Bai Guang (27 June 1921 – 27 August 1999), also credited as Pai Kwong, Bai Kwong and Bai Kwang, was a Chinese actress and singer. By the 1940s, she became one of the

Seven great singing stars The Seven Great Singing Stars () were seven singers of China in the 1940s. Background Several of the stars acted in films, and their music played a prominent role in developing Cinema of China, Chinese cinema. They dominated the Chinese pop musi ...

Biography

Bai Guang was born Shi Yongfen () in 1921 in

Zhuozhou Zhuozhou (), is a county-level city with 628,000 inhabitants in Hebei province, bordering Beijing to the north. It is administered by Baoding prefecture-level city. Zhuozhou has 3 subdistricts, 6 towns, 5 townships, and 1 development zone. Adm ...

Hebei Hebei or , (; alternately Hopeh) is a northern province of China. Hebei is China's sixth most populous province, with over 75 million people. Shijiazhuang is the capital city. The province is 96% Han Chinese, 3% Manchu, 0.8% Hui, and 0 ...

. Her father was a

quartermaster Quartermaster is a military term, the meaning of which depends on the country and service. In land armies, a quartermaster is generally a relatively senior soldier who supervises stores or barracks and distributes supplies and provisions. In ...

under general Shang Zhen. In her early years, she was a student of the Beiping Salon Theatrical Troupe (), and once performed

Cao Yu Cao Yu (, September 24, 1910 — December 13, 1996) was a Chinese playwright, often regarded as one of China's most important of the 20th century. His best-known works are ''Thunderstorm'' (1933), ''Sunrise'' (1936) and ''Peking Man'' (1940). ...

's play ''"

Sunrise Sunrise (or sunup) is the moment when the upper rim of the Sun appears on the horizon in the morning. The term can also refer to the entire process of the solar disk crossing the horizon and its accompanying atmospheric effects. Terminology A ...

"''. In 1937, she studied at the

University of Tokyo , abbreviated as or UTokyo, is a public research university located in Bunkyō, Tokyo, Japan. Established in 1877, the university was the first Imperial University and is currently a Top Type university of the Top Global University Project b ...

'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 projector A movie projector is an opto-mechanical device for displaying motion picture film by projecting it onto a screen. Most of the optical and mechanical elements, except for the illumination and sound devices, are present in movie cameras. Mod ...

s onto the big screen. Hence, her stage name was ''Bai Guang'' (), which translated to "White Light".

Career

Her

mandopop Mandopop or Mandapop refers to Mandarin popular music. The genre has its origin in the jazz-influenced popular music of 1930s Shanghai known as Shidaiqu; with later influences coming from Japanese enka, Hong Kong's Cantopop, Taiwan's Hokkie ...

songs were often used in many of her movies as soundtracks. In an age and culture where light, higher voices were usually favored, she had a slightly deep and hoarse voice, which helped her become a big star in Shanghai.Baidu.
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" ''Bai Guang.'' Retrieved on 2007-04-28. People called her the "Queen of the Low Voice" (). Bai's big screen career started in 1943.Music Sogua.

." ''Bai Guang.'' Retrieved on 2007-04-28. She was known for playing seductive roles due to her flirtatious image on screen and has also played villains at times. She lent a more dramatic tone or sexy attitude to her songs. Some of her hits are "Autumn Evening" (), "Without You" (), "The Pretender" (), "Revisiting Old Dreams" (), and "Waiting For You" (). After the war, Bai Guang moved to Hong Kong and joined Great Wall Pictures. In 1949, ''A Forgotten Woman'' () was shown in Hong Kong. Even the

governor A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...

Alexander Grantham Sir Alexander William George Herder Grantham, GCMG (; 15 March 1899 – 4 October 1978) was a British colonial administrator who governed Hong Kong and Fiji. Early life, colonial administration career Grantham was born on 15 March 1899 ...

, went as a fan. By 1950 Bai tired of the low-quality films she was given and retired as an actress in China. After marrying an American GI in 1951, she lived in 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 she resettled in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, where she married a man 20 years her junior. She performed to wide acclaim in 1979 in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. Her last public appearance was in 1995 at Hong Kong's TV top 10 Chinese singer award presentation. Bai Guang tomb 1

On 27 August 1999 she died in her house at Kuala Lumpur's

Damansara Heights Damansara Heights ( ms, Bukit Damansara) is an upscale suburb in western side of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, located five kilometres away from the city centre. The suburb falls under the Segambut district and its parliamentary constituency. It is a s ...

suburb due to colon cancer at the age of 78. She was buried at the Nirvana Memorial Park. Bai Guang tomb 2

Filmography

* Love Peas of Southland () (1943) * The Fire of Love () (1945) * Sinister House #13 () (1947) * Spy Ring 626 () (1948) * Blood Stained Begonia () (1949) * A Forgotten Woman () (1949) * Songs in the Rainy Nights () (1950) * A Strange Woman () (1950) * Hours Passed the Wedding () (1950) * Smiling Rose () (1951) * Tears of Songstress () (1953) * Fresh Peony () (1956)

References

External links

*
Bai Guang songs online
* * *
Actress at China's Movie Database
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bai, Guang 1921 births 1999 deaths Actresses from Beijing Singers from Beijing Chinese film actresses 20th-century Chinese actresses Deaths from colorectal cancer Deaths from cancer in Malaysia 20th-century Chinese women singers Chinese Civil War refugees Chinese emigrants to Malaysia Pathé Records (China) artists