Cheng Pei-pei, a renowned Chinese martial arts actress whose career spanned six decades, has died at the age of 78.
Condolence messages began pouring in after Cheng’s family said on Friday the Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon and Mulan star died on Wednesday following a battle with a neurodegenerative condition similar to Parkinson’s disease.
“Our mother, Cheng Pei-pei, passed away peacefully at home surrounded by her loved ones on July 17,” the statement said.
They did not reveal where Cheng died, but a media report said she was in San Francisco.
According to the family, the actress was diagnosed with corticobasal degeneration in 2019. Her brain would be donated to the US-based non-profit organisation Brain Support Network to assist research on her condition and other rare neurological diseases.
“It is a rare disease with symptoms similar to Parkinson’s disease, however, current treatments cannot slow the progression,” the family said.
Cheng chose not to make the news public so she could deal with her condition in private and spend her remaining time with her children and grandchildren.
Her agent also thanked the actress’ friends, colleagues and supporters for their love on Friday.
“All of us at Supreme Art Entertainment are deeply saddened by the news. Together with her children, we would like to thank all of Cheng’s friends, colleagues and supporters for the love always shown in her life,” the agent posted on Facebook. “We will always miss you.”
Cheng’s career on the silver screen began with the Shaw Brothers Studio in Hong Kong and she is considered by many to be the first Chinese female action hero, earning her the sobriquet Queen of Swords for her blade-wielding period drama roles.
Her first hit as a martial arts actress was the 1966 film Come Drink With Me and she is also remembered for her role as Madam Wah in the 1993 Hong Kong film Flirting Scholar.
She won Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards in 2001 for her role as Jade Fox in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. She also starred in international productions such as Mulan, Lilting and Meditation Park.
Mainland Chinese star Tamia Liu Tao expressed her condolences on Weibo, China’s Twitter-like microblogging site, saying she was saddened to learn of Cheng’s death and that she was thankful to have met her.
“I’ll forever remember how you’d affectionately call me ‘Tao, Tao …’, and how you’d share your life experiences, wisdom and strength with me,” Liu, the co-star of Chinese reality television show Divas Hit the Road, said.
“No matter where we’ll meet each other again in the future, we will be in each other’s embrace like we used to be.”
Television host Cao Kefan reminisced about Cheng’s “dazzling” roles as Jade Fox and Madam Wah in a Weibo post and recalled the friendship the two shared.
“Whenever I saw Cheng, I was always touched by her laughter,” he said. “Even when we looked back on the difficult days in the past, she never grumbled and lamented. We used to speak in Shanghainese, which she said reminded her of her childhood.”
