Pauline Chan Bo-Lin

Pauline Chan
Background information
Chinese name	陈宝莲 (simplified)
Pinyin	Chén Bǎolián (Mandarin)
Born	(1973-05-23)May 23, 1973 Shanghai, China
Died	July 31, 2002(2002-07-31) (aged 29) Shanghai, China
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1990-2002

Pauline Chan Bo-Lin (simplified Chinese: 陈宝莲; traditional Chinese: 陳寶蓮; pinyin: Chén Bǎolián; May 23, 1973 – July 31, 2002) was a Chinese-Hong Kong actress who aroused significant attraction and controversies in the Greater China Area during her active years in the 1990s.

Career

Born in Shanghai, Chan's parents divorced when she was very young and she immigrated to Hong Kong with her mother at the age of 12. She started to work as a part-time fashion model at the age of 15 and contested in the 1990 Miss Asia Pageant. Chan did not win any title in this contest but her buxom figure, 175-centimeter length and mature look drew the attention of local pornographic film industry. She entered this industry in 1991 at only 18-year-old, mainly for her mother's expectations to finance their family.^[1][2] Until 1997, Chan showed up in more than 25 Hong Kong Category III films and gained widespread attraction for her bold performance, becoming a prominent sex symbol in the Greater China Area at that time.

Downfall

In 1997 Chan began a relationship with the playboy Taiwanese investment tycoon and celebrity Huang Jen-chung (黃任中, also credited as Wong Yam-Chung in Cantonese) whom she met in 1993, and was 33 years older than she was. She moved to Taipei to cohabit with Huang until they broke up in early 1999. After her death, in a media interview Huang revealed that Chan had been involved in drug abuse and sorcery since 1998; Chan did so in anticipation to soothe herself and win his heart back during their emotional low tides.^[3][4]

Between 1998 and 2001 Chan was involved in a chain of negative news. She attempted suicide during a TV interview, repeatedly attacked people, undressed in public, tried to enter foreign countries without valid travel documents and was deported as a result, set fire to her residence, and was frequently hospitalized for drug abuse.^[5][6] In December 1999 she was briefly imprisoned in the United Kingdom for beating an unrelated person in public.^[7][8]

Death

Chan hit rock bottom and secluded herself in Shanghai. Her final stage appearance was a bit role in a Taiwanese TV series in March 2002.^[9] She gave birth to a baby boy in early July 2002 out of wedlock. Around PM 5:30 on July 31, 2002 Chan jumped out of her 24th-floor apartment window to her death:^[10] in her suicide note she cited her postpartum depression as a reason for suicide, and besides expressing her deepest sorrow and blessing to Huang Jen-chung, she also asked everybody to seek her son's father, a Chinese American disk jockey in Taipei.^[11] Her funeral was a high-profile Buddhist ceremony on August 3, 2002 and her body was cremated.^[12]

Chan was portrayed posthumously by Chinese actress Crystal Sun (孫亞莉), who ever played a bit role in the 1996 movie Comrades: Almost a Love Story, in the 2002 biopic Pauline's Life. Sun later also committed suicide in 2009 in part due to her debts.^[13]

Filmography

References

External links

• Pistol Packing Pauline Chan
• Pauline Chan at the Internet Movie Database
• loveHKfilm entry
• HK cinemagic entry