[The following is an abridged and slightly revised translation of: Tong, Yabian 佟娅蝙. "Zhongguo zaoqi dianying zhong de ertong mingxing" 中国早期电影中的儿童明星 (Early Chinese Cinema's Child Stars). Popular Cinema No.12 (2004): 42-43.]
Leafing through the pages of Chinese movie magazines from the 1920s and 30s, one often sees pictures of the child stars of that era. These young performers played key roles in many of that era's movies, and with their simple nature, innocent vivacity and appealing appearance, they made significant contributions to China's cinema development, and to the audiences' enjoyment of their films. Like precocious children in any field, some went on to productive careers in adulthood while others burned out at a relatively early age, and some met tragic ends.
The first Chinese juvenile star was Dan Erchun, the nephew of the Shanghai Shadow Play Company's
founder, Dan Duyu. When Dan Duyu began work on what would be his new company's first film, 《The Sea Oath》," the script he had written included a key supporting role for a child actor. Without a pool of child actors to draw on, the director filled the role with his own nephew Erchun, who was 6 or 7 years old at the time. Although the youngster had no previous acting experience (something he shared with most of the film's cast and crew), he drew audiences' attention by his impish and mischievous expressions. This initial success led to Dan Erchun's playing the title role in a comedy short the next year, 《Naughty Child》. This short film also marked the first page in China's history of children's movies, and Dan Erchun seems to have been perfect for the role: while these early films are all lost, his still photos that remain show he had a naturally naughty look that appealed to Chinese audiences. But he apparently developed a star's ego at an early age: according to one account, once during outdoor filming in a rural area, he suddenly stopped in the middle of a scene and declared he was too hungry to continue, and would not go on unless he was fed. Not only fed, but given cream cakes to eat, and nothing else would do. But where could they find cream cakes in a rural village? The only resolution was for a member of the crew to drive back into the city and buy some cream cakes. After a lengthy break waiting for the cakes to arrive, the little star was fed, and filming continued. It didn't matter to audiences, who praised the little star when the film was released. About that time, the Shanghai newspaper "Shen Bao" dubbed Dan Erchun "China's Jackie Coogan". (At the time, 《The Kid》"， with Coogan and Charlie Chaplin, was drawing record audiences in Chinese movie houses.) After this, Dan Erchun made three more films, then left the movie profession.
The next child star was Zheng Xiaoqiu, the eldest son of legendary First Generation writer-director Zheng Zhengqiu, and a figure we have discussed before.
[left, Li Keng]
Another child star who proved popular with audiences was Li Keng, the son of a famous movie couple, director/cinematographer Li Minwei, the father of Hong Kong movies, and A-list leading lady Lin Chuchu. Li Keng made his first screen appearance at age 3, and was an acting veteran by the time he made 《Goddess》with legendary star Ruan Lingyu, playing the son of a single mother who becomes a streetwalker to get her child an education. After several more acting roles in the 1930s, Li Keng moved to Hong Kong with his family during World War II, then after the war returned to China to make a few more movies, before joining the Zhujiang 珠江 [Pearl River] Film Studio in 1958 as an assistant and associate director. He seemed on the road to a successful new career in movies when he died suddenly in 1965, age 37.
In the 1930s American child star Shirley Temple had become very popular with Chinese filmgoers, so it was only a short time before a Chinese studio came up with a domestic counterpart. The first little girl chosen for stardom was Hu Rongrong 胡蓉蓉, another child from an artistic family 
background. Her elder brother Hu Xinling 胡心灵 was involved in the arts, and his wife was Gong Qiuxia 龚秋霞, a famous actress and singer. Hu Rongrong began ballet training at age 5, and grew up a very delicate and pretty girl, accomplished at both singing and dancing. In 1936, her brother started the Wenhua (Culture) Film Company, and cast his wife and little sister in the studio's first picture, "Fumu Zinü" 父母子女 《Family Members》, in which she performed a musical number that led audiences to dub her "China's Shirley Temple". She made a few more movies before the war, including a key role in the 1937 tragicomedy 《New Year's Money》. After the war, she concentrated on arts education, as a teacher and later administrator or consultant for Shanghai art institutes, an organizer for various arts festivals and events, and served as writer and director for several ballet versions of such modern Chinese film classics as 《The White-Haired Girl》 and 《Thunderstorm》. In the 1980s, as China opened up to cultural contacts abroad, she was active in orrganizing exchanges with ballet companies in Japan, the United States and other countries. She is still living, and will turn 80 this year.
But not every successful child star of the era was the product of a show business background, and instead entered films by chance. One example of this was Chen Juanjuan 陈娟娟. Chen was born into 
an ordinary working-class family, but her father died shortly after her birth, so she was largely raised by her grandmother as her mother worked to support them. In 1936, at the age of 7, she was discovered by chance by a film director visiting her school, and had important roles in two 1936 movies, "Xiao Gunü 小孤女 《A Little Orphan Girl》 and "Mitu de Gaoyang" 迷途的羔羊 《Lost Lambs》. After the Japanese invasion of Shanghai in 1937, she joined a drama troupe which presented pro-resistance plays in Southeast Asia and Hong Kong. She returned to Shanghai after the war, making several movies, then moved to Hong Kong in 1949 and became a mainstay leading lady of HK films through the 1950s and 60s. At the end of the 1960s she turned to directing, making two features and several documentaries. She died of a heart attack in 1976, age 47. [above left, Chen Juanjuan as a child star]
[right, Chen Juanjuan as a young adult actress] 
The last child star of the classical era had a very sad end. Ge Zuozhi 葛佐治 was Eurasian, the child of a Spanish father and a Chinese mother. After the mother died, the little boy accompanied his father to Hong Kong, where the father not only unexpectedly remarried, he refused to raise and support his son. The boy became a "wild child" 野孩子, a vagrant street kid. He was spotted by director Moon Kwan [Guan Wenqing 关文清] who cast him in the 1934 silent "Hei Xin Fu" 黑心符 《The Black Hearted》. This led to Shanghai director Wu Yonggang bringing the boy back to Shanghai to appear in "Xiao Tianshi" 小天使 《Little Angel》 in 1935, and then in Cai Chusheng's 《Lost Lambs》 the following year, ironically about the desperate plight of homeless orphans. Prospects seemed to be looking up for the abandoned 
child, as he appeared in four more films in 1936-37, but when the Japanese invasion shut down filmmaking in Shanghai it all came to an end. Ge Zuozhi made his way back to Hong Kong, but his job opportunitiess were so bleak he again became unemployed and homeless, leading a miserable life which ended in his death on the streets, a tragic end to a young life doomed from the start.
[Ge Zuozhi]
