Although she had a highly successful film career, Xuan Jinglin (宣景林) had a very bad start in life, with a sad and bitter childhood. She was born in Shanghai, the youngest of six children (five girls and one boy) of a newspaper deliveryman. The father died when she was four months old, leaving his widow and children, already poor, in desperate straits. The only income they had was what little money her uncles, the mother's brothers, were able to give them. Jinglin received some education when a school operated by a Christian church waived the tuition for her to attend classes. But this also turned out to be a bad experience for the little girl, as her affluent classmates teased her unmercifully about her family's poverty and her hand-me-down clothes, and she often came home in tears. When the uncles died one after another, Xuan Jinglin's mother had no recourse but to sell her youngest daughter to a brothel, in effect sentencing her to an abysmal, and probably short, life of degradation. Jinglin suffered this existence for some years, dreaming of escape. She thought her dream had come true when one of her clients fell for her. This young man was Wang Gongzi, scion of a wealthy shipowning family, and although he wanted to marry her, his father resolutely opposed his son marrying a prostitute. Her hopes for a normal future dashed, Jinglin returned to the brothel.
But fate suddenly gave her a second chance. In 1925, China's
national film industry was developing rapidly, and the numerous movie
studios popping up in Shanghai were in urgent need of talent. Someone,
perhaps a considerate client, introduced the attractive teenager to
writer/director Zheng Zhengqiu,
who as chance would have it was looking for someone to fill a
supporting role in an upcoming film, a pretty girl, but one who could
project a villainous nature. After interviewing Xuan Jinglin he cast
her in the role, a one-movie deal. Although the film, "The Last
Conscience" has been lost, we know from contemporary reviews that her
character was that of a backbiting, conniving and rude sister-in-law.
We also know her success was such that on Zheng Zhengqiu's
recommendation the Mingxing studio signed her to a 3-year contract. She had important roles in
four more movies in 1925, and was well-received by audiences, so much
so that when in 1926 the "New World" magazine of Shanghai held a reader
vote for the "Empresses of Film," Xuan Jinglin was voted one of the
"Four Great Ingenues" of Chinese film, along with Zhang Zhiyun, Yang
Naimei and Wang Hanlun. The unwilling teenage brothel inmate had at last escaped the abyss.
In her first two years in movies, Xuan Jinglin held leading roles in more than 10 films, usually playing ingénues or young married women. But in her last film of 1926, director Zhang Shichuan cast her as an old woman, a successful bit of creative casting which in hindsight probably made the difference between Xuan having a relatively short movie career as an ingénue and a much longer one as a character actress. In 1931, Xuan made another successful transition, moving from Mingxing to the Tianyi film studio to play the lead in a sound film, "Spring Comes on Stage," a backstage romance patterned after American musicals, with musical performances interspersed between romantic and comedy scenes. It created a public sensation. (Technically, this was not a sound film as we came to know the term: the soundtrack was recorded on wax disks, with music and dialogue synchronized with the action onscreen.)
Late on the night of September 18, 1931, the Japanese army in Manchuria blew up a train, creating what came to be known as the Mukden Incident and giving their army an excuse to make further inroads into Chinese territory. To divert international attention from their incursions into Manchuria, on January 28, 1932 the Japanese army opened a second front at Shanghai. As fighting around Shanghai continued, the film industry shut down for a time, and with no work to do, Xuan organized the "Xuan Jinglin Road Company," which traveled throughout China giving musical and classical opera performances. The following year, she resumed her movie career with Mingxing, acting the lead in more than 10 films for that studio over the next two years. Notable among these is the sound film "Twin Sisters" and its lost sequel "Sisters Reborn," in both of which she played the mother of the sisters (Hu Die in an historic dual role.) So many early Chinese films have been lost that this is believed to be the only complete Xuan Jinglin performance left to us from her early career.
[left, In a dual role, Hu Die plays the "Twin Sisters" while Xuan Jinglin as their mother sits between them. At the time of filming, Xuan was 26, one year older than her "daughters"]
Xuan Jinglin was not obsessed with stardom, but her impoverished early years understandably led to frugality: while she carefully saved her earnings from filmmaking for eventual retirement, and made regular repayment on the debts she owed the brothel owners dating back to her days as a prostitute, there was still a large balance outstanding. Somehow, her debtors found out about her secret retirement fund, and had the legal power to confiscate not only her savings, but her entire estate as well. But when Zheng Zhengqiu learned of this, he dipped into the Mingxing studio's funds to buy back her freedom, and moreover wrote the screenplay for a film, "Shanghai Woman," about the life of a former prostitute, and asked Xuan Jinglin to act the title role. She accepted, and drawing on her personal experience gave a performance which wowed audiences, and reaffirmed that Xuan Jinglin was a major movie star.
At this point, her old lover Wang Gongzi reentered her life, still unmarried and still in love with her. Having taken over the family shipping business, he was now financially independent and free to marry whomever he chose. However, Wang's father, the family patriarch, was still unaccepting of her, and while now powerless to stop the the wedding, he forbade her ever entering the Wang family home, still his domain, and discouraged other family members from accepting her. These familial pressures, combined with Xuan Jinglin's decision to continue her movie career, put considerable stress on the marriage. In addition, there were various rumors and gossip throughout film circles and the press. The couple began having conflicts and finally separated.
It may or may not have been due to the breakup, but although still only in her late 20s Xuan Jinglin frequently fell ill, and her looks began fading rapidly. In any case, the film offers stopped coming in, and she retired from the movie scene at the age of 29. She later remarried, but unfortunately her second husband, while wealthy, was a lazy and indolent man who only wanted to spend his inheritance.
After the founding of the People's Republic in 1949, Xuan Jinglin's career had a resurgence, with stage performances in Shanghai and a succession of movies, her first in more than a decade. She joined the Shanghai Film Studio, and made five films for that company in the 1950s. Her last screen appearance was in 1964. She died on January 22, 1992, age 84.
Xuan Jinglin was a first generation Chinese film actress, with more than 40 movies in her career filmography. She played tragic figures, hopeful figures, loose-living playgirls and oppressed women at the lower depths of society. Contemporary reviews and articles indicate she was believable in each, but only "Twin Sisters" survives for us to see for ourselves.
[Editor's note: In her book An Amorous History of the Silver Screen (U of Chicago Press, 2005), New York University professor Zhang Zhen notes that the second part of Xuan Jinglin's 1931 movie of this name still exists in part and has been shown at film festivals. Thanks to reader William H. Drew for pointing this out.]
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Filmography:
1964:
Family Problems
1959:
Fragrance in the Air
The Underground War
1958:
Beside the Sanba River
1956:
Family
1936:
Tears of Blood in the Dance Hall
1935:
A Big Family
1934:
Homesick
A Brief Life
A Woman's Life
Sisters Reborn
1933:
Twin Sisters
Two Against One
The Future
Mother and Son
1932:
A Married Woman
1931:
Last Love
Shanghai Woman
Farewell to the Beauty
A Couple Through Life and Death
Spring Comes on Stage
Shadow on the Window
1930:
A Dissolute Woman
Mother From a Brothel
1928:
The Young Mistress's Fan
1927:
Real and True Daughters
Fallen Plum Blossoms
1926:
He Wants an Heir
Nameless Hero
A Good Man
The Rich Man's Daughter
A Lovelorn Actress
1925:
The Last Conscience
The Newlyweds' Family
Little Friends
A Pitiful Girl
