Cover (L-R) Cheng Pei Pei in ‘Mulan’, JuJu Chan Szeto in ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon : Sword of Destiny’ and Michelle Yeoh in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: just a few of the female martial artists impressing one and all with their power moves (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
(L-R) Cheng Pei Pei in ‘Mulan’, JuJu Chan Szeto in ‘Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon : Sword of Destiny’ and Michelle Yeoh in ‘Everything Everywhere All at Once’: just a few of the female martial artists impressing one and all with their power moves (Photo: Tatler Hong Kong)
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Michelle Yeoh, Cheng Pei Pei and other action stars became a symbol of female empowerment on screen in the 1990s. But female martial artists are still underrepresented in Hong Kong cinema, and according to actress JuJu Chan Szeto, it’s because men just don’t like losing to women, even in movies
Most people can easily remember that one positive moment or encounter that changed their lives for the better. For martial actress JuJu Chan Szeto, this encounter happened on a cinema screen as a kid.
“I remember being really proud when I saw Michelle Yeoh in James Bond (1997),” writes Chan Szeto to Tatler Front & Female. “It was something of an acknowledgement to see a Hong Kong actress starring in a major Western film. I was also really impacted by Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000)’s female martial artists, like Yeoh and Cheng Pei Pei.”
“Through martial arts, I learnt about patience, discipline and hard work,” she adds. “The complex moves can take quite a long time to master. It’s easy to give up after a few tries, but having gone through the training, I understand the disappointment that one often has to go through before finally reaching your goal. There’s no doubt that martial arts training has toughened me up.”
There are many like Chan Szeto who have felt similarly inspired by female martial artists onscreen and have chosen to tread this path.
Read more: Martial artist JuJu Chan Szeto on her screen career and new Netflix film
“Guys just don’t like losing against women… even if it’s make-believe!”
In fact, several Hong Kong martial arts movies in the late 20th century cast Asian women in empowered roles, contrary to the passive “damsel in distress” tropes popular in more mainstream movies.
These “woman warriors” were already part of a long cinematic tradition called nüxia, which can be traced back to Shanghai’s martial arts movies of the 1920s and early 1930s. When the martial arts film genre was revived in Hong Kong in the late 1940s, these martial artists were given stronger character development arcs—a significant step towards gender equality in films, but not enough to balance it out, according to Chan Szeto.
She elaborates: “Guys just don’t like losing against women… even if it’s make-believe! There’s always a lot of ego that women have to face in any male-dominated field, and action filmmaking is probably the most male-dominated in entertainment. I can certainly imagine that in the 1970s to 1990s, it would have been terribly difficult for someone like Cheng Pei Pei, or the many other fantastic female martial arts stars of the time, to get heard if they had an opinion.”
Chan Szeto is not wrong; in a 2021 interview with the Guardian, Yeoh revealed that on the set of Supercop (1992), Jackie Chan had asked her to stop performing her “crazy stunts”, because “when you do one, I have to do one better”. Chan apparently thought that women belonged in the kitchen until Yeoh “kicked his butt,” the latter revealed. She put a full stop to this duel almost thirty years later when she won an Oscar for the role of Evelyn Wang in Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022), a role which was originally written for Chan.
Chan Szeto concurs that things have changed for the better in the recent past. “I’m given more leeway to choreograph my own moves, and I can question moves that are choreographed for me. But I acknowledge that this newfound freedom for me has its foundation built by those female martial artists who came before me.”
Above Michelle Yeoh, also known as Michelle Khan, and Jackie Chan, stars of Supercop, attend the film's US premiere party at Planet Hollywood in New York City. (Photo by Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
Above Michelle Yeoh in Everything Everywhere All at Once (Photo: courtesy of Imdb)
Michelle Yeoh, also known as Michelle Khan, and Jackie Chan, stars of Supercop, attend the film's US premiere party at Planet Hollywood in New York City. (Photo by Mitchell Gerber/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images)
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While Chan Szeto is reaping the benefits, she has also proved herself to be a worthy heir to the female martial artists’ legacy. To name but a few, her roles in Wu Assassins (2019) and Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon: Swords of Destiny (2016) alongside Yeoh really put her under the spotlight.
But the path to success wasn’t devoid of challenges. “Though I was impressed by these female action actors, by the time I’d started working in Hong Kong movies, there wasn’t a place for women in action. Women in action films were either playing victims or were obviously using stunt doubles. There didn’t seem to be a place for actresses with actual martial arts skills.”
She thinks part of the reason for this is the lack of women behind the camera, starting with directing.
Above Actress and martial artist JuJu Chan Szeto discusses the heritage of Cheng Pei Pei and Michelle Yeoh (Photo: courtesy of Sheldon Shwartz)
Above Actress and martial artist JuJu Chan Szeto feels there’s not enough female martial artists behind the camera (Photo: courtesy of Lewis Tan)
Actress and martial artist JuJu Chan Szeto discusses the heritage of Cheng Pei Pei and Michelle Yeoh (Photo: courtesy of Sheldon Shwartz)
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“In Hollywood, you have Patty Jenkins and Kathryn Bigelow who have done great action films but in Hong Kong, female directors are few, and of them, none have been given an action film to direct,” she says. “There have been many female action stars from Hong Kong since the ’60s, but not a single female action film director. I find that shameful.”
The message is clear: female representation in martial arts movies has come a long way—but there’s still much more to do, and this starts with a better representation of women behind the cameras.
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Salomé Grouard was Digital Editor and Front & Female Content Lead at Tatler Hong Kong. Primarily focused on managing Tatler Hong Kong’s digital platform and content, she also covers gender equality, the music scene and sports through interviews with industry leaders, experts and trendsetters.
Interview highlights include renowned conservationist Dr Jane Goodall, Korean actor Park Seo Jun, singer Jorja Smith, Chinese TV host Yue-Sai Kan, YouTuber Kimono Mom, Japanese rapper Awich, and Brazilian jiu-jitsu fighter Mikey Musumeci.
She has also produced stories on revolutionising sexual wellness in Asia, activism within the surfing community, Asian trans musicians reclaiming their narratives through music and looked at the toxicity of gym culture through the lens of the plus-size community. She also covers music festivals, such as Hong Kong’s Clockenflap and Bali’s Suara.
