Kaige's other films include Killing Me Softly and Temptress Moon

Chen Kaige's 1993 drama about Beijing opera performers came top in a survey to mark 100 years of Chinese cinema.

The film's late star Leslie Cheung was voted most popular actor, beating such martial arts icons as Jackie Chan, Jet Li and Bruce Lee.

John Woo was named best director in the survey, which received more than 25,000 votes from the Hong Kong public.

Farewell My Concubine won the Palme d'Or at the 1993 Cannes film festival and was nominated for the best foreign film award at the 1994 Oscars.

Maggie Cheung, whose performance as a recovering drug addict in Clean won her a best actress prize at Cannes last year, was voted the century's most popular actress in the poll, organised by the Hong Kong arts organisation Henderson ArtReach.

Maggie Cheung was named best actress at Cannes last year for Clean

Wong Kar-Wai's 1991 romance Days of Being Wild was voted second most popular film, followed by Woo's 1986 action movie A Better Tomorrow.

The films were part of a shortlist of 103 Chinese features drawn up by industry experts and film-makers in March this year.

Leslie Cheung, who also appeared in A Better Tomorrow, died after falling from the 24th floor of a luxury hotel in Hong Kong in April 2003.