Tsai Chin (actress)

She is the third daughter of the Peking opera actor and singer Zhou Xinfang (1895—1975) and Lilian Qiu (AKA Lilian Ju; 1905–1968).

Chin has a brother, restaurateur Michael Chow.

She grew up in the Shanghai French Concession, where (under her western name, "Irene Chow") she received a multilingual education at The Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mctyeire School (中西女中) in Shanghai and King George V School in Hong Kong.

Tsai Chin (born 1 September 1933) is a Chinese actress, singer, director, teacher, and author best known in the United States for her role as Auntie Lindo in the film The Joy Luck Club.

Chin's career spans more than six decades and three continents.

She starred onstage in London's West End in The World of Suzie Wong and on Broadway in Golden Child.

Chin appeared in two James Bond films, 39 years apart, as a Bond girl in You Only Live Twice; and in Casino Royale.

Tsai Chin was born on 1 September 1933, in Tianjin (Tientsin), China, where her father was on tour.

During her childhood, Tsai Chin was witness to colonial occupation, the Japanese invasion of China, Chinese Civil War, and the Communist takeover in 1949.

At the age of 17, she left Shanghai and was sent to England to study at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was the first Chinese student in the art academy.

Tsai Chin later became an Associate Member of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art.

She earned a master's degree at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.

Tsai Chin's first significant film role came when she was cast in the film The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958), in which she played the adopted daughter of Ingrid Bergman's character.

Her big break, though, arrived when two Broadway shows came to London at the same time.

Initially, Tsai Chin was cast as one of the two leads in the musical Flower Drum Song.

However, she also auditioned for the play The World of Suzie Wong for which she was offered the title role.

The Daily Mail quoted Chin as saying, "I had a terrible decision to make."

She opted to star as Suzie Wong at The Prince of Wales Theatre, London (1959–1961), where she saw her name in lights for the first time.

The play, generally panned by the critics, was a commercial hit.

Chin drew good reviews, with Milton Shulman of the Evening Standard saying, "Tsai Chin is a lovely creature with all the vivacity, simplicity and gusts of unpredictable Eastern temperament."

Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times said, "Tsai Chin who has cool clear beauty and considerable talent."

To compensate Tsai Chin for not being able to do the musical Flower Drum Song, producer, Donald Albery granted her request to sing a song in The World of Suzie Wong.

She chose a lyrical Chinese song, "Second Spring" (第二春), which was translated into English as "The Ding Dong Song", by Lionel Bart.

Tsai Chin recorded the song in 1960 for Decca Records in London.

The single, arranged and conducted by music director Harry Robinson, became a hit, particularly in Asia.

Tsai Chin made her television debut in the popular British hospital drama Emergency Ward 10, then International Detective (1960), Man of the World (1963), Dixon of Dock Green (1965), and The Troubleshooters (1967).

Tsai Chin followed this success by recording several more singles and two LPs, later incorporating many of these songs, written specifically for her, into a cabaret act which she performed from 1961 to 1966.

As well as touring her cabaret show throughout the United Kingdom, she also performed in London's most exclusive venues, including the Dorchester, the Savoy, the Society, and frequently Quaglino's and Allegro, sharing a bill with David Frost, then at the start of his illustrious career.

Her cabaret act was also aired on television in Switzerland and the Netherlands.

Variety called her a "Savvy entertainer, with most of her material tailor-made for her personality."

London's Evening News was "impressed…by the way she held her audience, wasn't a murmur not even the clatter of one piece of cutlery."

Her stage work at this time included leading roles in The Gimmick, with Donald Sutherland, at Criterion Theatre, West End (1962); The Magnolia Tree, at Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh (1966); Mrs. Frail in Love for Love, by William Congreve, in Watford (1970); and touring the United Kingdom in the title role of The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1969), with Paul Massie.

In 1962, she traveled to New York City for the first time to guest star for a Christmas special The Defenders.

From 1965 to 1969, she made five films opposite Christopher Lee as Lin Tang, daughter of Fu Manchu, a Chinese archvillain intent on dominating the world.

As soon as she was in the position to do so, she fought to make Asian roles more truthful.

Apart from her singing, she played Juicy Lucy in The Virgin Soldiers alongside Lynn Redgrave (1969), directed by John Dexter; helped to "assassinate" Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice (1967); worked for Michelangelo Antonioni on Blowup (1966) and for Fred Zinnemann in Man's Fate (1969), when the MGM studio unfortunately collapsed before filming barely started.

In China, she is best known for her portrayal of Grandmother Jia in the 2010 TV drama series The Dream of Red Mansions.

She also appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "The Only Light in the Darkness" (2014) as Lian May and in the feature film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (2021) as Waipo.

Her single, "The Ding Dong Song", recorded for Decca, hit the top of the music charts in Asia.

She was the first acting instructor to be invited to teach acting in China after the Cultural Revolution, when China's universities reopened.