The Chinese Mirror

Zheng Jiduo (? - ?)

    Beyond his film credits, nothing is recorded concerning the life and career of Zheng Jiduo, except that
like his fellow actor Jin Yan, Zheng Jiduo 郑基锋 [Korean:  Chung Ki-Tak] was a Korean, although he never attained anything like Jin's movie fame.  Zheng Jiduo joined the Da Zhonghua Baihe studio in 1928 as an actor and director, specializing in action-adventure films.  When Ruan Lingyu joined the studio in 1929, he co-starred with her in three films.  Zheng's next few years are unrecorded:  although he was not among the many Da Zhonghua Baihe personnel who moved to the new Lianhua studio when it was formed by merger in 1930, Zheng did join Lianhua in 1933 to direct two films, the last in 1934 with Ruan as the female lead.  All of Zheng's films were silents, and while there is no hard evidence of it, it may have been that as a native speaker of another language, Zheng was a victim of advancing technology:  while Jin Yan had grown up in China and spoke flawless Mandarin, Zheng's language skills may have been insufficient to meet the demands of sound production.

Filmography:

1928:
Patriotic Souls                             (director, actor)
Three and One                            (director, actor)
Martian Blades                            (director)

1929:
Women Pirates                           (director, writer, actor)
Flowers of the Screen                 (director, actor)
Passion's Precious Mirror              (actor)

1930:
The Pearl Cap                            (actor)
Smashing Nine Dragon Mountain  (actor)
Burning of Nine Dragon Mountain (actor)

1933:
The Way Out (aka Shining Path)  (director)

1934:
Good Bye! Shanghai                     (director, writer) 

Gu Menghe (? - ?)

    Although never a major star, Gu Menghe 顾梦鹤 was a respected supporting player and occasional lead in some of the best films of Chinese cinema's golden age.  Gu was a stage and Shanghai opera performer who entered motion pictures with Chenzhong (Morning Bell), a minor Shanghai studio that ceased operations after one picture, after which he moved to Li Minwei's Minxin studio to act in《Three Years After》, directed by Ouyang Yuqian, with Gu also the assistant director.  That same year he joined the Nanguo (Southern) Cinema Society to act in Tian Han's unfinished《Go to the People》.  In 1927 he acted the lead in the Great Wall studio's《The Arrow of Hatred》and an action film,《Shi Xiu Kills His Sister-in-Law》.  After a six-year hiatus from films, he returned to the screen with the Lianhua studio, appearing in《New Women》with Ruan Lingyu.  He made several films for the Diantong (Denton) studio, then for the Xinhua (New China) studio during Shanghai's "Orphan Island" era.  He returned to filmmaking after World War 2, and after the founding of the People's Republic he was assigned to a Shanghai opera troupe, directing productions of that school of opera.

Filmography (actor, unless otherwise noted):

1925:  
Regrets

1926:
Three Years After (also assistant director) 
Go to the People (unfinished) 

1927:
The Arrow of Hatred 
Shi Xiu Kills His Sister-in-Law (aka Mount Cuipin) 

1928:
Wu Song Sheds Blood in Mandarin Duck Tower

1934:
New Women

1935:
Four Sisters
A Beacon for Autumn Leaves
Children of the Storm
Spirit of Liberty
Cityscape
Peach Blossom Fan

1936: 
A Night of Madness

1937:
Song at Midnight 

1938:
Pirates of the Yellow Sea
Night of Terror
Sunrise
Unexpected Tears of Blood
Save Her Mother 

1948:
Destruction
The Man Who Sold His Own Shadow
A Burglar With a Sense of Justice
Blood
Splash Sisters
A Distressful Love Story
He Killed His Wife

1949: 
Coming Generations
Green Mountain and Verdurous Valley
Awakening
Intelligence Stars
The Thief and Her Daughter 

Shang Guanwu (? - 1938)

    Shang Guanwu 尚冠武 (? -1938) was an early Chinese film actor who specialized in negative roles.  His father had a very large business, but the son rejected the chance to take it over.  Although ambitious, Guanwu wanted to get away from relying on family connections to make his own way.  After he decided on an acting career he began in movies in 1926 with the Youlian (Friendship) Film Company, making his screen debut with a major supporting role in the first episode of 1927's《Heroic Son and Daughter》.

