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Cheng Pei Pei, ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ Actress, Dead at 78

Cheng Pei Pei, the pioneering "Queen of Martial Arts" who starred in wuxia films and 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,' has died at the age of 78.

Pioneering "Queen of Martial Arts" starred in dozens of wuxia films in Hong Kong before reaching a global audience as villain in director Ang Lee's Oscar-winning 2000 epic Born in Shanghai in 1946, Cheng began her career in the film industry in the early Sixties when she moved to Hong Kong and trained at the studio run by the Shaw Brothers, which at the time was China’s biggest production company. Cheng made her debut in the 1964 drama Lovers’ Rock before she was cast as master swordswoman Golden Swallow in Come Drink With Me, a 1966 wuxia film — or an epic Chinese martial arts period movie — that’s now considered one of the best in the genre.

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