Personal life

Chin was born on November 30, 1933, in Tianjin, China, where her father was on tour. She grew up in Shanghai's French Concession, where (under her western name, "Irene Chow") she received a multi-lingual education at The Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mctyeire School (中西女中) in Shanghai, and King George V School in Hong Kong. During her childhood, Chin was witness to colonial occupation, Japanese invasion of China, Chinese Civil War, and the Communist take-over in 1949. At age 17, she left Shanghai and was sent to England to study at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she later became an Associate Member. Her brother is Michael Chow, restaurateur and painter.

Career

Early years

Tsai Chin's first significant film role came when she was cast in the film The Inn of Sixth Happiness (1958), in which she played the adopted daughter of Ingrid Bergman's character.Her big break, though, arrived when two Broadway shows came to London at the same time. Initially, Chin was cast as one of the two leads in the musical Flower Drum Song. However, she also auditioned for the play The World of Suzie Wong for which she was offered the title role. The Daily Mail quoted Chin as saying, "I had a terrible decision to make." She opted to star as Suzie Wong at The Prince of Wales Theatre, London (1959-1961), where she saw her name in lights for the first time. The play, generally panned by the critics, was a commercial hit. Chin drew good reviews, with Milton Shulman of the Evening Standard saying, "Tsai Chin is a lovely creature with all the vivacity, simplicity and gusts of unpredictable Eastern temperament." Harold Hobson of the Sunday Times said, "Tsai Chin who has cool clear beauty andconsiderable talent."

To compensate Chin for not being able to do the musical Flower Drum Song, producer, Donald Albery granted her request to sing a song in The World of Suzie Wong. She chose a lyrical Chinese song, "Second Spring" (第二春), which was translated into English as "The Ding Dong Song," by Lionel Bart. Chin recorded the song in 1960 for Decca Records in London. The single, arranged and conducted by music director Harry Robinson, became a hit, particularly in Asia.

Chin followed this success by recording several more singles and two LPs, later incorporating many of these songs, written specifically for her, into a cabaret act which she performed from 1961 to 1966. As well as touring her cabaret show throughout the United Kingdom, Chin also performed in London's most exclusive venues, including The Dorchester, The Savoy, The Society, and frequently Quaglino's and Allegro, sharing a bill with David Frost, then at the start of his illustrious career. Her cabaret act was also aired on television in Switzerland and the Netherlands. Variety called her a "Savvy entertainer, with most of her material tailor-made for her personality." London's Evening News was "impressed…by the way she held her audience, wasn't a murmur not even the clatter of one piece of cutlery."

• The World of Tsai Chin (1962) in (stereo) and (mono) LK 4501.
• The Western World of Tsai Chin (1965) LK 4717 (mono)

1960s

The 1960s saw some busy years for Chin. Apart from her singing, she played Juicy Lucy in The Virgin Soldiers alongside Lynne Redgrave (1969), directed by the notoriously difficult but brilliant John Dexter; helped to assassinate Sean Connery in You Only Live Twice (1967); worked for Michelangelo Antonioni on Blowup (1966) and for Fred Zinnemann in Man's Fate (1969), when MGM studio unfortunately collapsed before the film barely started. From 1965 to 1969, she made five films opposite Christoper Lee as the Lin Tang, daughter of Fu Manchu, a Chinese arch-villain intent on dominating the world. Chin accepted these roles, like other Asians in bygone days, not only to earn a living and to continue working, but more importantly to learn her craft. As soon as she was in the position to do so, she fought to make Asian roles more truthful.

Her stage work at this time included leading roles in The Gimmick, with Donald Sutherland, at Criterion Theatre, West End (1962); The Magnolia Tree, at Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh (1966); Mrs. Frail in Love for Love, by William Congreve, in Watford (1970); and touring the United Kingdom in the title role of The Two Mrs. Carrolls (1969), with Paul Massie.