    He appeared in various martial arts films over the rest of the decade, quickly becoming typecast in such roles as evil landlords, gang bosses or collaborationist traitors.  (His character in《The Big Road》was all three.)  In 1934, he joined the Lianhua studio, appearing in several of China's screen classics of the 1930s.  Although his characters continued to be villains, he was cast against type in 1935's《Song of China》as a loving but rigidly traditional Confucian family patriarch.  Shang Guanwu's last film was 1938's《Sunrise》, and by now his acting had developed to the point he was getting approving critical notices, standing out even as a supporting player.  In early 1938 Shang was married to a young woman named Yin Yueqin 殷月琴, the niece of Shang's fellow screen "heavy" Yin Xiucen, who we will discuss in a future post.   Shang took some time off after the wedding, returning to work in the summer of 1938.  But sadly, as he was working on a sound remake of the silent martial arts classic《Four Heroes of the Wang Family》he was stricken with typhoid, and died shortly after, in August, 1938.  Records do not indicate his age at time of death, but he was probably in his early to mid-30s.
____________________

Filmography (as actor, unless noted otherwise):

1927:
Heroic Son and Daughter, I (aka Thirteenth Sister Smashes the Nengren Temple)

1929:
Heroic Son and Daughter, III (Thirteenth Sister Disturbs the White Cloud Convent) 
A Narrow Escape
Red Butterfly, II
Red Knight Errant, I (also assistant director)
Burning of Winding Temple, I, II
The Final Verdict (aka A Narrow Escape, II 
A Giant Kingdom 

1930:
Swordswoman of Huangjiang, I-VII, (actor in parts I-III, director of parts I-VI, VII)
Heroic Son and Daughter, IV (aka Thirteenth Sister Destroys the Zhang Clan's Fortress)
Red Knight Errant, II
Evil Shadows in the Temple

1931:
Murder in the Dance Hall (aka Dancer's Blood)
One Full Moon
Heroic Son and Daughter, V (aka Thirteenth Sister Destroys Fuhu Ridge)
Swordswoman of Huangjiang VIII   (also director)

1932:
Gallant Woman

1933:
Southern Swallow
Stirrings of Love

1934:
Song of the Fishermen
Homecoming
The Big Road

1935:
Song of China
Four Sisters
A Hero of Our Time
Shadows

1936:
Bloodshed on Wolf Mountain
Girl in an Isolated City

1937:
Story of Loyalty on a Northern Battlefield
Song of a Kind Mother (aka Mother's Song)
Lianhua Symphony, episode 7:  Wild Rhapsody
Artistic Scene, episode 1:  Cinema City
So Busy
The Lost Pearl
Secret Code 

1938:
Sunrise 

Lin Yongrong (1900-1954)

[left, Lin Yongrong in later life, about 1950]    

    Unlike the career patterns of other Chinese screen comics we have discussed, Lin Yongrong's differed in two respects.  First, he was not a supporting comic actor, a buffoonish clown providing comedy relief; rather, he was a handsome leading man with comedic gifts, as adept at romancing his leading lady as he was at getting laughs.  Second, although his 1925 screen debut created a sensation with audiences, and for the next two decades he was one of Shanghai's most popular performers, Lin made only two more movies before leaving the screen forever, choosing to walk away and concentrate on the stage, in additon to later becoming one of China's first singing stars of the early recording era.

[right, in《The Flirting Scholar》(1927), Lin Yongrong as Tang Bohu pursues Qiuxiang (Chen Yumei), who seems rather dubious.  Click on image to enlarge.]

