Connie Chan Po-chu
| Connie Chan | |
|---|---|
| Chinese name | 陳寶珠 (traditional) |
| Chinese name | 陈宝珠 (simplified) |
| Pinyin | Chén Bǎozhū (Mandarin) |
| Jyutping | Can4 Bou2 Zyu1 (Cantonese) |
| Born |
1 January 1947 Guangzhou, Guangdong, China |
| Occupation | Singer, actor |
| Genre(s) | Cantonese opera, Cantopop |
| Instrument(s) | Singing |
| Years active | 1956–present |
| Spouse(s) | Jimmy Yeung (1974–1982) |
| Children | Dexter Yeung (b. 1975) |
| Ancestry | Xinhui, Guangdong, China |
Connie Chan Po-chu was born in 1946 to impoverished parents, one of at least nine siblings, in Guangdong, China. To increase their children's chances of survival, Chan's birth parents gave away some of their youngest to other families. As a result, Chan was adopted by Chan Fei-nung and his wife, Kung Fan-hung, who were renowned Cantonese opera stars. During the 1960s, Connie Chan was one of Hong Kong cinema's most beloved teen idols.
She made more than 230 films in a variety of genres: from traditional Cantonese opera and wuxia movies to contemporary youth musicals; action films to comedies; melodramas and romances. Owing to her popularity she was dubbed "The Movie-Fan Princess". Her godfather is actor Cho Tat Wah. She has a son named Dexter Yeung, who stars in the 2008 TVB Series Wasabi Mon Amour and Moonlight Resonance.
At the age of five and a half she started learning Cantonese opera from her adoptive parents and later became an apprentice of Peking opera master Fen Juhua, who was one of the first wuxia actresses in Shanghai during the 1920s. When Connie was nine, she began performing onstage. One year later she and Leung Bo-chu (the daughter of the great comic actor and opera clown Leung Sing-po) were the leading stars of the Double Chu Opera Troupe. In 1958, Connie made her film debut in the Cantonese opera Madam Chun Heung-lin. The following year she played in two Mandarin-language productions for the MP&GI studio: as a widow’s daughter in Yue Feng’s melodrama For Better, For Worse and as a young boy in Tao Qin’s comedy The Scout Master. That same year she also played the role of a filial son in Breaking the Coffin to Rescue Mother.
During her teenage years, Connie appeared more and more frequently on the silver screen: at first mostly in Cantonese operas (often with the legendary Master Yam Kim-fai, who had taken Connie as her beloved student); but later almost exclusively in wuxia movies (usually in the company of veteran action stars Yu So Chow, Cho Tat Wah, and perennial bad guy Shih Kien). She also joined the Sin-Hok Kong-luen Film Company’s stable of young stars (which included Suet Nei, Nancy Sit Ka-yin, and Kenneth Tsang Kong) and took part in director Chan Lit-ban’s ground-breaking adaptations of Jin Yong’s serialised novels, The Golden Hairpin (1963–64) and The Snowflake Sword (1964). Released in three and four parts, these films were blockbuster extravaganzas popular for their intricate plots, special effects, and complex action choreography. Two films in 1965 would give a boost to Chan’s career: The Six-Fingered Lord of the Lute (in which she played the lead male role and which was publicised with the creation of her very own fanclub) and The Black Rose (in which director Chor Yuen had the foresight to change her image by putting her in a contemporary role as a modern-day Robin Hood).
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