In the golden age of British television, Chin made her television debut in the popular British hospital drama, Emergency Ward 10, ITV, then Dixon of Dock Green, BBC (1965), The Man of The World (1963), International Detective (1960) ITV, and The Troubleshooters (1967). In 1962, Chin traveled to New York City for the first time to guest star for a Christmas special The Defenders. In 1964 she had a recurring role in TW3, short for That Was The Week That Was, a popular satirical comedy show which was at the time a totally new concept in television (long before Saturday Night Live), presented by David Frost and produced by the witty and the innovative Ned Sherrin. She also co-starred with Roy Kinnear and Lance Percival in Five Foot Nine Show, and later starred in her own show, On Your Own for ITV (1965). Chin was invited to sing on a myriad of variety shows, talk shows and even game shows during this time. Her popularity was so high at that time that she even had a Chinese leopard in the London Zoo named after her.

Life was glamorous and light-hearted for Chin in the 1960s, but terrible events were unfolding in China. Young people across China calling themselves "The Red Guards" were mobilized by Chairman Mao Zedong (毛泽东), with the help of his wife, Madame Mao, Jiang Qing (江青) to make "perpetual revolution" in the attempt to wipe out all previous culture and start from scratch. The so-called Cultural Revolution erupted in 1966. China shut itself off from the rest of the world and artists were purged, which eventually claimed the lives of both Chin's parents.

1970s

In 1972, Chin portrayed Wang Guangmei in The Subject of Struggle, a docudrama directed by Leslie Woodhead, for Granada. Chin's performance as Wang, wife of Liu Shaoqi, Chairman Mao's chief rival, and the film about her trial by the Red Guards were unanimously praised. "It's all brilliantly done" The Sunday Times; Of Chin's performance: "Played superbly," Clive James of The Observer; "The most important program of the night…brilliantly, unforgettably played by Tsai Chin," Tom Hutchinson, Evening Standard TV guide; and by critic Elizabeth Crawly, Evening Standard: "Tsai Chin leaves The World of Suzie Wong a long way behind with this brave, haggard performance." It was a role Chin could identify with, as her father was undergoing the same brutal treatment in China. Moreover, it was almost the first time Chin was asked to play a mature and intelligent person with depth and complexity, a far cry from her usual stereotypical roles. To quote her autobiography: "For the first time, the artist and the woman within me met at last." This film would signified the end of the first phase of Tsai Chin's acting career.

In the mid-1970s, Chin went to America and became a member of The Cambridge Ensemble, a multi-racial experimental group in what was then known as "the finest theater in Boston." Under the direction of Joann Green, Chin was given the opportunity to play strong women in western classics, such as Klytemnestra in The Oresteia (1977), with Tim McDonough as Agamemnon. Kevin Kelly of The Boston Globe said, "Tsai Chin is ice-wonderful." Jon Lehman of The Patriot Ledger said, "great performance, a portrayal which shows us why Clytemnestra is one of the great woman characters of all time." In 1977, Chin played Hester Prynne in The Scarlet Letter, again with Tim McDonough as Rev. Arthur Dimmesdale. Ken Emerson of The Boston Phoenix said, "It takes a prodigiously gifted and subtle actress to follow Hawthorn's stage directions." Arthur Friedman in The Real Paper said, "Chin's portrayal is great because it reaches the heart without stooping to sentimental theatrics."

Chin began taking courses in Shakespearean studies at Harvard University, followed by her full-time enrolment at Tufts University, and earned a master's degree in Drama in 1980. She later received Tufts University Alumni Association for Distinguished Service to Profession in 1994. To supplement her scholarship, she taught acting and made her director's debut in Harold Pinter's The Lover (1979). Her Master's project was Ugo Betti's Crime on Goat Island, which starred fellow student Oliver Platt, and was her entry to American College Theatre Festival (1980).

