Among the Cantonese 'Seven Princesses' who dominated the Cantonese cinema in the 1950s-60s, two stood out. The first one was Josephine Siao, and the second one was her rival Connie Chan.

Daughter of two opera stars, Chan Fei Nung and Kung Fan Hung, Connie Chan trained at a young age in Northern and Southern martial arts. She started her acting career as a child, and following the shooting pace of the time she churned out films on top of one another. Chan appeared in all the film genres possible of the time: Chinese opera of course (Love on the Mount) but also wuxia pian (The Conquering Sword), fantasy films (Monkey King and the Imps) or even romances (Manli, I Love You). Her output of 180 films overtook her rival's, despite a much shorter career.

Chan had to slow down in the early 70s, a period where Mandarin productions stormed the box office and left the Cantonese cinema far behind. She then used this as an opportunity to go to the USA to study, as did her rival. While on holidays in Hong Kong, Chu Yuan (who worked a lot with Chan in the 60s) convinced her to come and join the Shaw Brothers studio with him to shoot The Lizard. After this film Chan decided to retire definitively and left the entertainment industry in 1972. She came out of retirement again at the end of the 1990s to perform in a few plays.

(Source: HKCM/Lanuque) Edit Biography