Christine Pai Lu-ming (born in Hong Kong on 6 January 1937), whose original name was Hui Lai-king, was a Cantonese and Mandarin film actress of the 1950s and 1960s. Interested in Cantonese opera from childhood, she once studied under the celebrated opera couple Sit Kok-sin and Tong Suet-hing and made guest appearances in minor roles under her own name and the stage name Siu Luk-chuen. While a pupil at Tack Ching Girls' Secondary School, around 1955 she was encouraged by the opera teacher Lam Siu-yau and her godmother Yam Kim-fai to apply to Tai Seng Film Company; spotted by the director Chiang Wai-kwong, she joined the studio and took the name Pai Lu-ming. Her debut was Now That I Have a Daughter, Everything Is Fine (1955), which earned her the label 'pretty girl of the silver screen', and she went on to about ten films, among them Sweet Talk for Coaxing (1956) and A Mother's Broken Heart (1958). In 1958, at Lam Wing-tai's invitation, she joined Motion Picture and General Investment Co Ltd (MP & GI), first working in its Cantonese unit opposite Ng Cho-fan in Memories of Love (1958). Two years later the heavily attended two-part Bitter Lotus (1960) secured her position as a leading actress, and the success of The Greatest Civil War on Earth (1961) led her into Mandarin films as well. Her first Mandarin lead was You Were Meant for Me (1961), followed by Two of a Kind (1962), Four Brave Ones (1963) and Father and Son (1963). When the Cantonese unit was dissolved at the end of 1964, her association with MP & GI ended the following year; in all she made more than twenty films for the studio, more than half of them Cantonese, her last release being I'll Make My Own Choice (1966). In early 1965 she married the barrister Shum Ching and retired from the screen.
Christine Pai was a leading actress of MP & GI's Cantonese unit and worked in both Cantonese and Mandarin films. Her hits Bitter Lotus and The Greatest Civil War on Earth were popular successes in the early 1960s, and the latter's performance encouraged the studio to move actors between its Cantonese and Mandarin units, reflecting a market strategy that crossed language lines.
Achievements
- 1955 · Starred in her debut Now That I Have a Daughter, Everything Is Fine, joined Tai Seng Film Company and was dubbed a pretty girl of the silver screen
- 1958 · Joined Motion Picture and General Investment Co Ltd (MP & GI) at Lam Wing-tai's invitation, co-starring with Ng Cho-fan in Memories of Love
- 1960 · The box-office success of the two-part Bitter Lotus established her as a leading actress at MP & GI