Ivy Ling Po

Early life Huang Yu-Chun was born on November 16, 1939, in Shantou, Guangdong. As a child, she was sold to a family in Xiamen. She was given the name Jun Haitang and worked as a domestic maid. After reaching preadolescence, her adoptive mother forced her to enter the movie industry in Hong Kong. Ling Po claimed she did not have a childhood and was often scolded and physically punished by her adoptive mother. Before Ling Po turned 18 years, her adoptive mother sold her to Chinese-Filipino businessman Shi Weixiong, with whom Ling Po had a son, Shi Yonghui.

In 1957, Shi Weixiong funded the establishment of the Huasha Film Company, which specialized in producing Mandarin-language films. Wu Baoxi and Ling Po—who starred in most of Huasha's productions under the name 'Xiao Juan'—served as producers. During the filming of The Love Eterne, Ling Po—unwilling to meet her adoptive mother's request to attend Weixiong's dinner—moved into the Shaw dormitory with the protection and support of director Li Hanxiang, who freed her from the control of her adoptive parents.

Career

1950s–1960s Ling Po resided in Xiamen before moving to Hong Kong. Her first screen appearance was in the Ha-Yuen movie Love of Young People (1951) at the age of twelve, under the name of Xiao Juan. In addition to appearing in more than 50 Hokkien movies, she was dubbed for other movie companies, particularly Huangmei operas for Shaw Brothers.

While Ling Po was dubbing the Shaw Brothers' opera Dream of the Red Chamber, she caught the attention of Li Han-hsiang, who cast her as Liang Shanbo in The Love Eterne (Liang Shanbo yu Zhu Yingtai, also known as Liang Zhu or The Butterfly Lovers) in 1962 with Betty Loh Ti. The judges at the second Golden Horse Awards were so impressed by her performance that they created a special award for her, citing her Outstanding Performance. In 1963, a publicity appearance brought traffic in Taipei to a halt, as thousands of women came to see Ivy Ling Po.

In 1964, Ling Po received the coveted title of Asian Movie Queen, when she won the Best Actress award at the 11th Asian Film Festival for her performance in Lady General Hua Mulan. The following year, she would win the Most Versatile Talent award at the 12th Asian Film Festival, for her role as a young prince in The Grand Substitution and a scholar in The Mermaid.

She became the leading figure in the Huangmei opera genre and was usually cast in male roles. Every year, without fail, Ling Po would make lists of the top ten stars in Hong Kong, based on polls conducted by magazines and newspapers.

To avoid being typecast, she auditioned for various roles in both wuxia and contemporary genres. For playing the ill-fated wife of Kwan Shan in Too Late for Love, one of her contemporary outings, she won the Golden Horse Best Actress award.

1970s–1980s In 1975, Ling Po won the Golden Horse Best Supporting Actress award for her role as a neglected empress in Li Han-hsiang's The Empress Dowager, despite limited screen time in the sprawling epic. After her contract with Shaw Brothers Studio ended in 1975, she went on to appear in other films and television series with her husband. She won another Golden Horse for Best Actress, for My Father, My Husband, My Son, in which she aged from a teenager to an old woman. Her last screen appearance was in the movie Golden Swallow (1987), playing an evil witch.