The end of the 1970s coincided with the end of the Cultural Revolution in China. Mao died in 1976, artists and intellectuals were reinstated, and universities closed for ten years reopened. Chin became the first drama coach invited from abroad by the Minister of Culture to China since the Moscow Arts Theatre's withdrawal in the fifties.

1980s

On March 29, 1980, Tsai Chin met with her father's colleague Cao Yu (曹禺), China's foremost modern playwright. The meeting took place in New York City, when Arthur Miller had hosted the playwright at Columbia University's School of International Affairs. This meeting resulted in an invitation to Chin by the Chinese Cultural Department to return to her home country after a quarter of a century's absence to teach class at The Central Academy of Dramatic Art (中央戏剧学院), in Beijing in 1981. Prior to leaving for China, Jill Tweedy wrote an article about Chin in The Guardian: "After the age of 40, the little Suzie Wong Sex Kitten has remade herself into a mature, knowledgeable, exciting and excited human being." In 1982, Chin directed China's premiere production of William Shakespeare's The Tempest, "drawing inspiration from China's theatre tradition and Western internal acting."

After working in China, Chin returned to London where she spent most of the decade serving as a cultural liaison between China and the United Kingdom, where, among many projects, Chin helped connect the British Arts Council with the theater arts in China and introduced Peking Opera productions. During this time she made many trips to Hong Kong to help transform Hong Kong Repertory Theatre to a fully professional theater company, teaching and introducing the works of Anton Chekov to Hong Kong students. In Hong Kong, Chin directed the Asian premiere production of The Seagull (1982) and later Shakespeare's Twelve Night (1988), as well as serving as consultant to The Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts (1993).

In 1988, Chin's autobiography, Daughter of Shanghai, commissioned by Carmen Callil of Chatto & Windus, was published in England and became a worldwide best-seller. Polly Toynbee of The Guardian said, "The world of Tsai Chin has been a good deal more interesting than The World of Suzie Wong, the play that made her into a star." Richard West of The Sunday Telegraph wrote, "An extraordinary and occasionally tragic life story." Beth Duff in New York Times Book Review wrote, "Captivating account…skillfully interwoven the glamour and despair ." Jean Fritz in Washington Post and International Herald Tribune: "The heart of this book lies in her conflict as she tried to feel at home in two cultures…that is her triumph." In 1989, Daughter of Shanghai was voted "One of the Ten Best Books of the Year (十本好书)" by Hong Kong TV Cultural Group.

At the end of the 1980s, Chin resumed her acting career by returning to London's West End in David Henry Hwang's M. Butterfly (1989), starring Anthony Hopkins and Glen Goei, directed for the second time by John Dexter. It was during this production that Amy Tan, author of The Joy Luck Club, walked into her dressing room at the Shaftesbury Theatre, London.

1990s

In 1990, Chin played the title role in Henry Ong's one-woman drama, Madame Mao's Memories in London, which was particularly ironic due to the fact that Chin's father was personally purged by Madame Mao and Chin's mother died due to the brutality of the Red Guards. The play, directed by Glen Goei and performed at The Latchmere, was the hottest ticket in town. Sheridan Morley in Herald Tribune International said, "She brings to this study of Madame Mao in defeat a tremendous dramatic courage and intensity….It is Tsai Chin's triumph to make us do rather more than just hate her." In her autobiography, Chin remarked, "I was determined to be a good deal fairer in my representation of her than she ever was of my father."

Chin's final United Kingdom acting performance was in Bodycount by Les Smith, for Rear Window, Channel 4 (1993).

In 1993, Tsai Chin took on a role that would energize her acting career and change her life yet again when she played the role of Auntie Lindo in the hugely popular The Joy Luck Club. When Joy Luck Club came out, Chin received rave notices. "Gene Siskel said of her performance, "I hope Academy voters don't overlook her because she's not a household name. I am going to repeat her name." Those words were repeated in both Variety and Hollywood Reporter under the title "Memo to the Academy" Janet Maslin of The New York Times: "Despite its huge cast, the film is virtually stolen by Tsai Chin." But the film received not a single award in any category. The day after the award ceremonies, on the front page of The New York Times' Arts & Leisure section, Maslin again wrote, "Did Disney back too many actresses?" Nonetheless, Hollywood beckoned, and Chin, always a risk-taker, finally relocated to Los Angeles at the age of 62.

