Josephine Siao

Josephine Siao Fong-fong MBE (simplified Chinese: 萧芳芳; traditional Chinese: 蕭芳芳; pinyin: Xiāo Fāngfāng; Jyutping: siu1 fong1 fong1; born March 13, 1947) is a Hong Kong film star who became popular as a child actress and continued her success as a mature actress, winning numerous awards including Best Actress at the 45th Berlin International Film Festival (for Summer Snow). Since retiring from show business (partly due to her increasing deafness), she has become a writer and a psychologist, known for her work against child abuse.

Born in Shanghai, Ciao emigrated to Hong Kong at the age of 2, and began her acting career at the age of 6. In 1955, she appeared alongside Bruce Lee in An Orphan's Tragedy. Her performance in The Orphan Girl (1956) garnered the Best Child Actor Award at the 2nd Southeast Asian Film Festival. Ciao subsequently became one of the biggest teen idols in Hong Kong during the late 1960s, along with frequent co-star Connie Chan Po-chu. The two were often cast in wuxia films and contemporary dramas. Colourful Youth (1966), in which they both appeared, is credited with popularising Cantonese film musicals. Siao briefly retired from acting in 1968 to attend Seton Hall University in the US. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in communications in 1970, she returned to Hong Kong, where she went on to become one of the city's most prolific actresses. In 1982, she starred in Plain Jane to the Rescue, which became one of her most famous roles.

Siao won the Best Actress Award at the Hong Kong Film Awards twice, for The Wrong Couples (1987) and Summer Snow (1995). Her performance in the latter also won her Best Actress at both the Berlinale and the Golden Horse Awards, while Hu-Du-Men (1996) saw her named Best Actress at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival and the Golden Horse Awards. Siao appeared in the critically acclaimed martial arts film Fong Sai-yuk (1993), where she played Miu Tsui-fa, the kung fu–fighting mother of the titular character, portrayed by Jet Li. She reprised her role in Fong Sai-yuk II (1993). Her other memorable martial arts films include Fist of Fury 1991 (1991) and Fist of Fury 1991 II (1992).

Siao was born as Siao Liang in Shanghai, with her ancestral home in Luzhi, Suzhou, Jiangsu. At the age of two, she was brought to Hong Kong by her parents.

Soon after her father died, at the age of six (1953), she began to become a child star to solve the family's financial problems. When she was 7 years old, she took on the first film and art film "Little Star Tears" (1954). In 1956, she performed "Aunt Mei" for the Shaw Brothers Company. Her famous work is "The Wandering Children" (1960) and this made her became one of the biggest teen idols in Hong Kong during the late 1960s, along with frequent co-star Connie Chan Po-chu. The two were often cast in wuxia films as disciples of the same master and sometimes—when Connie played the male lead—as young heroes in love. Back in the 1960s, Josephine's and Connie's fans maintained a heated rivalry. News of their fans getting into catfights was not uncommon in those days.

Unlike many child stars, Siao made a successful transition to adult stardom, remaining one of Hong Kong's most prolific and popular actresses. She was also one of the directors (co-directing with Leung Po-Chih, 梁普智) and writers of Jumping Ash (跳灰). This film is regarded as a prelude to the Hong Kong New Wave in the 1980s by film critics.

Having largely missed out on formal education because of her acting career as a child, Siao pursued her studies in later years despite her increasing deafness and the demands of raising a family (she has two daughters by her second husband). During this time she made fewer films, but her output included highly praised work such as her award-winning performance in Summer Snow (1995) as a middle-aged widow trying to cope with her father-in-law's Alzheimer's Disease.

Western fans of martial arts films will probably know her best from the Fong Sai-yuk films made in 1993, in which she played Jet Li's kung fu–fighting mother. (These films were released on Western DVD as The Legend and The Legend II.)