Although Tsai Chin was born in China in 1936, virtually all her career has been in the UK and more recently in the USA. She studied at RADA in 1951. She played the part of “Liat” in a West End production of “South Pacific” and had the title part on stage in “The World of Suzie Wong” opposite Gary Raymond. On film she played Lin Tang the eveil daughter of Fu Manchu (Christopher Lee) in the Fu Manchu films. She also featured in “You Only Live Twice” and “The Virgin Soldiers”. In Hollywood she had a leading role in “The Joy Luck Club” with other Asian actresses such as France Nuyen and Lisa Lu. Her most recent film is “Year of the Fish” released in 2007.
TCM Overview:
Daughter of a famous actor long with the Peking Opera, Tsai Chin was educated at England’s Royal Academy of Dramatic Art and soon thereafter played the title role in the West End production of “The World of Suzie Wong.” She also made an auspicious film debut as Ingrid Bergman’s adopted daughter in the touching biopic, “The Inn of the Sixth Happiness” (1958). Through the 1960s, she was cast in decorative, small roles in films ranging from “Blow Up” (1966) to “You Only Live Twice” (1967), achieving her greatest recognition for the five films she made with Christopher Lee in which she played the villainous and inscrutable daughter of his equally treacherous Fu Manchu, beginning with 1965’s “The Face of Fu Manchu.” Tsai Chin did better onstage during the 70s and 80s and even returned to her native land to considerable acclaim when she taught and directed at Beijing’s Central Academy of Dramatic Art. She returned to feature films after a long absence to play one of four mothers who bond with their daughters over mah-jongg in Wayne Wang’s “The Joy Luck Club” (1993).
Her IMDB entry:
Tsai Chin, pinyin Zhou Caiqin is an actor, director, teacher and author, best known in America for her film role as Auntie Lindo in The Joy Luck Club. The third daughter of Zhou Xinfang, China’s great actor in the last century, she was trained at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art London (first Chinese student) and later earned a Master Degree at Tufts University, Boston. Her career spans more than five decades working in UK, USA and recently in China. She starred on stage on both sides of the atlantic, (a first for a Chinese actor) in London’s West End,The World of Susie Wong and on Broadway, Golden Child; played the two most powerful women of 20th century China; for television, in The Subject of Struggle; for stage Memories of Madame Mao; was twice in Bond films, as Bond girl in You Only Live Twice, and later in Casino Royale. Her single The Ding Dong Song recorded for Decca was top of the charts in Asia. She was the first to be invited to teach acting in China after the Cultural Revolution when universities re-opened. She is now celebrated in China for her portrayal of Jia Mu in the recent TV drama series, The Dream of The Red Chamber. Her international best-selling autobiography, Daughter of Shanghai is to be a stage play by David Henry Hwang which will be produced by the Wallis Annenberg Center for the Perfoming Arts in Beverly Hills.
– IMDb Mini Biography By: Tsai Chin (submitted by Donald Spradlin, Manager)