Hollywood

After moving to Hollywood, Chin was immediately given the lead in a one-hour television pilot Crowfoot (1994) by Magnum, P.I. producer Donald P. Bellisario. The series did not get picked up. In 1995, Chin played Brave Orchid in Maxime Hong Kingston' s The Woman Warrior, directed by Sharon Ott, for which she received the Los Angeles Drama Critic Circle Award.

Next, Chin played the role of Eng Sui-Yong in David Henry Hwang's Tony-nominated Golden Child, directed by James Lapine, which ultimately went to Broadway, Longacre Theatre (1995-1998), and for which she won an Obie Award and was nominated for The Helen Hayes Award. Lauire Winer, Los Angeles Times, commented her performance as first wife: "Her descent into opium addiction is quite harrowing." Ben Brantley, New York Times: " suggests an Asian version of Bette Davis."

Other performances included roles in three Chay Yew plays: Half Lives, directed by Tim Dang at East West Players (1996); Wonderland, at La Jolla Playhouse; and adaptation of Federico Garcia Lorca's House of Bernada Alba, playing Maria Josefa, the mad mother to Chita Rivera's Bernada, directed by Lisa Peterson at Mark Taper Forum (2002).

Other work at this time included: the voice of Popo in the daytime Emmy-award winning Popo and The Magic Pearl (1996 ); an eccentric Madame Wu in the TV drama, The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2003); and Grandmother Wu in Homecoming Queen (2006), starring Brenda Song as Wendy Wu.

In 2003 and 2004, Tsai Chin performed at the famed Hollywood Bowl, in China Night, reciting poetry backed by a hundred piece orchestra, conducted by John Mauceri, the founder of Hollywood Bowl Orchestra. She was guest in numerous television series, most notably the recurring role as Helen, Sandra Oh's frivolous mother, in Grey's Anatomy, and recently Royal Pains.

Chin made numerous indie films and many features, notably Chairman Xu in The Red Corner (1997), Auntie in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), and Madame Wu in the James Bond thriller Casino Royale (2006). In 2008, Chin was offered a role of the Dowager Jia (贾母) in a lavish adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber (红楼梦), China's most beloved classic novel from the eighteenth century. This was Chin's first time back working as an actress in China, and she spent more than one year completing the 50 episodes (2010).

Back in Los Angeles, Chin accepted the title role of a woman suffering from Alzheimer's in Nani, an AFI thesis film directed by Justin Tipping, which won the Student Academy Award and DGA Student Film Award (2012). Chin's most recently appeared in two episodes of HBO's "Getting On." Her autobiography, "Daughter of Shanghai," has been published in ten versions.