    Lin Yongrong 林雍荣 was born in Tangqiao, near Suzhou, Jiangsu in 1900.  His motion picture debut was in《Heroine Li Feifei》, opposite two leading ladies, early martial arts heroines Fen Juhua (in the title role), and Wu Suxin.  As mentioned earlier, he was a great success in that first effort, and while he might have had an outstanding movie career, he devoted himself to stage work.  He amassed over 30 theater credits by the time he died in 1954.  His daughter Lin Yanyu 林燕玉 carried on his comic tradition, becoming one of the mainstays of the famous Shanghai Comedy Troupe.

[right, an advertisement from the February 7, 1926 issue of the Shen Bao newspaper of Shanghai, announcing that night's opening of a "comedy stage show," starring Lin Yongrong, "the world's merriest man."  An indicator of Lin's popularity and drawing power is that the largest characters in the ad are those for Lin's name, at the bottom of the notice.]
**** 
Filmography (all as actor):

1925:
Heroine Li Feifei  ... Hong Yulin

1926:
The Flirting Scholar ... Tang Bohu

1928:
Burning of Red Lotus Temple ... 

 

Chen Yitang (? - ?)

    Nothing is recorded about the origins and early life of Chen Yitang 陈一棠, but it is known that after the merger of the Da Zhonghua and the Baihe studios, the resulting financial infusion brought in new talent and Chen, who had a stage background, was one of these newcomers.  He began his movie career in 1927, in a supporting role in《Pitiful Qiuxiang》.  During this initial phase, he was usually cast in soap opera-type melodramas, and whether the leading man or a major supporting role his characters usually had a dark edge to them, with personality characteristics that made life difficult for all concerned, especially the heroine. During his Da Zhonghua Baihe era, he was often cast opposite Li Minghui or Tang Tianxiu.  When the studio's financial difficulties forced it to cease operations, he moved over to the Tianyi studio.  His movie career declined in the early 1930s, when audience tastes turned away from "Mandarin ducks and butterflies" ancient costume romances to martial arts fantasies, the same change in taste that ended the careers of other handsome but not macho leading men (e.g. Zhu Fei).  On top of his being typecast as negative characters, this was too much, and Chen Yitang decided he'd had enough.  After free-lancing for a few minor studios in the early 1930s, he disappeared from the screen, and went back to the stage, although he appeared in a few movies during Shanghai's WWII "Orphan Island" era.

Filmography (all as actor)

1927:
Pitiful Qiuxiang
Dream of Red Mansions
1928:
Shadow of a Demon in the Imperial Palace
A Complicated Plot pts.1,2
1929:
Kisses Once
1930:
Elder Brother's Romance
1932:
Fallen Angel
1933:
Scenes of Shanghai
1937:
Shatter and Batter
1940:
The Golden Hairpin
1941:
A String of Pearls

You Guangzhao (1908-1967)

 
  You Guangzhao 尤光照 (Cantonese:  Yiu Kwang-chao) was a native of Nanjing, Jiangsu, born there on March 30, 1908. He displayed an early talent for comedy, and made his movie debut in《Red Girl》(1925) for the Langhua film company.  After concentrating on stage work in the late 1920s he returned to the screen in 1930 with the Tianyi studio, appearing in its popular 3-part series《Yang Naiwu》alongside such other comic actors of the day as Zhou Kongkong and Qin Haha.   He continued to concentrate on stage work until 1935, when he joined the Mingxing studio.  In addition to comic roles, he was also cast as the occasional "heavy" in crime films. 

[right, in《New and Old Shanghai》(1936) with Yuan Shaomei.  Click on any picture to enlarge.] 

    During World War II he worked for several "Orphan Island" studios, and became a favorite of Shanghai audiences as the title character in the "Doctor Li" series of comedies.  Although silly, with absurd plots, they were hits with filmgoers hungry for distraction from the war.

