Esther Eng – Museum of Chinese in America

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Esther Eng with hand on camera, likely taken during the filming of “Mad Fire, Mad Love” in Honolulu, 1949. Reprinted from S. Louisa Wei, “Esther Eng,” in Women Film Pioneers Project (Columbia University Libraries, 2014), https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-rhpq-0f69.

Esther Eng, born Ng Kam-ha (伍錦霞) in San Francisco on September 24, 1914, was the fourth of ten children in a Chinese American family whose roots in the United States spanned three generations, beginning with her grandfather’s immigration from Taishan in the late nineteenth century. During her childhood—a golden age for Cantonese opera in the United States—Eng and her family frequently attended performances at the Mandarin Theatre on Grant Avenue, just three blocks from their home. As a teenager, Eng worked in the Mandarin Theatre’s box office as it transitioned into a hybrid movie house and live performance venue with the advent of sound films. The job allowed her to watch movies for free while also providing opportunities to socialize with the theater’s Cantonese opera stars. It was here that she and her family likely watched some of the first Cantonese talkies, which drew actors and storylines from Cantonese opera and later depicted China’s resistance against Japan.

The Mandarin Theatre, located at 1021 Grant Avenue in San Francisco, three blocks from Esther Eng’s home. The theater nurtured Eng’s early love for the performing arts and it was here that Eng went to watch countless movies and Cantonese opera performances as a child and teenager. Reprinted from OpenSFHistory website.

Roused by patriotism and inspired by the success of these films, her father, the merchant Ng Yu-jat, founded Kwong Ngai Talking Picture Company (Cathay Pictures Ltd), and supported his daughter’s filmmaking aspirations by hiring Eng as co-producer of its first film, Heartaches (心恨, 1935), screened at the Mandarin Theatre in February 1936. Despite having no formal training and being the youngest and least experienced person on set, Eng proved herself capable of confidently and effectively working with industry professionals. To bring the project to life, she rented a studio on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles and enlisted noted talents such as cinematographers Paul Ivano and James Wong Howe to help produce the first Chinese-language film made in Hollywood. Reflecting the patriotic themes of the era while centering a female protagonist, the film told the tragic love story of a local Cantonese opera singer—played by the trained opera performer Wai Kim-fong, Eng’s childhood friend and likely romantic partner—and a pilot training in the United States, whose affections she selflessly renounces so that he would return to China to fight in the Sino-Japanese War. Eng received a warm welcome when she traveled to promote the film in Hong Kong, encouraging her to register a branch of her family’s film company and stay to make films.

Esther Eng and the crew of Heartaches (心恨, 1935). Reprinted from Law Kar, “In Search of Esther Eng: Border-Crossing Pioneer in Chinese-Language Filmmaking,” in Chinese Women’s Cinema: Transnational Contexts (Columbia University Press, 2011).

The first film she directed—National Heroine (民族女英雄, 1937)— portrayed a female pilot who enlists in the military to fight for China’s national defense. The film reflected an emergent model of China’s independent “New Woman” and drew on the global fascination with female aviators to highlight the growing opportunities for women to actively support the war. However, Eng’s portrayal pushed beyond contemporary reality, for in fact, women volunteers who traveled to China to enlist in its air force as pilots such as Hazel Ying Lee were refused, and there remained considerable resistance to placing women in direct combat roles. Nevertheless, for her daring and positive representation of women’s wartime role, Eng was recognized with an award from the Cantonese Women’s Association.

Before the war’s expansion forced her to leave Hong Kong in October 1939, Eng directed an additional four films, each for different film companies: Ten Thousand Lovers (1938) for Grandview, Tragic Love (1938) for Tianle, A Night of Romance A Lifetime of Regret (1938) for Great Star, and It’s a Women’s World (女人世界, 1939) for Wode.

The cast of It’s a Woman’s World (女人世界, 1939), advertised as the first Hong Kong-produced film featuring an all-female cast of 36 actresses. Reprinted from S. Louisa Wei, “Finding Voices Through Her Images: Golden Gate Girls as an Attempt in Writing Women Filmmakers’ History” Feminist Media Histories 2, no. 2 (Spring 2016).

Billed as Hong Kong’s first film employing an all-female cast, It’s a Women’s World followed the stories of thirty-six women from varying social classes as they navigated the challenges and complexities of modern Hong Kong society, including “an old fashioned teacher, a fashionably dressed secretary, a clever journalist, a conscientious lawyer, a compassionate doctor, a free-spirited nightclub hostess, a decadent socialite, an unlucky divorcee, and so on.” Her film’s exclusively female cast and multifaceted portrayal of women’s everyday lives brought to the screen a bold and groundbreaking woman-centered approach to cinematic storytelling, highlighting the unique projects and perspectives Eng chose to bring to life as filmmaker.

When Eng returned to the United States, she spent several months in Hollywood observing new developments in the motion picture business. She took particular note of the studios’ B-movie production system—a Depression-era innovation characterized by low production budgets and short shooting schedules—and immediately recognized the utility of adopting it for Chinese filmmaking. Her next film, Golden Gate Girl (金門女, 1941), was a collaboration with exile Hong Kong filmmakers Joseph Sunn Jue and Kwan Man-ching, as disruptions in Hong Kong and Shanghai due to war made San Francisco emerge as a new hub for Chinese filmmaking.

Scene from the film, Golden Gate Girl (金門女, 1941), showing the protagonist Lulu, played by a baby Bruce Lee, being taken in by foster parents who open a laundry business to raise her. Reprinted from S. Louisa Wei, “Esther Eng,” in Women Film Pioneers Project (Columbia University Libraries, 2014), https://doi.org/10.7916/d8-rhpq-0f69.

