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Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia (; born 3 November 1954) is a Taiwanese actress. Regarded as a screen icon, Lin played a key role in boosting Taiwan's film production with her romantic heroine roles in the 1970s before transitioning to Hong Kong, where she achieved great success with her androgynous roles in wuxia films. Following her marriage in 1994, she retired from acting and transitioned to writing in the 2000s, publishing four essay collections. In 2023, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.
She appeared in 55 films in the period between 1972 and 1979, and all her roles were in love stories, many based on Chiung Yao's stories. Lin won the Best Actress award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival for her role as a girl scout in Eight Hundred Heroes (1976). She left for the U.S. in 1979 for a year and a half to study and relax.
Lin branched out of Taiwan with her collaborations with Hong Kong New Wave directors Ringo Lam, Tsui Hark and Jackie Chan in Zu Warriors from the Magic Mountain (1983), The Other Side of Gentleman (1984), Police Story (1985) and Peking Opera Blues (1986), establishing her as a screen icon. In 1990, she won the Best Actress at the 27th Golden Horse Awards for her depiction of a Chinese female writer who fell in love with a Japanese collaborator in Red Dust (1990).
Lin gained particular acclaim for her androgynous roles, which are common in Chinese operas and movies. Her earliest being Jia Baoyu, the male protagonist of the 1977 film adaptation of Dream of the Red Chamber. In Peking Opera Blues (1986), she was a guerrilla revolutionary and in Royal Tramp II (1992), she was the leader of the Heavenly Dragon Sect, while in Handsome Siblings (1992), she was a highly skilled successor of a martial arts leader, then in Fire Dragon (1994), she was a fire-wielding assassin. All four were female characters dressed as men. And in Ashes of Time (1994), she played twin brother/sister duo Yin and Yang. However, she is perhaps most well known for her role as cult leader Dongfang Bubai in Swordsman II (1992). Swordsman II marked the peak of her career in terms of box office earnings for which she was listed among the 10 greatest performances in cinema of all time by Time magazine. The success of the film brought her to other notable martial epics such as New Dragon Gate Inn (1992), where she again played a female character dressed as a man, and The Bride with White Hair (1993), until she retired from acting after Ashes of Time (1994). One of her final androgynous roles was The Three Swordsmen (1994), where she played a sect leading swordsman opposite Andy Lau. She made a small-screen comeback by joining the Hunan Television reality show Up Idol (2015).
In 2002, her 71-year-old mother, who struggled with depression, committed suicide by jumping off the 12th floor of her apartment.
She was conferred an honorary doctorate (Doctor of Social Sciences) from the University of Hong Kong on April 3, 2023.
Lin married Hong Kong businessman Michael Ying in 1994. She is the mother of Eileen Ying Oi Lum (born 1996) and Melani Ying Yin-oi (born 2001) and stepmother to Claudine Ying.
| 我是一片雲 | |||
| 金玉良緣紅樓夢 | Jia Baoyu | ||
| 1978 | 月朦朧鳥朦朧 | Liu Lingshan | |
| 真白蛇傳 | Madam White Snake | ||
| 1981 | 愛殺 | Ivy | |
| 中國女兵 | Wen Jingyi | ||
| 燃燒吧！火鳥 | Wei Yanran | ||
| 慧眼識英雄 | Shen Liangbai | ||
| 1984 | |||
| 1987 | 橫財三千萬 | Sister Maria | |
| 奪命佳人 | Chan Mei-fung | ||
| 1988 | 今夜星光燦爛 | To Cai-mei | |
| 1989 | 驚魂記 | Jane Lin | |
| Cameo | |||
| Reality show |
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