Lin Ching-hsia

Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia (; born 3 November 1954) is a Taiwanese actress. Regarded as a screen icon, Lin played a key role in boosting Taiwan’s film production with her romantic heroine roles in the 1970s before transitioning to Hong Kong, where she achieved great success with her androgynous roles in ''wuxia'' films. Following her marriage in 1994, she retired from acting and transitioned to writing in the 2000s, publishing four essay collections. In 2023, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.

Biography

Lin was born in Chiayi, Taiwan to ''waishengren'' parents from eastern Shandong who had moved to Taiwan in the KMT exodus in 1949. She was scouted in 1972 on the streets of Taipei by a film producer after she finished women's high school and was preparing for university. Lin debuted in the film adaptation of Chiung Yao's '' Outside the Window'' (1973), which propelled her to stardom. Lin, along with Joan Lin, Charlie Chin and Chin Han, thus became known as the "Two Chins, Two Lins" (二秦二林) for their extensive roles in romantic movies of the 1970s based on Chiung Yao's novels that dominated the Taiwanese box office. She subsequently joined Chiung Yao's company in 1976.

She appeared in 55 films in the period between 1972 and 1979, and all her roles were romantic heroines in love stories, many based on Chiung Yao's stories. Lin won the Best Actress award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival for her role as a girl scout in ''Eight Hundred Heroes'' (1976). She left for the U.S. in 1979 for a year and a half to study and relax.

Lin branched out of Taiwan with her collaborations with Hong Kong New Wave directors Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Jackie Chan in ''Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain'' (1983), ''The Other Side of Gentleman'' (1984), '' Police Story'' (1985) and ''Peking Opera Blues'' (1986), establishing her as a screen icon. In 1990, she won the Best Actress at the 27th Golden Horse Awards for her depiction of a Chinese female writer who fell in love with a Japanese collaborator in '' Red Dust'' (1990).

Lin gained particular acclaim for her androgynous roles, which are common in Chinese operas and movies. Her earliest being Jia Baoyu, the male protagonist of the 1977 film adaptation of ''Dream of the Red Chamber''. In ''Peking Opera Blues'' (1986), she was a guerrilla revolutionary and in '' Royal Tramp II'' (1992), she was the leader of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, both of whom were women characters dressed as men. And in ''Ashes of Time'' (1994), she played twin brother/sister duo Yin and Yang. However, she is perhaps most well known for her role as Dongfang Bubai in ''Swordsman II'' (1992). ''Swordsman II'' marked the peak of her career in terms of box office earnings for which she was listed among the 10 greatest performances in cinema of all time by ''Time'' magazine. The success of the film brought her to other notable martial epics such as ''New Dragon Gate Inn'' (1992) and ''The Bride with White Hair'' (1993), until she retired from acting after ''Ashes of Time'' (1994). She made a small-screen comeback by joining the Hunan TV reality show ''Up Idol'' (2015).

Personal life

Lin dated both Chin Han and Charlie Chin of the "Two Chins, Two Lins" fame in the 1970s.

Lin married Hong Kong businessman Michael Ying in 1994. She is the mother of Eileen Ying Oi Lum (born 1996) and Melani Ying Yin-oi (born 2001) and stepmother to Claudine Ying.

Filmography

Film

Television

Awards and nominations

Related publications

* ''The Last Star of the East: Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia and Her Films'' (2005)
* 窗裏窗外 ''Inside and Outside the Window'' (2011)
* 雲去雲來 ''Cloud Goes, Cloud Comes'' (2014)

References

External links

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Lin, Brigitte
1954 births
Hong Kong people of Taiwanese descent
Living people
Actresses from New Taipei
Taiwanese Buddhists
Taiwanese film actresses
20th-century Taiwanese actresses
21st-century Taiwanese actresses