Yu Lai-zhen (1923 – 4 March 2004), a native of Kaiping in Guangdong who was born in Singapore, was a leading Cantonese opera and film actress in Hong Kong in the 1950s and 1960s. Fond of Cantonese opera from childhood, she began formal training at thirteen and, being both gifted and diligent, made her name in the Nanyang region by sixteen and was engaged to perform in the United States at eighteen. In 1942 she starred with the Fung Wong troupe in A Tanka Girl Sells Water Chestnuts and Chen Shimei Denies His Wife, opposite Pak Kui-wing. In 1943 she performed under the Kwong Wah banner with Law Ban-chiu, sharing the stage with Leng Chi-pak, Lee Hoi-chuen, Wu Dip-nui and Tsui Chi-chiu, her first appearance there being The Cold-faced Prince; that same year she first used the 'bound-foot stilts' technique as her selling point in The Night Escort of Jing Niang, which afterwards became her trademark. After the war she was a leading actress of the Tai Fung Wong and Lai Chun Fa troupes and later formed her own Lai Si troupe. Admired for her mastery of traditional Cantonese opera scenes and techniques, she was hailed as the 'Empress of the Art of Dan'. Her signature operas included The Soul of the March Azalea, Jim Kok Lau Kam Ding, The Crab Beauty and The Colourful Butterfly Sprite, and she was noted for her singing in Swallow Tower. She entered films in 1947, her first starring role being The Soul of the March Azalea. In 1959 she and her husband, the celebrated opera playwright Lee Siu-wan, founded Lai Si Film Company to concentrate on Cantonese opera pictures. Between 1959 and 1967 it released more than ninety films, among the famous opera titles Jim Kok Sister Thirteen at Nengren Temple (1960), The Golden Phoenix Slays the Dragon (1961) and The Golden Mace Smashes the Silver Hall (1962), as well as contemporary dramas such as A Bitter Autumn Rose (1963), Four Children (1964) and Half a Bunk Bed (1964). She appeared in about 140 films, her last starring vehicle being Teaching the Son to Slay the Emperor (1967). She was the eldest of the 'Eight Peonies' sisterhood of opera actresses, which included Tang Bik-wan, Law Yim-hing, Fung Wong-nui and Ng Kwan-lai, and took the name Purple Peony. She retired in 1968, later settled in Canada, and died in Toronto in 2004.
Celebrated for her martial-dan skills and the 'bound-foot' stilts technique, Yu Lai-zhen carried operas such as Jim Kok Lau Kam Ding onto the screen. The more than ninety opera films produced by her Lai Si company preserved a large body of traditional staging, movement and acrobatic routines, making them a key record of Cantonese opera.
Achievements
- 1943 · Performed The Cold-faced Prince with Law Ban-chiu under the Kwong Wah banner and first used the 'bound-foot stilts' technique in The Night Escort of Jing Niang.
- 1959 · Founded Lai Si Film Company with her husband Lee Siu-wan, producing more than ninety films up to 1967.
- 1967 · Starred in her final film, Teaching the Son to Slay the Emperor.