Filmography

• The Bridge on the River Kwai (1957) "Tokyo Rose" (voice)
• Yangtse Incident (1957) "Sanpan girl"
• The Inn of the Sixth Happiness (1958) "Sui Lan"
• Violent Playground (1958) "Primrose"
• The Treasure of San Teresa (1959) "1st girl in fight"
• The Cool Mikado (1962) "Pitti Sing"
• The Face of Fu Manchu (1965) "Lin Tang"
• Invasion (1966) "Nurse Lim"
• Blowup (1966) "Receptionist"
• The Brides of Fu Manchu (1966) "Lin Tang"
• The Vengeance of Fu Manchu (1967) "Lin Tang"
• You Only Live Twice (1967) "Ling" (appearing with her brother, Michael Chow)
• The Blood of Fu Manchu (1968) "Lin Tang"
• The Castle of Fu Manchu (1969) "Lin Tang"
• Man's Fate (1969) (unfinished)
• The Virgin Soldiers (1969) "Juicy Lucy"
• Rentadick (1972) "Madam Greenfly"
• The Joy Luck Club (1993) "Auntie Lindo"
• Red Corner (1997) "Chairman Xu" (dir. Jon Avnet)
• The Magic Pearl (1997) "Popo" voice
• Journey from the Heart (1999) "Grandma Lee"
• The Gold Cup (2000) "Ma"
• Titan A.E. (2000) "Old woman" voice
• Long Life, Happiness & Prosperity (2002) "Hun Ping Wong"
• The Interpreter (2005) "Luan"
• Memoirs of a Geisha (2005) "Auntie"
• Wendy Wu: Homecoming Warrior (2006) "Grandma Wu"
• Casino Royale (2006) "Madam Wu"
• Year of the Fish (2007) "Mrs. Su"
• Nani (2011) "Nani"
• A Leading Man (2012) "Lo Mei An"

Television roles

• International Detective (1960) (TV series) "Suma Hau"
• The Defenders (1961) (TV series) "Parma Gideon"
• Man of the World (1963) (TV series) "Souen"
• That Was The Week That Was (1963) (TV series)
• The Five Foot Nine Show (1964) (TV)
• On Your Own (1965) (TV)
• Dixon of Dock Green (1965) (TV series) "Ana Man Ning"
• The Troubleshooter (1967) (TV series)
• The Subject of Struggle (1971) (TV docudrama) "Wang Kwangmei"
• Window: Bodycount (1973) (TV)
• Chicago Hope (1994) (TV series)
• Crowfoot (1994) (TV series) "Det. Lisa Ishima"
• Byrds of Paradise (1994) (TV series) "Teacher"
• Sisters (1994) (TV series) "Rita Kwan"
• The Westside Waltz (1995) (TV)
• Under Suspicion (1995) (TV series)
• Fantasy Island (1999) (TV series) "Rita"
• Fantasy Island (2001) (TV series)
• Strong Medicine (2001) (TV series) "Jin Jae"
• The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer (2003) (TV) "Madam Wu"
• Grey's Anatomy (2005) (TV series) "Mrs. Helen Rubenstein"
• The Evidence (2006) (TV series) "Joon Huang"
• Chasing the Hollywood Dream (2005) (TV)
• Hollywood Chinese (2007) (TV documentary)
• Side Order of Life (2007) (TV series) "Mai Thuy"
• A Dream in Red Mansions (original title: Hong Loumeng 红楼梦) (2010) Leading role: "The Dowager Jia (贾母)" 50 episodes - China
• Royal Pains (2012) (TV series) "Mrs. Sesumi"
• Nice Girls Crew (2012) (Web series) "Lady Lee"
• Marvel's Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (2014) (TV series) "Melinda May's mother"
• Getting On (2014) (TV series) "Ruth Lee"

