The Chinese Mirror

Xie Yunqing (1906 - ?)

    In the late silent and early sound eras, Xie Yunqing 谢云卿 was another of those supporting players who seemed to be in everything.  A native of Zhenjiang, Jiangsu, he made his motion picture debut in 1925 with the Shanghai Shadow Play Company, in《The Young Gentleman》, a Chinese version of《Little Lord Fauntleroy》 .  He moved in 1926 to the Da Zhonghua (Greater China) Film Company, where he became a mainstay supporting player, appearing in 14 films in 1928 alone.  In 1930 he moved to the Mingxing studio, continuing as a frequently appearing supporting player.  Xie disappeared from the screen in 1932.  (The reasons are unrecorded, but probably to do stage work.)  He returned in late 1933, continuing with Mingxing until the beginning of the war and appearing in importang supporting roles in some of that studio's best films.  He had one non-acting credit in 1929 when he wrote and directed《Kisses Once》.  Given that film's success, it is curious that it was his only such effort.

Xu Xinyuan (1886 - ?): the Chinese Charlie Chan

   Xu Xinyuan 徐莘园  was a familiar face on Chinese screens in the 1930s, appearing in a variety of supporting roles.  But he made his reputation in his later career, in the recurring role of Charlie Chan in China's own versions of the Chan detective series.  He was a native of Hunan province, and after graduating from Hunan University of Law and Politics, he embarked on a government career, holding various military and civilian government positions during the warlord era of the 1920s.  He turned to stage acting in the late 1920s, and entered motion pictures in 1929 with the Great Wall Film Company, drawing on his earlier experience to write and star in a film titled《The Dissolute Warlord》.  In 1932 he moved to the Mingxing studio and appeared in some of Mingxing's most successful productions in the 1930s.  When full-scale war erupted with Japan, Xu joined a troupe of filmmakers who performed patriotic stage productions in Sichuan province.  He returned to Shanghai in 1939 to resume film acting, and it was at this time that he first appeared as "Charlie Chan," the role with which he became most closely associated.  After the war, he worked steadily in films in both Shanghai and Hong Kong, while also appearing on stage in several major cities. He moved to Hong Kong permanently in the late 1940s, where he made several more films, the last in 1950.  Xu had suffered from dementia for some time, and Chinese sources indicate his death was related to this condition.  [right, in character as "Charlie Chan"]

Huang Junfu (? - ?)

    Huang Junfu 黄君甫 was another of the character actors seen so often on Chinese movie screens in the classic era.  Huang made over 60 films in his career, most of them in credited roles.  At the peak of his career in the mid-to-late 1920s, Huang was much in demand, averaging a picture a month.

    Nothing is recorded concerning his date of birth, but it is known that he was a native of the Pudong district of Shanghai.  He was the son of butcher, and Junfu himself would have followed that trade, except that someone from the Mingxing studio saw him working in Pudong's Xinzha food market and recruited the heavy-set young man to play a cook in an upcoming film to be titled《An Orphan Rescues His Grandfather》(1923).  Although it was intended to be only a one-off appearance, his performance so impressed the filmmakers that they offered him a contract and a new career.  Huang readily accepted, and for the next decade he was one of the Mingxing studio's most active performers, making over 60 films, credited in most of them.  At the height of his career in the mid-to-late 1920s he was averaging a movie a month.

    Like all portly Chinese actors and actresses of the classic era, Huang Junfu was usually cast in character roles, in his case as either a thug, a comical buffoon or a person much older than the actor's actual age.  But in at least one notable instance, he played a sympathetic, actually tragic character:  the sickly but kind and understanding husband of Ruan Lingyu in《A Couple in Name》(1927).  Ruan, who always appreciated the contributions of supporting players, later credited Huang's performance with helping her make her breakthrough to stardom at Mingxing.  Huang by this time was a veteran actor while Ruan was making her screen debut.  She was very nervous, so stricken with stage fright she almost had to stop shooting and leave the set.  But as Ruan later related it, Huang was so calm and competent that she gained strength as the first half of the film unfolded.  After the death of Huang's character, she was inspired to bring all her talents to bear in portraying the grieving widow, a performance that made her a star, replacing Ding Ziming as the Mingxing studio's leading tragedienne.  (Unfortunately, two years later director Zhang Shichuan grew to doubt Ruan Lingyu's box office appeal and replaced her with Hu Die, driving Ruan to another studio, a decision Zhang regretted for the rest of his days.)

