Yeung Ching Ching  (AKA Yeung Jing Jing (Cantonese), Yang Ching Ching or Yang Jing Jing (Mandarin))

The on-screen career of early eighties Shaw Brothers female action performer/stuntwoman Yeung Ching Ching could be adequately summarised by the tiny cameo she did in the later action caper LICENSE TO STEAL (90). Early in the film Yuen Biao accidentally bumps into her, a brief acrobatic scrap ensues where she nearly outshines him, before disappearing never to be seen again, leaving the viewer wondering “who the hell was that?”. Likewise in the early eighties Yeung was cast in half a dozen martial art’s pictures, usually in a supporting part. In some of these, she did some of the most spectacular action displays ever from a female performer but Shaw Brother’s closure put a end to her screen career with her potential barely tapped.

Yeung Ching Ching was born on Hainan Island, the place where the US spy plane made it’s emergency landing in 2001 creating a serious diplomatic incident.  She was trained in Wu-shu since childhood. Spotted by master martial director Lau Kar-leung at a tournament, she signed-up for the Shaw Brother’s studio at probably no older than 16 years of age. Her first significant part was as Gordon Lau’s young fiancée in the Lau choreographed CLAN OF THE WHITE LOTUS (80) where she was introduced doing a Wu-shu sword routine, a splendid display that probably left most viewers wanting more. Unfortunately, her character (also named Ching Ching) had to come to a premature end.
Over the next few years Ching Ching’s main employment at Shaw was mainly to double the studio female stars in stunts, acrobatic or sword-displays. On several occasions however, she was cast in a supporting part. Her most spectacular and memorable early appearance was no doubt in the Fu Sheng vehicle TREASURE HUNTER (83) that was directed by Lau Kar-leung’s brother Lau Kar-wing. In it she was the chief villain Wang Lung-wai’s “assistant”, a petite pigtail girl who looks harmless enough, that is until she picked-up her pair of machetes and made mince meat out of anyone in her way. Her role was all the more memorable because she was totally mute and so she had to convey herself through her eyes and facial expressions alone. Whether taking on a spear wielding Wilson Tong, a crazy as a bug Fu Sheng or a bunch of fighting monks led by Gordon Lau, Yeung Ching Ching’s fighting performance, which she choreographed herself (she’s credited as one of the film’s action directors), is one of the finest displays of female action ever put to screen
Ching Ching delivered equally impressive performances in other Shaw movies such as GHOST GALORE, LADY ASSASSIN and HOLY FLAME OF THE MARTIAL WORLD (all 83). At this time, movie trends were changing, martial art cinema was waning and Shaw Brothers studio closed down its movie making facilities in 1984. Yeung Ching Ching’s last role was as the ninth sister in Master Lau Kar-leung’s EIGHT DIAGRAM POLE FIGHTER
Shaw’s film production demise put an effective end to Yeung Ching Ching’s on-screen career, but she continued as a stunt-woman and was one of the rare females enlisted in that nearly totally male dominated profession. Her job though was not to do dangerous stunts, but to double actresses for their character's weapons or acrobatic displays. Over the years Yeung has mostly worked in TV period martial dramas. At one point she crossed the path of action choreographer/director Ching Siu-tung, who she came to consider as her mentor. She likely served as stunt-double in some of his films. In 1989 she became an action director in her own right; a position she has held since. In recent years she has also begun teaching Wu-shu at a Junior stuntman training class.
Considering her spectacular physical capabilities and attractiveness one might wonder why she never made the transition to the mid-eighties/mid nineties fighting female action sub-genre like her fellow stuntwoman Sharon Yeung Pan Pan or her former Shaw’s sister in arms Kara Hui Ying-hung. A possible explanation may lie in the fact that while rather popular in the West, fighting female action movies were for the most part a low level fairly marginal genre that usually favoured stunning looking exotic women like Michelle Yeoh (Chinese Malaysian), Cynthia Rothrock (American), Yukari Oshima (Japanese), or Cynthia Khan (Taiwanese) and despite her physical talent Yeung did not fit the desired profile. Further Yeung may simply never have had the desire to become an action star in the first place and preferred the more settled position that her stuntwoman and action choreographer job was giving her. Considering how both the fighting female sub-genre as well as the career of its stars fared, it could be argued that though Yeung's lack of screentime was to H-K action cinema a great loss, it wasn’t to her own.
Since the mid-eighties Yeung Ching Ching has made only a couple of “in the open” screen appearances.  In the aforementioned LICENCE TO STEAL, as a gangster moll in GOD OF GAMBLERS III (93), and as a fighting foil for Moon Lee in ANGELS TERMINATORS II. Yet ironically her work as a stunt-double has probably meant that she has been seen at one point or another by nearly the entire H-K film viewership as the acrobatic or sword-wielding double of such stars as Moon Lee, Brigitte Lin or Michelle Yeoh and many others. Unfortunately, this part of her work has gone uncredited. As a film’s action director Yeung is only credited with HANDSOME SIBLING (93).
Other Shaw Brothers movies: TWO CHAMPIONS OF SHAOLIN (80), RETURN TO THE 36 CHAMBERS (80), BLOODY PARROT (81), DUEL OF THE CENTURY (81), CLANS FEUD (82), SPIRIT OF THE SWORD (82),

Note: Yeung Ching Ching is not to be confused with a contemporary Shaw Brother performer having a similar name as hers. She acted only in a handful of movies and ended-up marrying Master Lau Kar-leung himself.  They had two daughters but recently separated.

(Written up by Yves Gendron)