A patriotic wartime film set in San Francisco, Golden Gate Girl was rich in local color, featuring scenes of daily working-class immigrant life in Chinatown, including depictions of the female protagonist and her foster parents at work in a laundry. These scenes traveled back to movie-hungry wartime audiences in Hong Kong and other Chinese cities, as reporter Betty Cornelius observed: “Thousands que [sic] daily to wait for hours in Hong Kong and other Chinese cities fortunate enough to possess moving-picture houses to see the one new Chinese picture filmed since the war. Prewar films shown repeatedly were learned by heart, and the Chinese, eager for fresh entertainment, have been crowding theatres to see Golden Gate Girl.”

In addition to making films, Eng purchased distribution rights to films during her stays in Hong Kong and traveled extensively to bring them to Chinatown communities across North and South America through her family’s film import and distribution business. After the war, Eng continued making films, including Lady from the Blue Lagoon (aka The Blue Jade, 藍湖碧玉) in 1947; Too Late for Spring (aka Back Street, 遲來春已晚/虛度春宵) in 1948, an adaptation of a Fannie Hurst bestseller that she self-financed and released through her own company, Golden Gate Silver Light Production; and Mad Fire, Mad Love ( 怒火情焰, 1949), a romance between a mixed-race woman and a Chinese sailor, reported as the first Chinese-language film produced in Honolulu.

Esther Eng (center) with actors on location of Too Late for Spring (aka Backstreet), Siu Fei Fei (left) and Ronald Liu (Liu Kei-wai, right). Reprinted from Kar Lew, “In Search of Esther Eng: Border-Crossing Pioneer in Chinese-Language Filmmaking,” in Chinese Women’s Cinema: Transnational Contexts (Columbia University Press, 2011).

In 1950, Eng decided to step away from filmmaking and moved to New York City with Siu Fei-fei, the female lead in her most recent productions and her romantic partner at the time. They eventually settled in Manhattan’s Chinatown, in an apartment at 50 Bayard Street. Nearby, they opened Bo Bo Restaurant at 20½ Pell Street after reconnecting with an old acquaintance, Bo Bo, who was stranded in New York along with his Cantonese opera troupe after the Communists claimed victory in China. Seeing an opportunity to support them, Eng took on the management of Bo Bo’s stage career and simultaneously opened the restaurant to offer Bo Bo and his troupe a place of employment while they learned English.

The exterior of Bo Bo Restaurant and Esther Eng Restaurant, taken during a Taiwan Little League parade along Pell Street on August 28, 1974. Photograph taken by Emile Bocian, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection.

The restaurant quickly became a refuge for other out-of-work Chinese actors and attracted widespread acclaim catering to the well-heeled and serving popular dishes such as lobster egg rolls, bird’s nest soup, and duck with lychee.

Matchbook from Esther Eng's Bo Bo Restaurant, 20 1/2 Pell Street, New York, N.Y. The matchcover depicts a Cantonese opera actor and has printed text advertising the restaurant as "The Home of Chinese Actors." Courtesy of Virginia S. Chin, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection.

Back of matchbook from Bo Bo Restaurant. Courtesy of Virginia S. Chin, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection.

Encouraged by Bo Bo’s success, she went on to establish four additional restaurants across New York City between 1950 and 1967, including Macao at 22 Pell Street, Hing Hing at 100 Second Avenue, Eng’s Corner at 1 Mott Street, and Esther Eng, initially located near the Theater District at East 57th Street and Second Avenue but later relocated to 18 Pell Street. Each achieved varying levels of success, though Bo Bo’s and the self-named Esther Eng stood out, with Eng’s Corner gaining a reputation as a popular drinking spot, particularly among gay men. Known for wearing men’s clothing and being open about her sexuality, she seemed to find a welcoming community in New York and Chinatown among Cantonese opera and film actors, who affectionately called her “Brother Ha” (“Ha Go” 霞哥).

Postcard showing a view of Pell Street during the 1970s with three of Esther Eng's restaurants-- Esther Eng Restaurant on 18 Pell, Bo Bo Restaurant on 20 Pell, and Macao Restaurant on 22 Pell Street. Courtesy of Eric Y. Ng, Museum of Chinese in America (MOCA) Collection.

In 1961, Eng signed on to work on her last known film, Murder in New York Chinatown (紐約碎屍案), set in the city she had by then made her home. She initially wrote the screenplay based on a real murder mystery in New York’s Chinatown and shot the location scenes as the credited “location director.”

Scene from Murder in New York Chinatown (1961). Reprinted from 法蘭賓, “伍錦霞–电影霞光,” in Transcending Space and Time: Early Cinematic Experience of Hong Kong Book III, pg. 30.

When she passed away from cancer on January 25, 1970, at the age of 55, her death was noted in an obituary in The New York Times. But over time, her work and its impact faded from public memory. Only two of Eng’s films, both preserved at the Hong Kong Film Archive, and three copy scripts at the New York State Archives survived. Thanks to the research and scholarship of film historians such as Law Kar, S. Louisa Wei, and others, Eng’s story and contributions are being rediscovered and recognized within Hong Kong and Chinese American history, as well as queer history. Law Kar drew on photographs, printed materials, and anecdotal information provided by Eng’s youngest sibling, Sally Ng (Ng Kam-ping), who helped manage her sister’s film distribution business, while S. Louisa Wei found photo albums of Eng discarded in a San Francisco dumpster in 2006, inspiring her to reconstruct her life and work in a documentary, Golden Gate Girls, released in 2013.