shaoxing, Zhejiang, China
Musical artist

Cheng Pei-pei (6 January 1946 – 17 July 2024) was a Chinese actress, who was considered cinema's first female action hero. ^[1] She was known for her performance in the 1966 King Hu wuxia film Come Drink with Me, as well as her portrayal of Jade Fox in the award-winning 2000 wuxia film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. ^[2]

Cheng was born in Shanghai, with her ancestral home in Shaoxing, Zhejiang. She was the eldest of four siblings, with a brother, Cheng Ye-Cheng, and two sisters, Cheng Xiao-Pei and Cheng Bao-Pei. Her father, Jiang Xuecheng, had worked for the Shanghai Municipal Police in Shanghai International Settlement. After World War II, Jiang established China’s first ink factory. In 1952, when Cheng was 6, her father was labeled a counter-revolutionary and sent to a labor camp in Inner Mongolia; she never saw him again and he died in 1963 without the family knowing. Cheng's mother, who was initially her father's secretary and later his concubine, decided to change the children’s surname to her own to protect them from their father's political consequences. Cheng attended World Elementary School in Shanghai, where she was a schoolmate of future movie stars Grace Chang and Chen Hou. She went to the Shanghai No. 3 Girls' High School, where she was a schoolmate of Lydia Shum. Cheng studied ballet for six years in Shanghai. ^[3]

In the mid-1950s, Cheng's mother and siblings moved to Hong Kong, leaving Cheng in the care of a nanny in Shanghai before the nanny left. Cheng lived independently for several years and moved to Hong Kong in 1960, during her second year of junior high, where she reunited with her family. In 1963, she began training at Shaw Brothers Studio through a recommendation by a family friend. Due to her Mandarin and dance background, she quickly worked her way up in the industry. In 1964, she made her feature film debut as Liu Qiuzi in the 1964 Taiwanese drama film Lovers' Rock. ^{[2] [4]}

Cheng gained fame for starring in the 1966 Hong Kong wuxia film Come Drink with Me, directed by King Hu. Set during the Ming Dynasty, it stars Cheng as Golden Swallow, a skilled swordswoman on a mission to rescue her brother. Cheng continued to play expert swordswomen in a number of films throughout the 1960s. ^[5]

Cheng moved to Southern California in the 1970s to raise her children. She attended business school at the University of California, Irvine. ^[4] During this period, she also taught Chinese dance. ^[6] In the 1980s, Cheng founded a television production company in the United States and traveled across Hawaii and Northern California at her own expense to produce a documentary series about Chinese Americans. Both Cheng's TV business and her marriage failed around the same time. In 1987, with an alimony of $100,000, she divorced quietly without informing her children and continued to live with Yuan for two years. In 1989, her company declared bankruptcy, and Cheng moved out of their house.^{[ citation needed]}

With the comedy Flirting Scholar, Cheng successful returned to acting in the 1990s Hong Kong. After the death of King Hu in 1997, Cheng founded the King Hu Foundation to preserve his legacy. ^[4] In 2000, she returned to international attention with her role as Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ^[7], directed by Ang Lee, whom Cheng had befriended when she was host of KSCI's Mandarin talk show, Pei-Pei's Time, in the 90s. ^{[2] [4]}

Into the 21st century, she became active in Greater China with a series of TV dramas such as Chinese dramas Young Justice Bao, Chinese Paladin, and The Patriot Yue Fei, as well as Singaporean dramas Spring of Life and Women of Times. She gained new popularity among the younger generation with the Chinese reality show Divas Hit the Road in 2014. She also appeared in international productions such as Disney's live-action remake Mulan, British film Lilting and Canadian film Meditation Park.^{[ citation needed]}

Cheng was Buddhist. ^[4] She was fluent in Shanghainese, ^[8] Cantonese, ^[9] Mandarin and English. ^[10]

In 1970, at the peak of her career, Cheng married Taiwanese businessman Yuan Wen-Tong, whose father was the agent for Shaw Brothers in Taiwan. The couple met when Shaw Brothers' film Lover's Rock was being shot in Taiwan; Cheng's mother lost money playing mahjong at the Yuan family's home, and Cheng was sent to deliver the money to Yuan's mother, where Cheng first met Yuan. After their marriage, Cheng retired from acting and moved to the United States with her husband for his business endeavors. ^[11]

Considering Yuan Wen-Tong was the only son in his family, Cheng felt obligated to bear a son for him. She experienced eight pregnancies and four miscarriages and had four children. Her son Harry Yuan is a host on National Geographic, and her daughters Jennifer, Marsha, and Eugenia Yuan are all actresses. ^[12]

Cheng was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration in 2019, but chose to keep the diagnosis private and spend her remaining time with her children and grandchildren. She died in the San Francisco Bay Area on 17 July 2024, at the age of 78. ^[13]

This section does not cite any sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2024) ( Learn how and when to remove this message)

• Cheng Pei-pei at IMDb
• Cheng Pei-pei at the Hong Kong Movie Database
• Cheng Pei-pei at AllMovie
• Cheng Pei-pei at Rotten Tomatoes
• Cheng Pei-pei entry at Lovehkfilm.com