Brigitte Lin Ching-hsia (Chinese: 林青霞; pinyin: Lín Qīngxiá; born 3 November 1954) is a Taiwanese actress. Regarded as a screen icon, Lin played a key role in boosting Taiwan's film production with her romantic heroine roles in the 1970s before transitioning to Hong Kong, where she achieved great success with her androgynous roles in wuxia films. Following her marriage in 1994, she retired from acting and transitioned to writing in the 2000s, publishing four essay collections. In 2023, she received the Lifetime Achievement Award at the 60th Golden Horse Awards.
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Career
Lin was born in Chiayi, Taiwan to waishengren parents from eastern Shandong who had moved to Taiwan in the KMT exodus in 1949. She has a sister and a brother. She was scouted in 1972 on the streets of Taipei by a film producer after she finished women's high school and was preparing for university. Lin debuted in the film adaptation of Chiung Yao's Outside the Window (1973), which propelled her to stardom. Lin, along with Joan Lin, Charlie Chin and Chin Han, thus became known as the "Two Chins, Two Lins" (二秦二林) for their extensive roles in romantic movies of the 1970s based on Chiung Yao's novels that dominated the Taiwanese box office. She subsequently joined Chiung Yao's company in 1976.
She appeared in 55 films in the period between 1972 and 1979, and all her roles were romantic heroines in love stories, many based on Chiung Yao's stories. Lin won the Best Actress award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival for her role as a girl scout in Eight Hundred Heroes (1976). She left for the U.S. in 1979 for a year and a half to study and relax.
