Yao Ping

Biography

Yao Ping (English: Yao Ping) was born on 13 July 1912 in Penang, Penang Province, Malaysia (Southeast Asia), and was of Hakka origin from Guangdong Province. He was educated at Jinan University in Shanghai, and had resided in Penang before returning to the Republic of China. Prior to his return, he worked as a teacher in Songkhla, Thailand, and in Johor State, Malaysia. He began his film career in the early 1930s acting in Mandarin films in Shanghai, and rose to fame when he sang behind the scenes in the film "Midnight Song" (1937) directed by Ma Xuwei Bang. In the same year, he moved to Hong Kong to shoot Cantonese films, and his first Cantonese film was "The Self-Combing Woman" (December 1937). He participated in over 200 films throughout his career. In 1953, he traveled to Singapore and joined the "Hong Kong Song and Art Troupe", where he toured live and also participated in Hokkien films. He returned to Hong Kong in 1970 and signed a three-year contract with Shaw Brothers Company, residing at the Clear Water Bay Road dormitory. In 1971, he worked at "Zhen Yuan Record Company" in Kowloon, where he trained singing talents and wrote a new-style song and dance film script and composed music. After the contract ended, he returned to Singapore to continue his work as a teacher, and passed away on 1 September 1980 at his residence in Singapore, at the age of 68, and was buried at Choa Chu Kang Christian Cemetery in Singapore.