Cheng Pei-pei is one of those rare names in cinema who returns to thrill and surprise audiences again and again. Born in Shanghai in 1946, Cheng relocated to Hong Kong when she was 14. Armed with a high school education and six years of ballet training, Cheng joined the Shaw Brothers performing arts training course, which served as a springboard for her into a career as an actress with Shaw Brothers.

She made her film debut playing a male in The Lotus Lamp in 1963, but quickly made her screen presence felt when she starred in Pan Lei s Lover s Rock later that year.

During her years at Shaw Brothers, she made over 20 movies of which most were wuxia (martial arts) films. Cool but passionate, poised but lethal, Cheng carved herself an unbreachable niche as the Queen of Swords in classics such as Come Drink With Me, Golden Swallow, Dragon Swamp, and The Lady Hermit.

She left her successful career and moved to the U.S. to get married in 1971 after making The Lady Hermit in 1971. She returned to Hong Kong for good in 1992, working in television, until Taiwanese auteur Ang Lee cast her as the Jade Fox in the Oscar-winning Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film brought her the best supporting actress award in the Hong Kong Film Awards and took her career to new international heights.

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