Finding a 'suitable' wife in Hong Kong

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

When Hong Kong expats were found ‘suitable’ wives by bosses and their spouses

Right up to the 1950s, men arriving in Hong Kong to join companies were not expected - and in some cases were forbidden - to marry for the first 10 years, whereupon their employers would choose a mate for them, Jason Wordie writes

 

 

http://cdn3.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/620x356/public/2015/11/12/b858290e578d153341b67c646711fe92.jpg?itok=tSG5qyGq

 

"Newlyweds Ho Lai-sheung and Alan Pickford, the first British soldier granted permission to marry a local woman, in the 1950s."

 

http://www.scmp.com/sites/default/files/styles/486w/public/2015/11/12/fe305cb66459699ced8c113896f36157.jpg?itok=3X8OsovI

 

"Pickford and his wife celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary in Hong Kong, in 2002. Photo: Dickson Lee"

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The criteria for an individual’s suitability was surprisingly objective. Being able to “fit in”, and get on with the life she encountered in small, remote places with limited social opportunities, without undue complaint, was vital.

 

To ensure successful matches, the pool of potential marriage partners was frequently drawn from the daughters of families already resident in the Far East, as they knew what to expect. Sisters of men who had come out to the region for an extended visit, with the unstated aim of finding a match, were also popular choices.

 

As these women understood what they were getting into, they were unlikely to seek solace from boredom, frustration and loneliness either in the gin bottle by late morning or in the arms of the nearest passing bachelor.

 

. . .

 

Successful Far Eastern careers – and eventual pensions – closely depended on long-term job stability. Unlike today, alternative employment opportunities in a similar field in the same place were extremely limited. Job skills derived from knowledge of Far Eastern conditions were not always transferable, should an employee decide to return to %their home country.

Edited November 14, 2015 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

Also from the time period, in the SCMP, about a the making of a movie in Hong Kong (and a new movie star) - still worth watching . . .

 

The World of Suzie Wong, 55 years on: archives opened to revisit 1960s Hong Kong’s main event

This pretty woman turned heads in Hong Kong before Julia Roberts

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France Nuyen (L) with William Shatner in the Broadway production of The World of Suzie Wong. Photo: Twitter

 

 

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William Shatner played artist Robert Lomax on Broadway, and France Nuyen played Suzie Wong.

Nuyen was then cast as Suzie in the film, which began shooting in locations around Hong Kong with William Holden as the lead man on January 5, 1960, as the SCMP reported.

. . .

The film is a tale of a young British man, Robert Lomax who comes to Hong Kong to become an artist for a year. He checks in to the Nam Kok Hotel, based on the Luk Kwok Hotel, though the book turns it into a brothel stocked with “bar-girls” or prostitutes.

. . .

Her illness takes Nuyen out of the picture, and having lost an estimated US$800,000 the $3 million production sought a new Suzie.

Replacing Nuyen as Susie Wong was Nancy Kwan

 

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A ballet dancer with the Royal Ballet, Kwan put fears of her abilities aside when she accepted the role.

“Daintily lovely in the oriental manner, Miss Kwan got her limited stage experience from the Royal Ballet in London for whom she danced occasionally as a student,” carped the UPI and AP copy, clearly doubting the daughter of Hong Kong architect W H Kwan and English model Marquita Scott.

Edited January 3, 2021 by Randy W (see edit history)

[Randy W]

More on Susie Wong in the SCMP

 

Suzie Wong: 60 years after Hong Kong icon was created, we recount an interview with late author Richard Mason

 

 

 

220-year-old Shanghai-born actress Tsai Chin played the star role of Suzie in the West End version of The World of Suzie Wong in 1959. Photo: Alamy

 

This year marks 60 years since the publication of British author Richard Mason’s classic Hong Kong love story, The World of Suzie Wong. The tender romance between Robert Lomax, a young aspiring English artist, and Suzie, a beautiful Chinese prostitute, struck a chord with the public and became a bestseller.

 

Its appearance in an age of innocence when sex, prostitution and interracial relationships were taboo subjects proved a revelation.

Mason’s assured writing – never letting the subject matter appear cheap or hollow – ensured his story of Suzie and her fellow Wan Chai “yum yum” bar girls, with their motto of “no money, no talk”, also resonated with critics.

 

[Randy W]

from the SCMP

 

The Chinese film star China barely knows: Tsai Chin – Bond girl, Suzie Wong actress, daughter of Shanghai

• Grey’s Anatomy star was the first Chinese Bond girl, the first Chinese student at London’s Rada drama school and the first Chinese actress in a West End show
• Now 85, she may finally get recognition in China with the launch of documentary Daughter of Shanghai. Its director tells us why Tsai is her idol

Tsai in the play M. Butterfly in London’s West End in 1989.

 

 

Decades before superstars such as Gong Li and Zhang Ziyi made their first forays into Hollywood, Chinese actress Tsai Chin played a Bond girl in the 007 spy film You Only Live Twice (1967). To shoot the scenes where her Chinese double agent character traps the debonair British spy in an assassination attempt, Tsai, also known as Irene Chow, was in bed with Sean Connery for three days.

Before that, Tsai had been the first Chinese star to perform in London’s West End, earning rave reviews in the star role of Suzie in The World of Suzie Wong in the late 1950s.

Yet Tsai is far from being a household name in China, where audiences pay scant attention to her roles in American film and television productions, which include star turns in Memoirs of a Geisha, Grey’s Anatomy and the recently released Lucky Grandma, a crime caper in which she plays the lead role as a chain-smoking, pension-age New York gambler caught between two Chinatown gangs.

Now, at the age of 85, the Shanghai-born actress, who lives in Los Angeles, could receive belated recognition at home, with a film based on her life opening in cinemas across China on July 2.

 

. . .

 

She shot to stardom playing the titular golden-hearted Hong Kong floozy on stage in The World of Suzie Wong. The drama played to sell-out crowds throughout its three-year run in London’s West End. In the 1960s, Tsai mesmerised Western audiences playing doe-eyed Chinese beauties in James Bond and Fu Manchu films, and in television and cabaret roles.

 

After her mother died a violent death in 1968 at the height of the Cultural Revolution in China, Tsai ran into financial difficulties, had a mental illness and attempted suicide. She left Britain for the United States in the 1970s, where she made her name as the unwavering Auntie Lindo in 1993 film The Joy Luck Club .

 

[Allon]

Nice catch, Randy. Both the movie and the book, Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is a favorite. Very funny and poignant book. Anyone having a Chinese wife would see themselves in it.

 

France Nuyen was also in that movie.

[amberjack1234]

The World of Suzie Wong. Used to be one of my favorite movies. I think that is where I caught the yellow fever.