I didn't know that there was another Asian "prodigy" around the same time that Ginny Tiu made her first mark. But, yes, as I just learned there was another prodigy--Cherylene Lee. No, she wasn't a piano prodigy, but dancing and singing was her forte. She appeared on various TV shows, including Gene Kelly's, and performed in Las Vegas as part of the sister act, the Lee Sisters. Here she is, with Gene Kelly, and then Dinah Shore and then the DENNIS THE MENACE show:
After a number of TV shows and appearances in feature films, her career seemed to stop. But she kept on going, however, becoming a writer and screenwriter, and doing some TV work, too, like voicing two parts in Hanna-Barbera kid's cartoon THE AMAZING CHAN AND THE CHAN CLAN.
One of Lee's plays, ARTHUR AND LEILA, was performed by Nancy Kwan and Dana Lee:
Lee also wrote a play about the Vincent Chin tragedy:
She wrote an autobiography, JUST LIKE REALLY. Here she is talking about her autobiography and career.
She started two Facebooks in late 2015, too. Sadly, she died not long thereafter, but the Facebook pages are still active.
Despite the publicity that nowadays we are finally seeing Asian Americans on television and in the movie theaters, this is just publicity and, basically, untruthful. There were times when Asian Americans, and in particular, Asian females, were in demand on the small and big screen. One could say, and there are facts that prove this, that Asians and Asians were more popular in "the old days" than they are now. After all, the first and thus far the only Asian to win an Academy award was Miyoshi Umeki for her performance in the 1957 film, SAYONARA.
HONG KONG was one of the shows on television that had a focus on Asia and Asians. There were various TV shows that had an Oriental flavor. The South Seas (not in Asia but close to it) had ADVENTURES IN PARADISE. Two episodes even had the legendary Chinese-American actress Anna May Wong. Periodically, TV shows needed Asians for guest roles or visual atmosphere. And the old standby, Charlie Chan, had a TV show. Actresses who benefited from this entertainment environment were many, including Lisa Lu, France Nuyen, Anita Loo, etc. It was a time when if you were Asian, you were "in demand." I SPY started its season with exteriors filmed in Hong Kong. Later on, TV shows like HAWAII FIVE-O and KUNG FU kept the visibility prominent of Asians. And there was STAR TREK, of course, which had various ethnicities in its cast, including George Takei as Sulu, a helmsman of the Starship Enterprise.
HONG KONG, the TV show, was filmed in black-and-white, and initially was going to be only 30 minutes, but it was
determined that 60-minutes would be better against the highly-rated
show, WAGON TRAIN, which would be its competition.
Taylor played Glenn Evans, a reporter whose beat was the exotic and adventurous British colony, Hong Kong. The Fox show
had a cadre of Fox contract players, like France Nuyen who played
"Happy" and may have been back in another season. The show tried to tweak itself to change its ratings that were not
promising. One episode even
has the musical prodigy, the child Ginny Tiu, who, at the end of the episode, plays on a piano to the surrounding cast
members.
Taylor spoke about his show when it was starting out. "I had turned down 25 offers to do a TV series, but when this one
came along, it sounded like something I could do with real integrity, as
well as making a bit of money for myself."
Taylor owned 15% of the show
and received a $3750 per episode, at that time a sizable figure. There
was a gritty honesty to the show, and an attempt to stay away from the cliched
plot and dialog of a Fu Manchu and Charlie Chan film, though gun play and fisticuffs had to be in there for action fans. Not a problem for Taylor. Taylor
loved doing most of his own stunts and was not afraid of getting mussed
up, if needed.
Three weeks location shooting in Hong Kong were used for background
shots for the series, and the rest was shot in the Fox studios in
Hollywood, where sets were designed with a Hong Kong look.
As promising as the show was, and as much effort that had been put into the series, the show failed to capture a sizeable audience that would justify its costly expenditure. It was canceled after 26 episodes. Despite this cancellation, there was talk of bringing the series back after a public outcry. But when the new show finally materialized, it was left in the vaults. The new show was titled DATELINE: SAN FRANCISCO, and the name of the character was different, possibly because it was made for Universal and not Fox.
As for the series, HONG KONG, it increases in reputation, though few of the current public know about the show at this point. The Fox vault may hold the key if they release the show in the best quality possible, and finally the public will have an opportunity to see the series like they've never seen it before.
