Helen Li Mei was born Li Ging-fong (also known at school as Li Gwai-fong) on 1 September 1929. Her father worked in a government economic department and her mother was highly educated, and the family was comfortably off; of Jilin ancestry but living in Hebei, they moved to Shanghai and Nanjing during the war, and she spent her school years in Chongqing before returning to Beijing to study politics at North China University. She reached Hong Kong in 1949 and worked as a typist, a fashion designer and a lyricist for a record company. In 1950 she took the name Li Sin and joined Man Sang Film Company as a screenwriter, her first script dating from 1953; after entering the Miss Hong Kong contest in 1952 she adopted the name Li Mei and took her first leading role in a 1954 film. Her early output drew notice with a 1953 picture about a woman of note, and within two or three years she had made over a dozen films, mostly as an independent. In December 1955 she signed with International Film Distributors, forerunner of MP & GI; her first lead there, a 1956 film, was invited to an Asian film festival, and she confirmed her range in a 1959 drama while shining in the song-and-dance pictures of 1959 and 1962, even being invited to Japan to star in a Takarazuka revue titled Hong Kong and recording songs for Pathé. In 1956 she founded Pak Tau Film Company, producing and starring in its films, among them a 1958 picture that was Chang Cheh's Hong Kong directing debut. Her last MP & GI film was a 1964 costume drama. Glamorous yet forthright and with a literary gift, she played varied roles in nearly fifty films, including co-productions with Filipino and Korean actors, with a late showcase in a 1964 circus film. She married in 1967, retired to the United States to go into business, and died of cancer on 12 May 1994.
Helen Li Mei was a rare 1950s Hong Kong star who combined literary talent with a glamorous, forthright screen persona; she wrote screenplays, founded her own company to produce and star in films and sang and danced in MP & GI musicals and Asian co-productions, embodying the migrant film talent of the post-war years.
Achievements
- 1953 · Worked as a screenwriter under the name Li Sin, her first script appearing in 1953
- 1956 · Founded Pak Tau Film Company, producing and starring in its pictures
- 1959 · Won wide acclaim in the song-and-dance pictures of 1959, including a lavish musical