The Chinese entertainment media today is full of obituaries and tributes to the life and career of Xiang Kun (项堃), the principal bad guy in several major Chinese movies of the 1950s and early 60s. Xiang died on February 15 in Beijing of a heart attack, aged 94.
Xiang Kun was born Wang Xiangkun (王象坤) in 1915 in Wuqiao, Hebei. He majored in physical education at Jinan Normal School, and after graduating in 1935 studied for a year at the National Dramatic Institute in Nanjing. In 1937 he joined a traveling perfomance troupe as an actor, and later became head of its theater division, directing as well as acting. In the late 1930s, this troupe traveled to Singapore and Malaysia giving performances advocating resistance to the Japanese. In 1940, Xiang became one of China's actors-in-exile in Chongqing and appeared in numerous resistance and morale-building plays and two movies during the war. It was during the making of his first film in 1940, "Qingnian Zhongguo" 青年中国 (Young China) that he met his future wife, actress Ruan Fei (阮斐) who predeceased him. In 1947 the couple joined the Shanghai Film Studio and began what for Xiang Kun became a 40-year career.
In his early film roles, Xiang Kun had played romantic male leads, but after the establishment of the People's
Republic the course of Chinese movies changed sharply. In keeping with Chairman Mao's dictum that "the purpose of art is to serve politics", the movies of the 1950s all carried political messages the new government and the party wanted to convey to the public. Xiang Kun's athletic build and rugged good looks led to his being typecast as negative characters, such as high-ranking Nationalist Army officers during the late 1940s civil war that brought the Communists to power, or as reactionary capitalist business tycoons exploiting the workers and resisting reforms. A talented and well-trained actor, he was always believable in his roles, and like Wang Xianzhai in an earlier era, it seemed that no two of his villains were exactly the same.
[upper right, 'Commander Zhang', the role for which Xiang Kun is probably most remembered]
In discussing his art, he also sounded like a method actor, although not exactly expressing it that way. In an interview, Xiang Kun once explained his acting approach this way: "I always try to get into my character's inner nature, to understand his motivation for doing the things he does, so that his actions seem to flow naturally from that nature. If it doesn't seem natural for him to do what he's doing, then it would be a disservice to the audience". He also said then that he didn't resent being cast so often as the heavy, because of the challenge of portraying someone so different in character than himself. "Any actor can just play himself". His three roles which were most critically acclaimed at the time, and most enduring in the public memory were ironically the ones that led to his later troubles. These were: 1952's "Nan Zheng Bei Zhan" 南征北战 (Fighting North and South), in which he left a deep impression as "Commander Zhang", a Nationalist officer; 1962's "Tingzhan Yihou" 停战以后 (After the Ceasefire), in which he played a treacherous Nationalist delegate to the 1946 US-brokered peace talks; and 1965's "Liehuo Zhong Yong Sheng" 烈火中永生 (Immortality Amidst Raging Flames), again as a nasty enemy officer during the civil war. The believability of his negative characters came back to haunt him, as he was unjustly accused of being a counter-revolutionary during both the "Anti-Rightist" campaign of the late 1950s, and again during the Cultural Revolution a decade later. In the latter case, his portrayal of "reactionaries" on screen were offered up as evidence of his true nature and beliefs, that he wasn't acting. He was able to survive the years of persecution through the love and loyalty of his wife and children. (Xiang and Ruan's love story through years of war and political persecution would make a good movie itself, and might be the topic of a future article in this space.)
After the Cultural Revolution, Xiang Kun resumed his movie career, and became increasingly involved with television in the 1980s. His last big screen credit was in 1985, but he continued in television until he retired in 1988. In retirement, Xiang served as a consultant to SARFT, the Chinese government agency that oversees television broadcasting. But he spent most of his time indulging his first love: sports. A lifelong fan, he traveled to sports events of all types, including the Seoul Olympics in 1988. When he grew too old to travel, he continued his hobby via TV. As he put it, "During the Doha Asian Games [in 2006] I must have spent every day in front of the TV". He was delighted at the international attention Chinese athletes were gaining on the international stage, and China as the host nation for last summer's Olympics was naturally a cause for celebration.
It is ironic that someone who lived through years of war would be typecast as military characters. Xiang Kun had many bad memories of both World War II and the civil conflict which followed it. People who knew him said that whenever issues of war and peace came up, a look of deep sadness would come over his usually stoic face. He once related one wartime experience:
"A few days after our first son was born, the Japanese began a massive bombing raid. We hurried to the air raid shelter, but with my wife still recovering, and with the baby, we couldn't move too fast. When we got there the shelter was jammed full and we couldn't get in. With nowhere to go, all we could do was huddle together at the entrance. The Japanese bombed around the clock, 24 hours. We survived somehow, but when the bombing stopped came another horror: as people began coming out of the shelter, they found that many of those inside had suffocated. So we joined the other survivors in helping to carry out the dead. Young, old, children, babies, it was horrible. It's hard for someone today to even imagine something like that, but someone who lived through it can never forget.
That's why I love sports so much. I believe strongly in the power of athletic competition to bring people together. And it's why, when I was asked to autograph and write something for a souvenir book before the Beijing Olympics, I wrote: 'Lasting peace is the wish of all mankind!' That's something I believe very strongly."
Xiang Kun, actor; born Wuqiao, Hebei, China, 1 December 1915; married Ruan Fei, actress (deceased, 1990; two sons, one daughter, seven grandchildren); died 15 February 2009, Beijing, China.
