Josephine Siao Fong-fong, born Siao Liang in Shanghai in 1947 to a Suzhou family, came to Hong Kong as a child and made her screen debut at six in The Little Star (1954), then played child roles in Mandarin films for Great Wall. She won Best Child Actor at the 2nd Southeast Asian Film Festival for Mui Gu (1956), and from 1957 studied Peking opera under the celebrated teacher Fan Kuk-fa. From the 1960s she became a leading Cantonese-film star, moving from a young swordswoman image to the youth idol of Girl's Heart (1966) and starring in some eighty films by 1970, including hits such as I Love A-Go-Go (1967) and Winter Love (1968). She directed the influential crime film Jumping Ash (1976) with Leung Po-chi, created the comic character Lam Ah Tsan for television, and won Best Actress at the 7th Hong Kong Film Awards for Wrong Couples (1987). In 1995 she won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 45th Berlin Film Festival, the Golden Horse Award and the Hong Kong Film Award for Summer Snow, and in 1996 retained the Golden Horse Best Actress for Hu-Du-Men. She retired from acting in 1997 to focus on the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation she founded, and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards in 2009.
Growing from child actress into one of the most popular Cantonese stars of the late 1960s, Siao also helped open the local crime-film trend with pictures such as Jumping Ash. She won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the Berlin Film Festival for Summer Snow, the first Chinese actress to take that prize. Beyond acting, she founded the End Child Sexual Abuse Foundation to protect children and received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2009, pairing an acting career with public service.
Achievements
- 1956 · Won Best Child Actor at the 2nd Southeast Asian Film Festival for Mui Gu.
- 1995 · Won the Silver Bear for Best Actress at the 45th Berlin Film Festival, plus Golden Horse and Hong Kong Film Awards, for Summer Snow.
- 2009 · Received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 28th Hong Kong Film Awards.