'Queen of Swords' Jeong Pae-pae, Who Led the Golden Age of Hong Kong Cinema, Passes Away at 78

Chinese Action Movie Icon Who Starred in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The Grandmaster

Jeong Pei-pei (鄭佩佩·Jeong Pei-pei), an iconic Chinese action movie actress who starred in the films Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and The One-Armed Swordsman, has passed away at the age of 78.

The "Queen of Swords," actress Cheng Pei-pei, who led the golden age of Hong Kong action films, has passed away. Photo by Yonhap AFP

On the 17th (local time), the family of the deceased released a statement saying, "With heavy hearts, we confirm that the rumors are true. Our mother, Jeong Pei-pei, peacefully passed away at home surrounded by her beloved family."

It is known that she was diagnosed in 2019 with an atypical Parkinson's syndrome, a type of neurodegenerative disease. The family revealed that she was unofficially suffering from Corticobasal Degeneration (CBD), a rare disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson's, but there was currently no medical method to slow its progression. She chose not to disclose her illness publicly in order to spend her remaining time with her family. The family donated her brain to the Brain Support Network (BSN) for rare disease research.

Jeong Pei-pei was born in Shanghai in 1946 and moved to Hong Kong in 1962. Raised in a wealthy environment where her father ran an ink factory, she showed talent in ballet and dance during her childhood. Later, she enrolled in the Namguk Experimental Theater troupe at the Shaw Brothers Studio’s acting school, where she trained in martial arts and acting for two years, growing into an actress. After several minor roles, she debuted as the lead in the 1964 film Jung In-seok.

In 1966, she rose to stardom with the worldwide success of director Ho Kim-jeon’s film The One-Armed Swordsman. Although director Ho was an outsider to action films with a background in art, he cast Jeong Pei-pei, who excelled in swordsmanship and ballet, and freely experimented with the form and music of Beijing opera to present a groundbreaking new style of action cinema.

She went on to become a top star leading the golden era of Shaw Brothers with films such as Journey to the West (1966), Princess Iron Fan (1966), Heroine Biho (1967), and Hong Kong Nocturne (1967). Especially, she was beloved by the public as the "Queen of the Sword" and "Female Swordsman" for her outstanding action skills in a genre traditionally dominated by men.

After parting ways with Shaw Brothers in 1972, Jeong Pei-pei left for the United States in 1974 following her final film with Golden Harvest, The Fate of Lee Khan. She settled in California upon marriage, raising four children and spending some time away from the film industry, including graduating from the University of California, Irvine (UCI) Graduate School of Business.

She resumed acting in the late 1980s but maintained a somewhat ambiguous filmography until her spectacular comeback in 2000 with director Ang Lee’s film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.

Her final works were the British drama Relic (2014) and the live-action film Mulan (2020).