Lisa Lu interview

This interview covers the long career of veteran actress Lisa Lu Yan in American media and Chinese cinema. Lisa Lu began acting a decade after she relocated to America following the change of government in china. Thanks to Frank Borzage, she began her prolific career in American television and became the second Chinese actress in post-war cinema to co-star in The Mountain Road (1960) with James Stewart. Among the many well-known American television series she appeared in during the 1960s were Bonanza, Cimarron City, Checkmate, and Yancy Derringer. She also appeared alongside Richard Boone in the opening segements of Have Gun Will Travel for one season in the role of “Hey Girl”, one she made her own. She returned to Hong Kong to star in The Arch (1969), the first film directed by female director Tan Shu-shuan in 1969 and later appeared in The Shaw Brothers’ 14 Amazons (1971). Run Run Shaw then offered her the title role in Li Han-hsiang’s The Empress Dowager and its sequel. She later played the same role in the opening sequences of Bertolucci’s The Last Emperor. Since then, she has continued her prolific career working in film, screen, and stage in America, China, and Taiwan.