Florence Lim (21 January 1905 – 16 February 1979), better known as Lim Cho-cho, was a

Chinese Canadian Chinese Canadians are Canadians of full or partial Chinese people, Chinese ancestry, which includes both naturalized Chinese immigrants and Canadian-born Chinese. They comprise a subgroup of East Asian Canadians which is a further subgroup of ...

actress in the cinema of the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

and

British Hong Kong Hong Kong was under British Empire, British rule from 1841 to 1997, except for a Japanese occupation of Hong Kong, brief period of Japanese occupation during World War II from 1941 to 1945. It was a crown colony of the United Kingdom from 1841 ...

from 1925 to 1954. She was the second wife of filmmaker

Lai Man-Wai Lai Man-wai (; September 25, 1893 – October 26, 1953), also romanised as Lay Min-wei or M.W. Ray, considered the "Father of Hong Kong Cinema", was the director of the first Hong Kong film '' Zhuangzi Tests His Wife'' in 1913. In the film, Lai ...

and the mother of actors Lai Hang and Lai Suen.

Gigi Lai Gigi Lai (born 1 October 1971) is a Hong Kong actress and singer. Entering the entertainment industry in 1985, Lai was under a contract with the television station TVB from 1991 until she retired in 2008. Nicknamed by the Hong Kong media as the " ...

is her granddaughter.

Early life

Florence Lim was born in

Victoria, British Columbia Victoria is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of British Columbia, on the southern tip of Vancouver Island off Canada's Pacific Ocean, Pacific coast. The city has a population of 91,867, and the Gre ...

, Canada, where her grandfather, an immigrant from

Xinhui Xinhui, alternately romanized as Sunwui and also known as Kuixiang, is an urban district of Jiangmen in Guangdong, China. It grew from a separate city founded at the confluence of the Tan and West Rivers. It has a population of about 735,50 ...

(now part of

Jiangmen Jiangmen ( zh, c=江门), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Kongmoon, is a prefecture-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province in southern China. It consists of three urban distri ...

Guangdong ) means "wide" or "vast", and has been associated with the region since the creation of Guang Prefecture in AD 226. The name "''Guang''" ultimately came from Guangxin ( zh, labels=no, first=t, t= , s=广信), an outpost established in Han dynasty ...

, China, owned a rice shop. Her father died when she was 3. She attended Chinese Public School in Victoria which allowed her to be proficient in both English and Chinese. When she was 9, her widowed mother went to

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

to receive medical treatment, and at age 12 Lim joined her in Hong Kong, having completed primary school. In Hong Kong she enrolled in

Ying Wa Girls' School Ying Wa Girls' School () is a The Hong Kong Council of the Church of Christ in China, HKCCCC secondary day school for girls in Mid-Levels, in Hong Kong. The campus is located at 76 Robinson Road, Hong Kong, Robinson Road, Mid-levels. The ...

. One of her classmates named Lai Hang-kau (who would later become known as Lai Cheuk-cheuk) introduced her to her uncle

. Even though he was 12 years her senior and already married, Lim married him as his second wife in 1920, when she was 15.

Career

Lim Cho-cho's acting career started in Hong Kong when she played the lead role in ''Rouge'' (1925), the first film produced by her husband's

China Sun Motion Picture Company Minxin Film Company (), also known as China Sun Motion Picture Company Ltd. (1923–1930), was one of the earliest movie studios in the history of Chinese cinema and Hong Kong cinema. History Minxin was founded in 1922 by Lai Manwai. Becaus ...

. In 1926, China Sun relocated to

Shanghai Shanghai, Shanghainese: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: is a direct-administered municipality and the most populous urban area in China. The city is located on the Chinese shoreline on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the ...

, and there Lim continued to star in silent films such as ''

A Poet from the Sea ''A Poet from the Sea'' is a 1927 Chinese silent film written and directed by Hou Yao, starring himself as a quixotic poet who tried to escape from the constraints of modernity. Filmed in Stanley, Hong Kong, it contains one of the earliest footag ...

'' (1927) and ''

Romance of the Western Chamber ''Romance of the Western Chamber'' (), also translated as ''The Story of the Western Wing'', ''The West Chamber'', ''Romance of the Western Bower'' and similar titles, is one of the most famous China, Chinese dramatic works. It was written by the ...

'' (1927). Her credits after China Sun became the

Lianhua Film Company The United Photoplay Service Company () was one of the three dominant production companies based in Shanghai, China during the 1930s, the other two being the Mingxing Film Company and the Tianyi Film Company, the forerunner of the Hong Kong–ba ...

in 1930 included ''

A Spray of Plum Blossoms ''A Spray of Plum Blossoms'' () is a 1931 silent Chinese film directed by Bu Wancang and starring Ruan Lingyu, Wang Cilong, Lim Cho Cho, and Jin Yan. Produced by the newly established United Photoplay Service (renamed Lianhua Film Company. in ...

