Introduction

Film industry has been dominated by men ever since its inception, especially in the time when women hadn’t even gained social equality in general. In spite of the limited opportunities, some creative and visionary women broke through the barrier. Tong Shu-shuen in the 1970s maintained her independency away from the studio system as well as male dominance. New wave director Ann Hui was particularly skillful in exploring social issues. Sylvia Chang, Mabel Cheung, Clara Law and Heiward Mak are some of the familiar names of female directors. However, the first of their counterparts actually held helm decades before. Esther Eng and Wan Hoi-ling were directors in the 1930s and 1940s, but unfortunately were ignored in the history of Chinese cinema.

During the 1930s, Esther Eng (1914-1970) had started to work on Chinese-language films with subjects that were international, cross-cultural and even cross-gender. She was the first Chinese American female director to make talkies in the US, after fellow Chinese American Marion Wong directed her silent film The Curse of Qwon Gwon in 1916. Nicknamed “Brother Ha”, she directed 11 films in her 35-year career, breaking barriers of race, language, culture and gender. Bold, brilliant and sophisticated, she was not just a pioneer filmmaker in the history of Chinese cinema, but also a mentor to a lot of newcomers. She was very much loved and respected by her fellow filmmakers.

Wan Hoi-ling, a longtime partner of director Hou Yao since the 1930s, was largely omitted in the history. Australian researcher Frank Bren collated a film list according to the only available resources which showed from 1895 to December 2013, Wan ranked second as the most prolific Hong Kong female director, making a total of 21 commercially-released films in her career, just behind Ann Hui’s 33 films but way more than Sylvia Chang’s 14 films. 

Esther Eng and Wan Hoi-ling, the trailblazing women in their time, were forgotten by history and remained anonymous despite their achievements. Through this collection, we bring both extraordinary filmmakers back to the limelight.