Actors - Barbara Yung Mei-ling

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	Actors - Barbara Yung Mei-ling

Barbara Yung Mei-ling (; May 7, 1959 – May 14, 1985) was a popular television actress in Hong Kong during the early 1980s. She died aged 26, at the peak of her career. Yung was born in Hong Kong to an affluent civil service family as an only child. Her childhood was relatively uneventful until the death of her father when she was aged 7.

Education

Yung left Hong Kong for England at age 15 (in late 1974) to re-join her mother and stepfather. Her mother had immigrated to England two years earlier. While in Hong Kong, Yung attended Rosaryhill School (located at Stubbs Road in Hong Kong), where she had completed her primary and some of her secondary education. She continued with her GCE "O" levels at a high school in Cambridge. Upon the completion of her "0" levels, she was admitted to a foundations program offered by the University of Cambridge. Upon the completion of this program, she went to London to study textile design at the prestigious Central School of Art & Design.

Beginning of career

Yung returned to Hong Kong and joined the Miss Hong Kong pageant in 1982, in which she was awarded 9th place. After the pageant, she was offered an acting contract by Hong Kong Television Broadcasts (TVB). She made her acting debut in 1982, in a Cantonese swordplay series named Sup Sam Mui (The Legend of the Unknowns) based on the Ching Dynasty period, co-starring Ken Tong Chun-yip and Simon Yam Tat-wah in which Yung styled as an adorable Manchurian princess, Seung Kak-kak. This was the TV series that shot her into the limelight. Although Yung played a relatively small role in this TV series, she managed to gain TVB's confidence to cast her in what would become the TV series (The Legend of the Condor Heroes) that would make her a household name in Hong Kong in the 1980s. Her popularity persists through present day due to her lead role in Legend.

Ascension to fame

Yung's most famous TVB swordplay series was The Legend of the Condor Heroes in which she portrayed a character named Wong-yung. TVB made several costumed/period dramas in the 1980s based on famous martial arts swordplay novels by Louis Cha. Cha's "The Legend of the Condor Heroes", has been adapted numerous times to TV dramas and film, but none has attained a popularity as the one made by TVB in 1983. The innocent swordsman played by Felix Wong Yat-wah and the witty young woman by the Barbara Yung Mei-ling have remained one the best on-screen martial arts couple in Hong Kong's TV history. The cast in this edition also featured Michael Miu Kiu-wai, Sharon Yang Pan-pan, Patrick Tse-yin and Louise Lee Shut-ki. Legend is set in the late Sung Dynasty, where the failing Sung government is slowly falling prey to the northern tribes. Two sworn brothers, Yueng Tiet-sum (a descendent of the famous Yeung family) and Kwok Siu-tin, lament over the woes of their country and the faltering, corrupt government. Their quiet and simple lives with their then pregnant wives are violently disrupted when Yeung Tiet-sum's (Patrick Tse-yin) wife, Bao Sik-yuerk (Lee Si-kay), saves the life of the Kam Prince, Yuen Gon Hong-lit, who falls in love with her. Yuen-gon sends orders to have her captured and in the chaos, Kwok Siu-tin is killed while Kwok's wife (Li-ping) escapes. Yuen-gon pretends to save Bao Sik-yeurk who ends up marrying him for she believed her husband had been killed. Bao Sik-yuerk gives birth to a son, Yeung-hong (Mui Kiu-wai), who grows up calling Yuen-gon father and lavished in the riches and power of a royal prince. Li-ping, on the other hand, is saved and taken into Genghis Khan's tribe in Mongolia and raises her son, Kwok-jing (Felix Wong Yat-wah), with the hopes that one day he can avenge his father's death. A bet is made between the Taoist Yao Chu-kei (Tang-gong) and the Kangnam Seven Freaks sealed a promise for a duel between Kwok-jing and Yeung-hong to take place eighteen years later. Kwok-jing grows up chastised for his slowness in both is mastering the martial arts and in wits, he is loyal and righteous in nature. Traveling to China for the date of the duel, he meets the beggar-dressed Wong-yung (Barbara Yung) who eventually reveals herself as a beautiful woman. Their meeting triggers off a romance. Their relationship is tested and they undergo many adventures together. Yeung-hong, on the other hand, is cunning and ruthless in his goal to help the Kam clan and become powerful himself.

Yung's other TV series included: The Foundation, The Sandwich Man, The Fearless Duo, United We Stand, The Adventures of Chor Lau Heung, The Rough Ride and The Battlefield.

Death

Yung was found unconscious due to gas inhalation in her apartment on Broadcast Drive, Kowloon in the morning of May 14, 1985. According to her friend and actor (who was rumored to have began courting Yung), Stephen Chow Sai-lung, Yung had called him on the night of May 13, 1985. Chow asserted that she was troubled by her failing relationship with Ken Tong. After hanging up, Chow was concerned and he went to her apartment. However, he could not gain entrance to her apartment. He then thought that nobody was home and subsequently left. Chow returned to Yung's apartment on the morning of May 14, 1985. He knocked on her door again but no one answered. Chow said he smelled gas fumes through her apartment door. He then climbed up the exterior apartment building wall to her second floor apartment and pried open her front window. He entered Yung's apartment (from the window) and discovered her unconscious and sprawled on the living room floor. Chow immediately alerted the building's security and police. Yung was rushed to the nearby Baptist Hospital, Kowloon where she was pronounced dead on arrival. There were many rumors regarding the cause of her death. Some had attributed it to an accident or perhaps even foul play. One of the most widely circulated rumors was that her suicide was the result of her depression over her supposed broken relationship with then TVB actor, Ken Tong. (It is to be noted that in an interview conducted by a Hong Kong radio station on March 14, 1985, when asked about rumors regarding her relationship with Ken Tong, Yung had explained that he was merely a friend and colleague.). The rumors concerning the association of her death with Ken Tong were largely based on Stephen Chow's account of her last 24 hours. There were also rumors which claimed that Stephen Chow was Yung's boyfriend. According to Yung's TVB colleagues, she had behaved normally in the days before the incident and that there was no hint that she was depressed or suicidal. Yung also sounded very optimistic about her future in her radio interviews both on March 14, 1985 and one conducted two weeks before her death. Yung did not leave a suicide note. At the time of her death, Yung was involved in filming a TVB drama. Filming was due to conclude in June 1985. This lead role was later replaced by Maggie Cheung.

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