Sihung Lung

Sihung Lung (Chinese: 郞雄; pinyin: Láng Xíong; Wade–Giles: Lang Hsiung; c. 1930 – 2 May 2002) was a Taiwanese actor. He appeared in over 100 films and TV series throughout his career and was best known for playing paternal roles in Ang Lee's films Pushing Hands, The Wedding Banquet and Eat Drink Man Woman.

Life and career

Lung enlisted in National Revolutionary Army as a teenager to fight the Chinese Communist Party. After the Communists seized control of mainland China, he escaped to Taiwan, where he was selected to join an army-sponsored acting troupe. Acting later became his career. His experience playing an array of roles for the army troupe later led his being cast in over 100 Chinese-language films and in Taiwanese soap operas, typically playing criminals or tough guys.^[1]

Lung had already retired from films when Ang Lee began casting for his first full-length film, 1992's Pushing Hands, and the director, who recalled watching Mr. Lung as a child, asked him to play a father in the film.^[2] Lung's sensitive portrayal of an elderly man faced with change turned him into an international star and he became famous for playing fathers struggling with modernity and adult children in the movies known to some fans as the "Father Knows Best" trilogy.^[3]

Lung was Roman Catholic.^[4]

Death

By the time he appeared as "Sir Te", guardian of a mystical sword in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, Lung's health had deteriorated due to diabetes. He died of liver failure in 2002 at the age of 72.^[5]

Filmography