Feature: Lisa Lu — From Shanghai Stages to the Hollywood Walk of Fame, an Eight-Decade Career
On November 5, 2026, the Asian Hall of Fame will hold its 2026 induction ceremony in Los Angeles, and 99-year-old Chinese-American actress Lisa Lu is among this year's honorees. To many viewers she is An-Mei Hsu in The Joy Luck Club and Ah Ma in Crazy Rich Asians; to Hollywood, she is an actress whose career stretches from the black-and-white era to the age of streaming — a screen life spanning eight decades.
Beginnings: Shanghai, Honolulu, Hollywood
Lisa Lu was born on January 19, 1927, in Beijing and raised in Shanghai, where she performed Chinese opera on stage as a child. After moving to the United States, she studied at the University of Hawaii before entering Hollywood. In 1960 she made her film debut in the war drama The Mountain Road, playing Madame Su-Mei Hung, the American-educated widow of a general, opposite Oscar winner James Stewart. Through the following years she appeared repeatedly in hit television series such as Have Gun – Will Travel, one of very few Chinese faces on American screens in the 1960s.
The middle years: from the Empress Dowager to An-Mei
In the 1970s she appeared in the science-fiction thriller Demon Seed (1977) and Saint Jack (1979). In 1987, at 60, Lu played the Empress Dowager Cixi in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, which went on to win nine Academy Awards including Best Picture. In 1993, in Wayne Wang's The Joy Luck Club, adapted from Amy Tan's novel, she played An-Mei Hsu, a mother who buries her pain in silence and ultimately lifts up her daughter — a role that made her part of the shared screen memory of a generation of North American Chinese audiences. Her official biography notes three Golden Horse Awards and the title of "Living Legend."
Past ninety: still working
She did not stop in her nineties. In 2018, at 91, Lu played Ah Ma, the matriarch of Singapore's richest family, in Crazy Rich Asians; she took the title role in The Disappearance of Mrs. Wu in 2021, voiced an animated feature in 2022, and appeared in the streaming series Death and Other Details in 2024. On stage, she starred for years in Stan Lai's eight-hour epic A Dream Like a Dream on tour. In July 2025, the New York Asian Film Festival gave her both its Vanguard Award and its Star Asia Lifetime Achievement Award — the first time in the festival's history that one artist received both — presented by actor BD Wong.
The oldest star: "paths that shine even brighter"
On May 5, 2025, at 98, Lisa Lu received the 2,811th star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, becoming the oldest honoree in its history. Her star, at 1708 Vine Street, sits beside that of Anna May Wong, the first Asian woman honored on the Walk. Academy president Janet Yang welcomed her at the ceremony, and Crazy Rich Asians co-star Awkwafina praised her as a pioneer. Lu had declined the honor several times before accepting. "I am deeply honored to stand in support of the next generation of rising Asian actors, whose paths I hope will shine even brighter," she said in a statement.
2026: the honors continue
The list kept growing in 2026. In June, the Shanghai International Film Festival presented her with its Lifetime Achievement Award, and she attended a screening of the restored The Arch, the 1968 Chinese-language art-house classic in which she starred. On September 30, the Asian Hall of Fame announced its class of 2026, with Lu inducted alongside Din Tai Fung and TSMC. At the November 5 ceremony in Los Angeles, the actress — who turns 100 next January — will step into the spotlight once again. From a child performer on Shanghai stages to the oldest name on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, the road Lisa Lu has traveled over eighty years is also the story of generations of overseas Chinese actors making their way to the center of the world's screens. (GSM Feature)
Related:
Lisa Lu Named to the Asian Hall of Fame Class of 2026, Alongside Din Tai Fung and TSMC
Lisa Lu, 99, Receives Lifetime Achievement Award at the Shanghai Film Festival
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：卢燕1960年留影（资料图）——她于同年在电影《山路》中完成银幕首秀。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，公共领域。Photo: Lisa Lu in 1960 (file photo), the year of her film debut in The Mountain Road. Source: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.
