About Tsai Chin
Tsai Chin is a Chinese-British actress, singer, director, and teacher. Her career spans more than six decades and three continents.
The daughter of Peking Opera star Zhou Xinfang, Chin was born in Shanghai and educated there and in British Hong Kong. She became the first Chinese-born student of the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, of which she is an Associate Member. Initially under the stage name Irene Chow, she starred onstage in London's West End in The World of Suzie Wong and on Broadway in Golden Child. Chin appeared in two James Bond films, 39 years apart, as a Bond girl in You Only Live Twice; and in Casino Royale.
In the United States, Chin is best known for her role as Auntie Lindo in the film The Joy Luck Club . She also appeared in the Marvel Cinematic Universe television series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. episode "The Only Light in the Darkness" as Lian May and in the feature film Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings as Waipo. She was the first acting instructor to be invited to teach acting in China after the Cultural Revolution, when China's universities reopened. In China, she is best known for her portrayal of Grandmother Jia in the 2010 TV drama series The Dream of Red Mansions.
Tsai Chin was born on 1 September 1933, in Tianjin , China, where her father was on tour. She is the third daughter of the Peking opera actor and singer Zhou Xinfang and Lilian Qiu . Chin has a brother, restaurateur Michael Chow.
She grew up in the Shanghai French Concession, where she received a multilingual education at The Convent of the Sacred Heart, Mctyeire School in Shanghai and King George V School in Hong Kong. During her childhood, Tsai Chin was witness to colonial occupation, the Japanese invasion of China, Chinese Civil War, and the Communist takeover in 1949.
At the age of 17, she left Shanghai and was sent to England to study at The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art, where she was the first Chinese student in the art academy. Tsai Chin later became an Associate Member of The Royal Academy of Dramatic Art. She earned a master's degree at Tufts University in Boston, Massachusetts.
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