The cinema of China is one of three distinct historical threads of Chinese-language cinema together with the cinema of Hong Kong and the cinema of Taiwan.
Maggie Cheung Man-yuk is a Hong Kong former actress. Raised in Hong Kong and Britain, she started her career after placing second in 1983's Miss Hong Kong Pageant. She achieved critical success in the late 1980s and into the early 2000s, before taking a break from acting following her last starring role in 2004. She rarely makes public appearances except for fashion events and award ceremonies.
Leslie Cheung Kwok-wing was a Hong Kong singer and actor. Throughout a 26-year career from 1977 until his death, Cheung released over 40 music albums and acted in 56 films. He was one of the most prominent pioneers that shaped the identity of Cantopop during the 1980s and became known for his flamboyant, often outrageous stage appearance. His venture into acting in the 1990s was recognised for his portrayal of queer characters in a then-conservative film industry. His career was marked with both praise and criticism, with numerous public discussions focusing on his sexual orientation and androgynous persona.
Wong Kar-wai is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, and producer. His films are characterised by nonlinear narratives, atmospheric music, and vivid cinematography involving bold, saturated colours. A pivotal figure of Hong Kong cinema, Wong is considered a contemporary auteur, and ranks third on Sight & Sound's 2002 poll of the greatest filmmakers of the previous 25 years. His films frequently appear on best-of lists domestically and internationally.
The cinema of Hong Kong is one of the three major threads in the history of Chinese language cinema, alongside the cinema of China and the cinema of Taiwan. As a former British colony, Hong Kong had a greater degree of political and economic freedom than mainland China and Taiwan, and developed into a filmmaking hub for the Chinese-speaking world.
Ann Hui On-wah, is a film director, producer, screenwriter and actress from Hong Kong who is one of the most critically acclaimed filmmakers of the Hong Kong New Wave. She is known for her films about social issues in Hong Kong which include: literary adaptations, martial arts, semi-autobiographical works, women's issues, social phenomena, political changes, and thrillers. She served as the president of the Hong Kong Film Directors' Guild from 2004 to 2006.
The Hong Kong New Wave is a film movement in Chinese-language Hong Kong cinema that emerged in the late 1970s and lasted into the early 2000s.
The 1990s in Hong Kong marked a transitional period and the last decade of colonial rule in Hong Kong.
A Touch of Zen is a 1971 wuxia film co-edited, written, and directed by film maker King Hu. Its screenplay is based on a classic Chinese story "Xianü" in the book Strange Stories from a Chinese Studio by Pu Songling. The film is set in the Ming dynasty under the dominance of eunuchs and narrates multiple themes of transcendence of dichotomies, Zen Buddhism, feminism, conservative female roles, and the ghost story. At the 1975 Cannes Film Festival, the film won the Technical Grand Prize award.
Mabel Cheung is a film director from Hong Kong. She is one of the leading directors in Hong Kong cinema and is considered one of the three women to achieve acclaim in the New Wave/Second Wave in Hong Kong. Elected "Freshman's Queen" when she was studying undergrad at the University of Hong Kong, she was also an avid sportswoman representing Lady Ho Tung Hall and the University of Hong Kong. Cheung made her first film in 1985 as a student at New York University. Cheung is known for working with the migration issues of Hongkongers and overseas Chinese, especially before the 1997 handover of Hong Kong.
Madeleine Thien is a Canadian short story writer and novelist. The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature has considered her work as reflecting the increasingly trans-cultural nature of Canadian literature, exploring art, expression and politics inside Cambodia and China, as well as within diasporic East Asian communities. Thien's critically acclaimed novel, Do Not Say We Have Nothing, won the 2016 Governor General's Award for English-language fiction, the Scotiabank Giller Prize, and the Edward Stanford Travel Writing Awards for Fiction. It was shortlisted for the 2016 Man Booker Prize, the 2017 Baileys Women's Prize for Fiction, and the 2017 Rathbones Folio Prize. Her books have been translated into more than 25 languages.
S. Louisa Wei is a Chinese filmmaker, film producer, writer and professor.
Wong Chun-chun is a Hong Kong film director, screenwriter, actress and producer. She is known for her female-centric films which include Women’s Private Parts (2000), Truth or Dare: 6th Floor Rear Flat (2003) and The Stolen Years (2013). Wong was awarded the “Hong Kong Ten Outstanding Young Persons” by the Junior Chamber International Hong Kong in 2002, and "Young Achiever of the Year" in the Women of Influence award by United States Chamber of Commerce in 2007.
Li Lili was a Chinese film actress and singer. Her films Playthings, The Great Road and Storm on the Border were blockbusters of the 1930s and 1940s. She was sometimes called "China's Mae West".
Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi is a Hong Kong actress and cantopop singer. Cheung is considered a "Sing girl"—an actress who first received media attention through starring alongside Stephen Chow, and later went on to her own successful career.
Hong Kong was a colony and later a dependent territory of the British Empire from 1841 to 1997, apart from a period of occupation under the Japanese Empire from 1941 to 1945 during the Pacific War. The colonial period began with the British occupation of Hong Kong Island in 1841, during the First Opium War between the British and the Qing dynasty. The Qing had wanted to enforce its prohibition of opium importation within the dynasty that was being exported mostly from British India, as it was causing widespread addiction among its populace.
Esther Eng, born Ng Kam-ha, was a Cantonese–American film director and the first female director to direct Chinese-language films in the United States. Eng made four feature films in America, and five in Hong Kong. She was recognized as a female pioneer who crossed the boundaries of race, language, culture and gender.
Fanny Cheung Mui-ching is a Hong Kong psychologist. She is a professor of psychology and co-director of the Hong Kong Institute of Asia-Pacific Studies at the Chinese University of Hong Kong (CUHK). She researchers, publishes, and advocates on topics related to mental health and gender equality.
Ai Xiaoming is a Chinese documentary filmmaker and political activist. She is also a scholar of women's and public issues, and former professor at Sun Yat-sen University. Ai was born in Wuhan in 1953, and has spent most of her adult life in Beijing and Guangzhou.
Our Unwinding Ethos is an 2019 urban legend drama series produced by TVB. The story follows twelve well-known urban legends in Hong Kong. The series stars Edwin Siu, Rosina Lam, Jonathan Cheung and Moon Lau. It is produced by Wong Wai Sing and edited by Li Qianyi. It aired on TVB Jade from June 15, 2019 to August 16, 2019. First overseas premiere on Astro (television) between July 15 and August 16, 2019. The series tied in with the Ghost Festival (Yulan) in July. The series was featured at the Hong Kong International Film and Television Fair (2018) and the TVB Amazing Summer (2019).
