Bai Guang


Shi Yongfen, known professionally as Bai Guang, was a Chinese actress and singer. By the 1940s, she became one of the Seven Great Singing Stars.

Early life

Shi Yongfen was born in 1921 in Zhuozhou, Hebei. Her father was a quartermaster under general Shang Zhen. In her early years, she was a student of the Beiping Salon Theatrical Troupe, and once performed Cao Yu's play Sunrise. In 1937, she studied at the University of Tokyo's music department until World War II in 1942. After drama school, she wanted to be a movie star. As she proclaimed, she wanted to be like the beams of light coming off the movie projectors onto the big screen; hence her stage name.

Career

In an age and culture where light, high voices were usually favored, Bai had a slightly deep voice, which helped her become a big star as the "Queen of the Low Voice". Some of her hits were "Autumn Evening", "Without You", "The Pretender", "Revisiting Old Dreams", and "Waiting For You". In 1940, she and Yoshiko Yamaguchi, also among the Seven Great Singing Stars, were recruited to the Three Girls Revitalizing Asia group, where they performed a Japanese-language propaganda song about the union between Japan, China and Manchukuo.
Bai began her film career in 1943. She was known for playing seductive roles due to her flirtatious image on screen and has also played villains at times.
After the war, Bai moved to Hong Kong and joined Great Wall Pictures. In 1949, A Forgotten Woman was shown in Hong Kong, which then-governor Alexander Grantham became fond of. A year later, she quit acting, moved to Japan and successfully opened a nightclub in Tokyo's Ginza district in 1953. The union did not last and she returned to Hong Kong, recording some music through 1959 when she officially retired.
In 1969, Bai resettled in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she married a man 20 years her junior named Yan Lianglong, who was also one of her fans. She performed to wide acclaim in 1979 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her last public appearance was in 1995 on a Hong Kong television show.

Death

Bai Guang died from colon cancer on 27 August 1999, at the age of 78, in her house at Kuala Lumpur's Damansara Heights suburb. She was buried at the Nirvana Memorial Park, Semenyih.

Filmography