Rod Taylor with Mai Tai Sing
The musical prodigy, Ginny Tiu, also appeared in the show.
Yes, there is a Hong Kong singer called Tsai Chin, but I want to write and copy text about the other Tsai Chin. Oh, now she is very stately actress with a flavorful resume, a lauded autobiography, and her new film, LUCKY GRANDMA. Tsai Chin has an entertainment history that goes way back. She is the first Asian "Bond girl" for her brief role as Ling at the beginning of YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, where she shared a bed with Sean Connery, who was playing Bond in his fifth film.
Bond: "Why do Chinese girls taste different from all other girls?"
Ling: "You think we better, eh?"
Bond: "No, just different. Like Peking duck is different from Russian caviar." (Personal aside, the opportunities for me to use this line are dwindling fast.)
After promising the best duck (ha, ha), Tsai Chin packs him off to be executed on the bed by two charging men holding machine guns. Of course, it is just a ruse....
Tsai Chin was back in a Bond film years later, but Connery wasn't.
Around that YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE time, Tsai Chin made five appearances as Lin Tang, the daughter of Fu Manchu. If you heard, "A favor, father," you were in trouble.
But Bond, or Fu Manchu, or her appearances in other films, like THE JOY LUCK CLUB, are not the subject of this blog. In part, the music feats of Tsai Chin is the main subject of this blog.
I can't really afford what is offered on eBay (besides, I don't have a record player), but I have a researcher's interest in her hit single and subsequent two albums, one of whose back copy text is rendered here. She had an international hit with "The Ding Dong Song." Remarkably, it was a familiar and beloved song to many at the time, though for me its appeal is not frequent listenings. Perhaps even to Tsai Chin, too.
The song was part the British stage production of THE WORLD OF SUZIE WONG, which featured Tsai Chin in the starring role as Suzie Wong. Afterward, Tsai made two albums: THE WORLD OF TSAI CHIN and THE WESTERN WORLD OF TSAI CHIN.
Since the eBay photo is small and this listing can disappear, let me write what is said about her in the back of her first album written by the album's producer, Hugh Mandl. British grammar has been kept.
**********
'Mr. Wong. How are you? It's a braw bricht moonlicht nicht the nicht."
In this quotation--ripped untimely from the singer's repertoire--can be seen all the dilemma of being Tsai Chin.
Not that she is aware of any dilemma. If she does examine herself--and every serious actress, however delicious, has to do so sometimes--it is probably only to laugh at what she finds.
And that is where the dilemma lies, for she must know that there is more to her complex character than she admits.
There is charm and warmth and innocence--and there is an enchanting sense of humour which is never malicious. There is also a tremendous wisdom and a dedication to the job in hand which you will only find with completely professional actors. Tsai Chin was born in China--in a trunk, for her father was one of that country's greatest actors. She came to England to train at RADA, where she won no prizes at all. "I supposed I was lazy," she says. She lives in London--in Battersea where she has bought a Victorian house on which she is lavishing considerable skill in decorating. She beguiled several thousand people as Suzie Wong during the two-year run of 'The World of...', and several thousands more with her record of 'The Ding Dong Song', which Lionel Bart cooked up for her, and which became an international hit. Making this album has taken Tsai Chin six months, working very hard and sometimes very seriously. Often, late at night, her musical director, Harry Robinson, and I have wanted to go home and sleep--but every time we've been bewitched by her into working just a little longer. We have been touched by her sweetness, impressed by her erudition, shamed by her humility and beguiled by her elfin humour. We have also been brought near to bankruptcy by her appetite. She is always hungry--and of course there is always an enslaved male to pay for a meal. One afternoon at 4 o'clock, a recording session was interrupted while the star had tea. She ate roast lamb, new potatoes and runner beans. Then she ate a poached egg--on toast--and followed this up with a large Viennese cake. Two cups of coffee and a scrounged cigarette, and she was ready to go back to work. Yet she's as small and frail and graceful as you could wish, and her subtle mixture of pride and humility are an object lesson to any western performer. We've tried to convey a little of all the different sides to Tsai Chin's character in this record, only excluding this hunger. Come to think of it--'I'd 've baked a cake' gives a clue to that, too.
