By Ian Kirby
Daily Post
May 5 1996
THE city that has stood in for Cairo, Moscow, Dublin and London got to play itself yesterday.
The city has so many landmarks which cry out Liverpool that it is fast developing reputation among filmmakers as a versatile actor in its own right.
Cameras were on the streets again yesterday a Liverpool's Chinese community came under the spotlight.
Actresses in slinky Chinese silk and high heels, men with floodlights and an entourage of make-u- artists, sound crews and extras brought city center traffic to a stand still.
The popular Golden Phoenix restaurant on Hanover Street was the center of attention as it was transformed into a film set for the day.
The crew was in town at the stat of a fortnight's filming for a new feature film, Peggy Su! The film follows the fortunes of a young girl living with her brother and his wife in a Chinese laundry n the 1960?s Liverpool.
The spent a hectic 14-hour day shooting one of the film?s key scenes ? a confrontation in a restaurant over an arranged marriage ? inside the Golden Phoenix.
It was only the beginning of a 13-month production schedule which could end with the film being presented at the Cannes Film Festival next year.
Contrast
For Peggy Su! Author Kevin Wong, spending a day on set was a sharp contrast to his normal job of working for the Liverpool office of the National Association for the Care and Rehabilitation of Offenders.
His father came to Liverpool at the age of five from the Guangzhon province of South West China and Kevin grew up in a Chinese laundry, giving him the inspiration for his first feature film.
He said: "The film is a romantic comedy that puts the Chinese people in Liverpool in a historical contest. I wanted to write about life in a laundry because you don't see them any longer and that cultural history is very important."
Producers Colin Rogers and Poonam Sharma said they were spending over a quarter of his 1.2m budget in the city. They had both been delighted with the interest people had shown.
Poonam said: We are shooting most of the exterior scene in Liverpool and then moving to London where we have built a set for inside the laundry.
