Pai Hung, whose real name was Wang Pao-lien, was born in Taipei in 1939. Interested in dance and drama from childhood, she auditioned after secondary school for the Wansui troupe of Taiwan's China Film Studio, was accepted and trained as a performer. She made her film debut as a supporting actress in the Taiwanese-dialect picture Yun He Xun Qing Ji (1956) and joined Nanyang Film Company, taking supporting roles in films such as Ye Lai Xiang (1957) and Huo Zang Chang Qi An (1957); in 1957 she entered the drama department of the National Taiwan College of Arts. The following year she was cast as the lead in Qi Gai Yu Yi Da (1958), which made her popular, and she went on to star in the comedy Bao Dao Gu Niang (1958), a Hong Kong–Taiwan co-production. She was then recruited to Hong Kong for Amoy-dialect films, appearing in Ge Chang Yao Ji (1959), Chao Piao Man Tian Fei (1959), Wang Xian Sheng Dao Xiang Gang Tan Qin (1959), Wu Gong Ge Zi She (1959) and Xin Xin Xiang Yin (1959), and also sang their theme songs. In 1960 she went to Thailand to shoot Luan Shi Gu Hong, and returning to Taiwan in 1961 she played leads in Da Xia Mei Hua Lu (1961) and Tian Zi Di Yi Hao (1964), the latter spawning several sequels. In 1965 she was voted one of the top ten actresses in the Taiwan Daily News's Bao Dao Awards, the peak of her career, and in 1966 she returned to Hong Kong to appear in the Mandarin film Lan Yu Hei (1966). Back in Taiwan she continued making Taiwanese-dialect films and was known in the 1960s as the 'woman of a thousand faces' and the 'ever-changing enchantress', appearing in more than fifty films in all. As the Taiwanese-dialect market shrank in the 1970s she moved into television, and after retiring from acting she ran restaurants and pastry shops; her films Da Xia Mei Hua Lu and Tian Zi Di Yi Hao have since been digitally restored and re-released, becoming key works for the study of Taiwanese-dialect cinema.
Starting as a supporting actress in Taiwanese-dialect films, Pai rose to fame with Qi Gai Yu Yi Da and then made several Amoy-dialect films in Hong Kong while singing their theme songs. Known in Taiwan as the 'woman of a thousand faces', she starred in The Best Secret Agent, a box-office landmark of Taiwanese-dialect spy cinema.
Achievements
- 1956 · Made her debut as a supporting actress in the Taiwanese-dialect film Yun He Xun Qing Ji.
- 1958 · Took the lead in Qi Gai Yu Yi Da, which made her popular.
- 1965 · Was voted one of the top ten actresses in the Taiwan Daily News's Bao Dao Awards.