Chen Chen (actress)

Chen Chen (Chinese: 甄珍; pinyin: Zhēn Zhēn; July 17, 1948), born Chang Chia-Chen (Chinese: 章家珍; pinyin: Zhāng Jiāzhēn) is a Taiwanese actress active in the late 1960s and 1970s. From 1966 to 1986 Chen Chen has starred in about 90 movies. Her work was in a range of genres, from Taiwan's literary romantic films (愛情文藝片; Aiqing Wenyi Pian) to patriotic films, and earned her various accolades, including two Best Actress awards at the Asian Pacific Film Festival. In 2013, Chen Chen received a Lifetime Achievement Award at the 50th Golden Horse Awards.^[1]

Originally named Chang Chia-Chen, Chen Chen was born on July 17, 1948, in Beiping (now Beijing). Her grandfather, Chang Hong-Chun (章鴻春), was the principal of the Army Cavalry School of the Republic of China. Her father, Colonel Chang Pei-Lin (章沛霖), was a Japanese Army Non-Commissioned Officer Academy graduate. He served as the military attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of China in Japan and later became an entrepreneur after moving to the United States. Chen's mother, Chang Feng-Qin (張鳳琴), was a high school music teacher.^[2] Chen has two siblings, a younger sister named Chang Jia-Xing (章家興), also known as Yin Xia (銀霞), who is a folk singer in the 1980s, and a younger brother.

Chen was three months old when her family moved to Taiwan. When she was five, they moved to Japan because her father was assigned to the Embassy of the Republic of China in Japan.^[2] Chen learned ballet at a young age and performed publicly. Later, she studied ethnic dance, which can be seen in the opera film Four Season Blooming Flowers (四季花開/富貴花開; 1972). Chen returned to Taiwan with her family when she was eleven. She attended Jinling Girls' Middle School in 1959 before transferring to Taibei Senior High School.^[2] She also studied dance at the Chinese Culture University’s 5-year program, which she did not complete.

After Li Han-Hsiang completed The Love Eterne in 1963, he had a conflict with the Shaw Brothers Pictures International Limited. He then left Hong Kong and established the Grand Motion Pictures Co., Ltd. in Taiwan in 1964.^[3] In the company’s first recruitment of new actors and actresses, Chen Chen was the only one selected out of more than 3000 applicants.^[4]

In 1966, Chen Chen made her very first silver screen debut in a period film, A Perturbed Girl (天之驕女).^[5] Soon after, she was listed as one of the “Five Phoenixes of Grand” (Chinese: 國聯五鳳; pinyin: Quo Lian Wu Feng) along with Jiang Qing (江青), Wang Ling (汪玲), Niu Fangyu (鈕方雨), and Li Denghui (李登惠).^[3]

Due to financial difficulties, the Grand Motion Pictures Co., Ltd. closed in 1967, and Chen Chen signed a contract with Central Motion Pictures Corporation.^[6] She became well known for her leading role in The Bride and I (新娘與我).^[7]

In 1972, Chen Chen took on the leading role in a cinematic adaptation of Xuan Xiaofo's (玄小佛) novel Love in a Fallen City (白屋之戀). The film kickstarted a trend of Literary Romantic films for over a decade, mostly adapted from romantic novels by Qiong Yao and other writers.^[1]

The 1973 film The Young Ones (彩雲飛), directed by Lee Hsing (李行), starring Chen Chen and Alan Tang (Tang Kwong Wing) again. In the film Chen Chen plays two roles, twin sisters separated since birth. The film was ranked sixth in Taiwan's box office that year (earning 3.08 million NTD) and made Chen Chen and Tang Kwong Wing the most beloved on-screen couple of the early 1970s.^[8]

Chen Chen was paired with a new actor Charlie Chin in Li Hsing's next adaptation of Qiong Yao's novel The Heart Has A Thousand Knots (心有千千結) in the same year (1973), which made Charlie Chin a household name as one of the leading stars in Literary Romantic films.^[1] With the same cast and crew from the previous film The Young Ones (彩雲飛), Li Hising's Where the Seagull Flies in the following year (1974) proved to be a bigger success in box office: the second highest in Taipei of the year with a gross of 8.5 million NTD.^[8]

In 1971, Chen Chen starred in director Li Han-Hsiang's The Story of Ti-Ying (緹縈) and fell in love with the male lead Patrick Tse (謝賢). On March 22, 1974, after more than three years of dating, the two secretly registered their marriage in Hong Kong. On June 1, 1976, Chen signed divorce papers with Tse and began dating Steven Liu (劉家昌).

In December 1978, Chen Chen went to the United States with Liu. On January 24, 1979, they had a notarized marriage in Las Vegas. She retired from the film industry in 1984, having appeared in a total of 85 films.

On April 21, 1986, Chen Chen gave birth to her son, Jeremiah Zhang (originally named Zi Qian Liu). On August 31, 1987, Chen Chen and  Liu were divorced, which was not announced until it was revealed in 2015.^[7]