Yu Suqiu (Yu So Chow)

Biography

Yu Suqiu, born Yu Xiaofeng in 1928, was a famous Hong Kong film star of the 1950s and 1960s. Her father was the renowned Peking Opera actor Yu Zhanyuan, and coming from a Peking Opera family, she began learning performance arts from childhood and excelled in the northern fighting style, becoming a famous "daomadan" (female warrior) in Peking Opera and the senior sister of Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung. She began her film career in 1948, starring in over 200 films, more than 170 of which which were martial arts films, making her one of the most famous early Cantonese film and wuxia actresses in Hong Kong. Among her works is the classic Cantonese wuxia film series "Buddha's Palm", and she was rumored to have had a romantic relationship with her co-star Cao Dahua, being considered the best on-screen couple of that era. In the 1950s, she married Mr. Zhu and later patriotic businessman Zhuang Qingquan, having one daughter and two sons. She was also part of the "Eight Peonies" group with seven other Cantonese opera actresses. In February 1966, she married Cantonese opera actor Mai Bingrong at the Hilton Hotel in Hong Kong and retired from acting after marriage. She passed away on May 12, 2017, in San Francisco, USA, from pneumonia at the age of 88.