Stage work

• The Final Ace (1956) "Jennie"; New Lindsey Theatre, London
• The Chinese Classical Theatre (1957) "Compere"; The Drury Lane, London
• Princess and the Swineherd (1957) "Princess"; Arts Theater, London
• Ali Baba (1958) "Princess"; Dundee Repertory Theatre, Doncaster, UK
• The World of Suzie Wong (1959) Title role; Prince of Wales Theatre, London
• Night of 100 Stars (1960) Revuew skethc in aid of Actor's orphanage, led by Lord Olivier, London
• The Gimmick (1962) "Gabby Lee"; Criterion Theatre, London
• The Magnolia Tree (1966) "Kesa"; Royal Lyum, Edinburgh
• The Two Mrs. Carrols (1969) Title role; UK tour
• Love For Love (1970) "Mrs. Frail"; Palace Theatre, Watford, UK
• Fanshen (1976) "Hu Hsueh-chen"; The People's Theatre, Boston
• The Orestaia (1977) "Clytemnestra"; The Cambridge Ensemble, Boston
• Agamemnon (1977) "Clytemnestra"; Norfork Prison for Lifers, Massachusetts
• The Scarlet Letter (1977) "Hester Prynne"; The Cambridge Ensemble, Boston. (Best performance, The Real Paper)
• Puntila and Matti (1977) "Eva"; The Cambridge Ensemble, Boston
• Br'er Rabbit (1978) "Sister Terrpin"; The Cambridge Ensemble, Boston
• M. Butterfly (1989) "Suzuki" "Comrade Chin"; Haymarket Theater, Leicester, UK; Shaftesbury Theatre, London
• Madame Mao (1990) "Madame Mao"; Liverpool Playhouse
• Madame Mao's Memories (1990) "Madame Mao"; Latchmere Theatre, London
• The Woman Warrior (1995) "Brave Orchid"; James A. Doolittle Theatre, Los Angeles (LA Drama Critics Circle Award)
• Fishes (1995) "Mother," "Fish"; Taper Lab New Work Festival, Los Angeles
• Golden Child (1996) "Eng Sui-Yong"; The Public Theater, New York
• Half Lives (1996) "woman"; East West Players, Los Angeles
• Golden Child--"Eng Sui-Yong": (1997) South Coast Repertory; (1989) Victoria Theatre, Singapore; (1998) ACT, San Francisco; (1998) The Kennedy Center, Washington, D.C. (nom. Helen Hayes Award); Longacre Theater, New York.
• Fabric (1999) "Auntie Suni"; Singapore Arts Festival
• Wonderland (1999) "Woman"; La Jolla Playhouse, La Jolla, California
• House of Bernarda Alba (2002) "Maria"; Mark Taper Forum, Los Angeles
• China Night (2003-04) Hollywood Bowl
• The Vagina Monologues (2007) "I Was There in the Room"; Aratani Japan Asian Theater, Los Angeles

Discography

• The Ding Dong Song/The Second Spring (第二春)
• Any Old Iron/School in Cheltenham
• The Chinese Charleston
• How Shall I Do It?
• Buttons and Bows
• Good Morning, Tokyo (1964 Tokyo Olympic theme for British Television)
• The World of Tsai Chin (LP)
• The Western World of Tsai Chin (LP)

Directing

• The Journey (1978) Boston Public Schools
• The Lover (1979) Tufts University
• Crime on Goat Island (1980) Tufts University
• The Tempest (1981) Central Academy of Dramatic Art, Beijing (中央戏剧学院)
• The Seagull (1982) Hong Kong Repertory Theatre
• Twelfth Night (1987) Hong Kong Repertory Theatre

Teaching

• Drama Therapy (1963) Holloway Prison, London
• Theatre workshop for adolescents in Chinatown (1976) Boston
• Acting instructor (1977-1979) Tufts University Drama Department, Medford, Maine
• Workshop for Title VII Theatre Arts Staff (1978) The School Committee of the City of Boston
• Acting instructor (1981) Central Academy of Dramatic Art, Beijing (中央戏剧学院， 表演系78班)
• Master Class (1982) Shanghai Academy of Dramatic Art, Shanghai (上海戏剧学院)

Awards

• Associate Member, Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, London (1964)
• Voted one of London's "Women of the Year" (1964)
• The London Zoo names Chinese leopard "Tsai Chin" (1965)
• The World Who's Who of Women, Cambridge, England (1973)
• Honorary Board of National Center for Women in Performing and Media Arts, Boston (1978)
• Distinguished Service to Profession, Tufts University Alumni Association (1994)
• Los Angeles Drama Critics Circle (1995) The Woman Warrior
• Obie Award (1997) Golden Child
• Helen Hayes Award nominee (1998) Golden Child
• Ammy Lifetime Achievement Awards
• Achievement Award (2007) Chinese Performing Arts Foundation, San Francisco

[ Source: Wikipedia ]