[below left, in 1937's《Heaven and Earth in a Dream》You Guangzhao played a (for him) uncharacteristic role as a thug.  Here he is menacing a damsel, in this case Shu Xiuwen]

     After the war, You Guangzhao resumed his career in Shanghai until 1948, when he moved to Hong Kong and continued in movies there until his death from a heart attack on August 16, 1967.  He appeared in more than 200 films during his career.

 

 

[right, hanging out on the set with Chen Yanyan.  Picture undated, but probably from about 1950, when both had relocated to Hong Kong]

Filmography (Shanghai only):

1925:
The Red Girl       
1930:
Yang Naiwu, pts.I-III
Emperor Qianlong Tours the South, p.VI
Two Daughters of the Northeast
1934:
Romance of the Huashan Mountains
A Bible for Girls
1936:
Brothers
The Battle Between Peach and Plum
New and Old Shanghai
Diamonds
Rights for Women
Hearts Unchanged in Life and Death
1937:
Heaven and Earth in a Dream (aka A Long Night Brings Many Dreams)
Keep Smiling Forever
In Full Vigor
The Money Tree        
1938:
Gilded City
Vistas of Art
Pink News
A Night of Horror
1939:
Meng Jiannü
Sexy Devil
A Money-Colored World
Three Swordsmen
The Broadcasting Station Murder
Wen Suchen, pt.I
Dr. Li and Miss Tang
Dong Xiaowan
1940:
Dr. Li and Dongfang Shuo
The Emerald Hairpin
The Dark City
Meng Lijun
The Dissolute Emperor
Ji Gong the Buddhist Monk
Su San's Love Story
An Unfortunate Girl
Dr. Li and the Mummies (aka Dr. Li and the Zombies)
1947:
Lust Tide
It's a Dark Night (aka Night of the Killer)
Girl's Mask
*************** 
For Further Reading:

Ying, Pengying.  "The Oriental Dr. Li:  You Guangzhao."  Movie News v.2, no.25, April 24, 1942.

"You Guangzhao."   Dance News No.10, October 1, 1938.

Wang Naidong (? - ?)

    Although nothing is recorded of the background and offscreen life of Wang Naidong 王乃东, it is certain that he had a long stage and screen career, mostly due to his ability to play believable villains, which were the majority of his characters.  He started in 1923 with the Shanghai Film Company, a supporting role in《The Widow Wantgs to Remarry》, following that with the lead in《Yang Hua's Hate》.  In 1926 he moved to the Da Zhonghua Baihe studio, then in 1934 to the Lianhua studio, where he appeared in several of Lianhua's top productions.  During World War II he worked for Shanghai "Orphan Island" studios until late 1939, when he moved to Hong Kong and worked there until filmmaking shut down at the end of 1941.

Filmography (all as actor):

1923:
The Widow Wants to Remarry 

1925:
Yang Hua's Hate

1926:
Family Heirloom
Ma Jiefu
Mother's Happiness
Cycles of Debt

1927:
Pitiful Qiuxiang
The Beauty Trap I,II
Four Heroes of the Wang Family

1928:
That's Me
A Shanghai Dance Hostess
Patriotic Souls

1929:
Kisses Once
Three Heroes of the Wang Family

1934:
Women
Cotton Blossom Village

1935:
New Women
Life's Sad Song
The Beginning of Life
Lady Pear Blossom
The Tempest (aka The Martyr)
A Hero of our Time (aka Businessmen in Wartime)

1936:
The Wedding Murders
Tomboy II

1937:
Garden in Spring
Mysterious Flower
Night Rain by the Xiang River
The Great Robbery
Lovers

1939:
Groans and Struggles
Maiden in Armour (aka Mulan Joins the Army)
The King of Chu
Exchanges
A Fair Actress
Mysterious Lady
Tomboy III, IV
A Singing Girl in Guangzhou
Adventures of the Chinese Tarzan

