Nancy Chen – Shanghai’s Wartime “Oomph Girl”

Nancy Chen was a star of Shanghai’s wartime cinema. She was referred to in the foreign media as China’s “Oomph Girl” and was seen as a symbol of westernisation and the liberated woman on screen. She was a star when the pre-war generation, such as Butterfly Wu, had largely retired, or semi-retired, or refused to work during the Japanese occupation. These pictures are from a profile of her in the American newspapers that chose to note the following:

She is a little over five feet tall

She is unmarried

She likes to wear tennis shoes and plays badminton on the roof of her apartment building

She enjoys serving hors d’oeuvres to guests in her modern apartment in the French Concession

She drives a blue roadster

She loves to swim….