Chinese film actress and personality of the 1930’s, Lily Lee, or Peiping Lily as she was called, was born in 1910. She was originally from Tsingtao (now Qingdao) from a well-to-do family. According to a 1941 Hong Kong newspaper account: “She rides daily at Shatin, she swims, she drives even the largest car skillfully and she’s pretty hot at billiards. In addition she is thinking of taking up flying.”

Suspected of being a spy for the Japanese, she was arrested in 1938 in Chungking, but through the help of her close friend G.H. (Jim) Thomas and others who vouched for her innocence, was released after several months in prison — just moments before she was to be shot. She traveled with Thomas in Europe in the summer of 1939 and at the outbreak of World War II in September, visited him and his family in Hempstead, N.Y. They intended to get married, but it was not to be.

Lily returned that same year to Hong Kong, where she starred in "The Perfect Woman," a romance in Mandarin. After the war she made several more films in Hong Kong. She made her last stage appearance in Taipei, Taiwan, in 1958.

Lily Lee (not to be confused with the well-known 1930's actress Li-li Li, who died in 2005) is also mentioned in another book, China to Me, by Emily Hahn (Blakiston, 1944; 1999 reprint by e-reads). An excerpt follows:

“Shanghai is a wonderful city for the theater. I have heard some of the best plays produced in Shanghai. Have you heard any of the famous girl performers? Have you heard Lily Lee? She is really good.”

Lily Lee, I remembered suddenly a girl Sinmay had brought to my house one afternoon, with a story of squandered fortunes. I had seen Lily again in Hong Kong. I told Ping-Chia about it. “We had dinner at Lily's house,” I explained. “She's improved wonderfully in her English, hasn't she?” He looked mysterious. “There's a reason for that he explained.”

“Oh I know.” It was a romantic story that Lily told me at the dinner table that night, while Sinmay drank rice wine and chattered with friends. “She had fallen in love with an American."