'' (1931), ''

Song of China ''Song of China'' (Chinese: 天倫, ''Tian Lun''), also known as ''The Way of Heaven'' or ''Filial Piety'', is a 1935 Chinese black-and-white film directed by Fei Mu and Luo Mingyou. It was produced by the United Photoplay Service, also kno ...

'' (1935), ''

National Customs ''National Customs'' () is a 1935 Chinese film directed by Luo Mingyou and Zhu Shilin. The film was silent film star Ruan Lingyu's last performance before she died in 1935. This film is a propaganda film promoting the New Life Movement, which ...

'' (1935), and ''Song of a Kind Mother'' (1937). Lim particularly excelled in mother roles. Her son Lai Hang also appeared in many films around this time. In 1931, she also acted in the Indian film ''Kamar-Al-Zaman'', an adaptation of a tale from the

Arabian Nights ''One Thousand and One Nights'' (, ), is a collection of Middle Eastern folktales compiled in the Arabic language during the Islamic Golden Age. It is often known in English as ''The Arabian Nights'', from the first English-language edition () ...

directed by Shah G. Agha, where she appeared in the role of princess Budur. During the

Second Sino-Japanese War The Second Sino-Japanese War was fought between the Republic of China (1912–1949), Republic of China and the Empire of Japan between 1937 and 1945, following a period of war localized to Manchuria that started in 1931. It is considered part ...

(1937–1945), the Lais first returned to Hong Kong when Japan invaded Shanghai in 1937. In Hong Kong Lim continued to act in films, many patriotic and anti-Japanese in nature. Following Japan's invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, the family escaped to

mainland China "Mainland China", also referred to as "the Chinese mainland", is a Geopolitics, geopolitical term defined as the territory under direct administration of the People's Republic of China (PRC) in the aftermath of the Chinese Civil War. In addit ...

, first to

Chikan, Kaiping Chikan () is a town in Kaiping (), Jiangmen, Guangdong Province, China. It is officially designated as a ''National Historic and Cultural Town of China'' (). Historically it was a regional maritime hub, center for emigration, emigrant market town ...

, Guangdong, where at one point Lim had to peddle old clothes on the street to make ends meet. When Japanese soldiers overran

Kaiping Kaiping (), postal map romanization, alternately romanization of Chinese, romanized in Cantonese as Hoiping, in local dialect as Hoihen, is a county-level city in Guangdong provinces of China, Province, China. It is located in the western secti ...

in 1943, they fled again, this time to

Guilin Guilin (Standard Zhuang: ''Gveilinz''), postal map romanization, formerly romanization of Chinese, romanized as Kweilin, is a prefecture-level city in the northeast of China's Guangxi, Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region. It is situated on the we ...

Guangxi Guangxi,; officially the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, is an Autonomous regions of China, autonomous region of the China, People's Republic of China, located in South China and bordering Vietnam (Hà Giang Province, Hà Giang, Cao Bằn ...

, where they ran a photographic studio. After the war ended, the family returned to Hong Kong, and Lim acted again for another 8 years. She retired after her husband's 1953 death to raise their 9 children. She visited mainland China in the 1970s before her death in Hong Kong in 1979.

Filmography

In popular culture

In the 1991 film '' Center Stage'', Lim Cho-cho is portrayed by

Cecilia Yip Cecilia Yip Tung (; born 8 March 1963) is a Hong Kong actress whose work is known throughout Asia, especially in mainland China, Hong Kong and Taiwan. Career She began her acting career in 1982 with ''Nomad'' for which she was nominated for t ...

, who spoke

Cantonese Cantonese is the traditional prestige variety of Yue Chinese, a Sinitic language belonging to the Sino-Tibetan language family. It originated in the city of Guangzhou (formerly known as Canton) and its surrounding Pearl River Delta. While th ...

Mandarin Mandarin or The Mandarin may refer to: Language * Mandarin Chinese, branch of Chinese originally spoken in northern parts of the country ** Standard Chinese or Modern Standard Mandarin, the official language of China ** Taiwanese Mandarin, Stand ...

and English in her role.

References

External links

* * {{Authority control 1905 births 1979 deaths 20th-century Chinese actresses 20th-century Hong Kong actresses 20th-century Canadian actresses Chinese film actresses Chinese silent film actresses Canadian film actresses Hong Kong film actresses Canadian actresses of Chinese descent Actresses from Victoria, British Columbia Canadian emigrants to British Hong Kong Canadian silent film actresses