# Lim Cho-cho

Florence Lim (21 January 1905 – 16 February 1979), better known as Lim Cho-cho, was a Chinese Canadian actress in the cinema of the Republic of China and British Hong Kong from 1925 to 1954. She was the second wife of filmmaker Lai Man-Wai and the mother of actors Lai Hang and Lai Suen. Gigi Lai is her granddaughter.

## Early life

Florence Lim was born in Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, where her grandfather, an immigrant from Xinhui (now part of Jiangmen), Guangdong, China, owned a rice shop. Her father died when she was 3. She attended Chinese Public School in Victoria which allowed her to be proficient in both English and Chinese. When she was 9, her widowed mother went to Hong Kong to receive medical treatment, and at age 12 Lim joined her in Hong Kong, having completed primary school. In Hong Kong she enrolled in Ying Wa Girls' School. One of her classmates named Lai Hang-kau (who would later become known as Lai Cheuk-cheuk) introduced her to her uncle Lai Man-Wai. Even though he was 12 years her senior and already married, Lim married him as his second wife in 1920, when she was 15.

## Career

Lim Cho-cho's acting career started in Hong Kong when she played the lead role in Rouge (1925), the first film produced by her husband's China Sun Motion Picture Company. In 1926, China Sun relocated to Shanghai, and there Lim continued to star in silent films such as A Poet from the Sea (1927) and Romance of the Western Chamber (1927). Her credits after China Sun became the Lianhua Film Company in 1930 included A Spray of Plum Blossoms (1931), Song of China (1935), National Customs (1935), and Song of a Kind Mother (1937). Lim particularly excelled in mother roles. Her son Lai Hang also appeared in many films around this time. In 1931, she also acted in the Indian film Kamar-Al-Zaman, an adaptation of a tale from the Arabian Nights directed by Shah G. Agha, where she appeared in the role of princess Budur.
During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), the Lais first returned to Hong Kong when Japan invaded Shanghai in 1937. In Hong Kong Lim continued to act in films, many patriotic and anti-Japanese in nature. Following Japan's invasion of Hong Kong in 1941, the family escaped to mainland China, first to Chikan, Kaiping, Guangdong, where at one point Lim had to peddle old clothes on the street to make ends meet. When Japanese soldiers overran Kaiping in 1943, they fled again, this time to Guilin, Guangxi, where they ran a photographic studio. After the war ended, the family returned to Hong Kong, and Lim acted again for another 8 years. She retired after her husband's 1953 death to raise their 9 children. She visited mainland China in the 1970s before her death in Hong Kong in 1979.

## Filmography

| Year | English title | Original title | Role | Notes |
| 1925 | Rouge | 胭脂 | Rouge | Lost |
| 1926 | Why Not Her | 玉潔冰清 | Qian Mengqi | Lost |
| 1926 | The God of Peace | 和平之神 | | Lost |
| 1927 | A Poet from the Sea | 海角詩人 | Yin Meizhen | Partially lost |
| 1927 | A Reviving Rose | 復活的玫瑰 | | Lost |
| 1927 | Romance of the Western Chamber | 西廂記 | Cui Yingying | Partially lost |
| 1928 | Avalokitesvara's Way | 觀音得道 | | Lost |
| 1928 | Five Revengeful Girls | 五女復仇 | | Lost |
| 1928 | The Retrieval of Huang Leung | 再世因緣 | | Lost |
| 1928 | Mulan Joins the Army | 木蘭從軍 | | Lost |
| 1930 | Dream of the Ancient Capital | 故都春夢 | | Lost |
| 1931 | A Spray of Plum Blossoms | 一剪梅 | Shi Luohua (Sylvia) | |
| 1932 | Conscienceless | 人道 | Wu Ruolian | Lost |
| 1932 | Another Dream of the Ancient Capital | 續故都春夢 | | Lost |
| 1933 | Night in the City | 城市之夜 | | Lost |
| 1934 | Life | 人生 | | Lost |
| 1935 | National Customs | 國風 | Zhang Jie | |
| 1935 | A Little Angel | 小天使 | | |
| 1935 | Song of China | 天倫 | Grandmother | |
| 1936 | Mother's Love | 母愛 | Liu Fen | |
| 1936 | Gateways of Body and Spirit | 靈肉之門 | | |
| 1937 | A New-Comer's Way | 新人道 | | |
| 1937 | Song of a Kind Mother | 慈母曲 | Mother | |
| 1937 | The Bomber Wen Shengcai | 溫生才炸孚琦 | | |
| 1938 | Love in Wartime | 戰雲情淚 | | |
| 1939 | Scent of a Woman | 女兒香 | | |
| 1940 | The General | 岳飛 | Yue Fei's mother | |
| 1940 | Flower in a Sea of Blood | 血海花 | | |
| 1941 | The Good Father | 天涯慈父 | | |
| 1941 | On My Own | 陌路妻兒 | Madam Chan | |
| 1941 | Song of Retribution | 正氣歌 | Wang Zhiming's mother | |
| 1946 | The Storm | 大雷雨 | | |
| 1947 | Li Chunhua | 麗春花 | | |
| 1949 | Gia Liang Kiang Be My Destiny | 靜靜的嘉陵江 | | |
| 1953 | How the Valiant Dog Saved the Pretty Girl | 義犬救美 | | also co-producer |
| 1954 | Better Your Better Half | 改造太太 | Ling Ping's mother | |

## In popular culture

In the 1991 film Center Stage, Lim Cho-cho is portrayed by Cecilia Yip, who spoke Cantonese, Mandarin and English in her role.