1940:
The Perfect Beauty
The Love of a Woman
Revolt of the Fishing Folks
The Gardener and the Lady

1941:
The Beauty Trap I, II
The Prostitute and the General
The Sparrow Flies East and South
Ancient Kingdom of Human Freaks
Songstress Red Peony 

Yan Gongshang: the Renaissance man

    By the standard dictionary definition of a "Renaissance man" (or woman) as a person with many talents or interests, especially in the humanities, Yan Gongshang 严工上 certainly qualified.  Nothing is recorded of his early years aside from his being born in Shexian, Anhui, in 1872 and receiving some of his early education in Japan.  In addition to Japanese, Yan mastered several Chinese dialects.  He was a famous composer, and along with four others, were known collectively as "Chinese pop music's gang of five."  Yan was also a respected authority on Western classical music, a noted poet, opera performer and accomplished ballroom dancer.  He appears to be what we would today call an "early adopter" when it came to modern forms of entertainment, enthusiastically embarking on a motion picture career at age 53, at a time when most Chinese filmmakers were starting out in movies in their late teens or early twenties.  Yan appeared in 103 movies between 1925 and 1947 in addition to composing the music for some of the top films of the 1930s.  In later life, convinced that a common dialect was essential to Chinese national unity, he used his prestige to push for making the Mandarin dialect China's national language.  Of his seven children, his three sons were noted popular song writers, and three of his four daughters became movie actresses, the most famous being his second daughter, 1930s star Yan Yuexian.  Yan Gongshang died in 1953.

Xiao Ying (1890 - 1964)

  Xiao Ying 萧英 was born July 28, 1890 (some sources say 1889) in Hengshan County, Hunan.  He entered movies relatively late, beginning in 1926 with the Mingxing studio, making his debut that same year in《A Young Worker》and《The Unknown Hero》in supporting roles.  He appeared in numerous films for Mingxing over the next several years, often cast as fathers of one of the leads, especially in rural settings.  But in 1933 he was one of the leads in the classic《Spring Silkworms》, as the farming family's patriarch.  After Mingxing was shut down by the eruption of war in 1937, Xiao Ying worked for several Shanghai "Orphan Island" studios, making his last film in 1939.  Xiao Ying died July 14, 1964.

Tan Zhiyuan (1889- ?)

    Tan Zhiyuan 谭志远 was a native of Anhui province, born there in 1889.  He made his movie debut in 1926 with the Tianyi studio and later that year moved to Mingxing.  He became one of that studio's most reliable older character actors, remaining with Mingxing until the outbreak of war in 1937 shut down its productions.  He also co-directed three films at the start of the decade.

Filmography (as actor, unless otherwise noted):

1926:
Four Commandments    
The Good Son (aka A Good Guy)     
A Little Lover     
Fiancee      
Her Sorrows
A Child Laborer
The Rich Man's Daughter

1927:
Sacrifice for Parents
Fallen Plum Blossoms, I-III

1928:
White Cloud Tower, I-II
Burning of the Red Lotus Temple, I,V,VI
The Great Swordsman's Revenge
Heroine in Black
Kick
A Stressful Wedding
The Heroine Saves a Lady
The Girl Detective 

1929:
Tears and Flowers, I,II
The Life of the Rich
Beauty Under the Blade
New Journey to the West, I-III
Young Compatriots on the Battlefield
Blood of the Lovers

1930:
A Red Egg
Three Fathers  (co-director)

1931:
The Murderess  (co-director)
Sea of Hatred  (co-director)
In Old Beijing
Songstress Red Peony

1932:
Sorrow and Happiness
The Flower of Freedom

1933:
Battlefield Adventures
Raging Torrent
Cries of Women
Twin Sisters

1934:
A Bible for Girls

1935:
Big Family
The Boatman's Daughter

1936:
Brothers
New and Old Shanghai
Hai Tanghong
Women's Rights
Revolutionaries

1937:
Mother's Secrets
New Year's Money