Chen Zhi-Hui 陈之辉

Chen Zhi-Hui became known to audiences of Hong Kong action films when he already had many years of work on mainland television behind him. In the Chinese Romance of Three Kingdoms he was given several roles at once, and in Water Margin he played one of those who join the outlaws of Mount Liangshan. Hong Kong filmmakers recognized him as a master of fist fighting. Chen fought Jet Li in Fearless, and after the release of Ip Man, according to him, audiences began calling him Master Liao. Liao has only a few scenes in the film, and Chen shows how differently the same fighter carries himself depending on whom and why he has to fight.

Chen Zhi-Hui was born in Chengde, a city in the north of Hebei Province. According to a biographical note on Sina, as a teenager he joined the city's song-and-dance troupe, performed in dance productions and won a prize at a national competition. There too, in Chengde, he spent some time studying at a medical school, and in 1986 he enrolled in the acting department of the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. He trained extensively in martial arts, was skilled with the sword and sat a horse well. Of all the styles of bare-hand fighting, shaobeiquan captivated him most. In cinema this training came in useful fairly early, though by Chen's own recollection he was at first more often required to show dramatic skill.

On television Chen was noticed in Romance of Three Kingdoms (1994), China Central Television's 84-episode adaptation of the novel by Luo Guan-Zhong. The cast was vast, but Chen was given several utterly different roles at once. He played Liao Hua, one of the generals of the kingdom of Shu, Taishi Ci, a commander in the service of Sun Ce, and in several episodes Xu Chu, the bodyguard of Cao Cao. This is the very Xu Chu who, in the heat of his duel with Ma Chao, tears off his armour and fights on bare-chested. Four years later, in another major adaptation of a Chinese classic, Water Margin (1998), Chen played Yang Xiong. This time his character, a prison executioner who joins the outlaws after killing his wife, had a storyline of his own. Much later Chen was reunited with his Romance of Three Kingdoms colleagues when the actors were brought together on television for the series' 25th anniversary.

In the early 2000s Chen worked extensively in historical series. On the shoot of The Country's Granary (2002), where he played Zhou Zhong, he also had occasion to serve as assistant director. In The Story of Han Dynasty (2006) Chen played Ji Bu, a commander who survives the fall of his lord Xiang Yu and enters the service of his conqueror. Chen appeared in the same role in several separate television films about the war over the Qin Empire's inheritance, including Banquet at Hongmen (2005). Another of his notable television works from those years is Qi Jiguang in Da Ming Wang Chao 1566 (2007). While the court of the Jiajing Emperor is consumed by a struggle for power, Chen's commander wages war on pirates along the coast. In time Chen played fighting men so often that, beyond historical series, he became known as an actor skilled in martial arts.

For Fearless (2006) Chen auditioned for the role of Huo Yuan-Jia's father. To make the audition he took leave from a shoot in Wuxi and travelled to Beijing. First he demonstrated the liuhebafa form, then, at a second meeting, shaobeiquan as well. Director Ronny Yu ultimately offered Chen the part of Master Qin, the protagonist's rival. In the big restaurant fight he and Jet Li use weapons and whatever else comes to hand. According to an account of the shoot, a blade caught Chen across the bridge of the nose, and in the remaining shots he appears with the cut. Master Qin is on screen only briefly, but the duel with him comes at the middle of the film and changes Huo's entire life. After Fearless, Hong Kong filmmakers began inviting Chen more often.

In 2008, three of Chen's films with Hong Kong stars came out at once. In An Empress and the Warriors he worked for the first time with Donnie Yen, and in Three Kingdoms: Resurrection of the Dragon by Daniel Lee he once again found himself in the Three Kingdoms era, this time playing Zhang Fei. In Ip Man by Wilson Yip, Chen played the head of a martial arts school in Foshan. Master Liao comes to Ip Man to test his skill and asks to fight behind closed doors so that the students won't learn the outcome of the bout. From the seriousness with which Chen plays this scene, it's clear how much Liao values his good name in the small town. Ip Man happens to be having lunch with his family and invites Liao to the table. While the guest who has come to fight sedately eats with everyone else, his visit takes on a completely different character. After the bout, Ip Man promises to keep the outcome of the fight secret. In occupied Foshan, Liao steps into the ring again, this time for a bag of rice. Chen barely changes his character's bearing, and so it's especially noticeable how little is left of his hero's former life.

Ip Man was hard on him. Chen recounted how during the shooting of one scene he took a blow to the chin from Donnie Yen, and during another he caught a kick from Fan Siu-Wong and fell. The most serious was an injury to his left arm. A few days after the hospital, Chen returned to the set, where he was to raise that very arm. He finished the scene, and after shooting wrapped he spent another three months recovering. Soon Chen was on set with Yen again. In 14 Blades (2010) he played White Tiger, one of the four fighters of the imperial guard. According to Chen, White Tiger had very few lines, but the actor got to work with the blade to his heart's content. He recalled demonstrating various attack and defense techniques on a patch of ground about a square meter in size. And in The Legend Is Born - Ip Man (2010), Chen appeared as the father of the young Ip Man.

On television he continued to be entrusted with roles for which combat experience alone would not have been enough. In The Qin Empire (2009), Chen played Hou Ying, an elderly gatekeeper whose counsel the lord of the state of Wei heeds. And in Zhang Ji-Zhong's Journey to the West (2012) he donned the horns of the Bull Demon King. One of his few leading roles in film came in The Promised One (2016). Director Sang Lin and his colleagues conceived a series of films about different schools of Chinese boxing and were looking for actors who had themselves practiced martial arts. Chen played Master Dong Yuntang, who stages a contest to choose his last disciple. By this time Chen was also involved in the work of the national council for shaobeiquan, so the concerns of a master who was to pass on his art were familiar to him off set as well.

Chen still alternates television with film. In the historical The Qin Empire (2020) he was given the role of the old general Lian Po, and in Dynasty Warriors (2021), adapted from a Japanese video game, he returned to the Three Kingdoms, now as Wang Kuang. In the action comedy Second Life (2024) he played Second Uncle, and in the spring of 2026 he was shooting in Shandong on the film Boy of the Great River (大河少年). There, in Dongming County, he also appeared in a short video for the local police about phone scammers. Even after shooting Ip Man, Chen said he would like to stay in cinema and choreograph fight scenes once he has less strength for fighting. On screen he has since managed to play quite a few old teachers and military commanders.