[Huang Junfu, second right, as the dimwitted scion of the Qin family in《The Last Conscience》(1925)] 

    Huang Junfu appeared in numerous Mingxing productions, including many of the studio's most successful films of the 1920s.  Sadly, it all came to a premature end:  by the end of that decade Huang had fallen victim to opium usage, a habit which destroyed many Chinese lives in society at large, and was rampant in the movie community.  He found himself increasingly unable to work, his film roles dwindled, and he disappeared from the screen after 1932. 

Filmography (all as actor):

1923:
An Orphan Rescues His Grandfather             ... young cook (uncredited)

1924:
Lured into Marriage                                    ... Xiao Lu, the naive servant
The Soul of Yuli                                          ... Fang Dayuan
The Poor Children                                       ... 

1925:
The Good Brothers                                      ... Yang Houzhai
A Blind Orphan Girl                                     ... Lu Asan
Little Friend                                               ... Qiao Fusen
The Last Conscience                                    ... Qin's son Hesheng

1926:
Suspicious Couple                                        ... 
He Wants a Baby                                         ... Changshou, the Wu family servant
A Child Laborer                                          ... Fat A Kui
April Roses                                                 ... Wang Qiang's servant
Resurrection                                               ... prison guard
Lonely Orchid I,II                                        ... Zhu Yisheng
Her Sorrows                                                ... detective
The Good Son                                             ... soldier
The Rich Man's Daughter                              ... fat young man
A Lovelorn Actress                                       ... Yu Rongzong

1927:
Nameless Hero                                           ... Fatty Liu
Fiancee                                                     ... Huang Jun
Real and False Daughters                            ... Chang Songzhai
Tablet of Blood and Tears                           ... Cui Hu
Reciprocity                                                 ... Rui Dalie
Madame Wei's Profession                             ... manager of the Moon Palace
Sacrifice for Parents                                    ... Ceng Mengyang
Shandong Ma Yongzhen                                ... Cheng Zimin
Fallen Plum Blossoms I-III                            ... Chang Zang
A Lakeside Dream                                       ... the clown
A Beauty of 16                                            ... Zhang Baicheng
A Couple in Name                                       ... Fang Shaolian
The Monkey King's Struggles                         ... Pigsy  

1928:
Imperial Concubine Yang of Beijing              ... Regimental Commander Chen
Burning of Red Lotus Temple II, III               ...
The Heroine in Black                                   ... Wang Baokui
A Stressful Wedding                                     ... Wei Degong
The Great Swordsman's Revenge                   ... Shi Xingbiao
Luoyang Bridge                                            ... the butcher
White Cloud Tower I,II                                 ... Zheng Zhong
The Girl Detective                                        ... 
Ashes of the Lotus                                        ... Xiong Desheng
Kick                                                            ... Wang Xulun
The Heroine Saves a Lady                             ... Ding Dawei  

1929:
Tears and Flowers                                        ... Feng Zeming the policeman
New Journey to the West I                       ... Huang Laoda
Burning of Red Lotus Temple V,VI                 ... 
Young Hero Liu Jun                                      ...
The Life of the Rich                                     ...
Beauty Under the Blade                                ... Wang Xiaoyu
Repentance                                                 ... Huang Fa
Papa Loves Mama                                        ... second rich man
Blood of the Lovers                                      ... Chen Jian

1930:
New Journey to the West II,III                      ... Huang Laoda
Burning of Red Lotus Temple XV                   ...
A Red Egg                                                   ...
Peach Blossom Lake                                     ... Tian Liu
Hall of the Broken Zither                             ... 

1931:
Who is the Hero?                                          ... 
Unlucky to be Born a Daughter                      ...

1932:
A Lonely Bird                                                ... young Zaifeng
Love and Life                                                ... Wang Youwen 

 

Note:  Most of the information on Huang's career is taken from online Chinese sources which can be retrieved by searching his name on the Baidu search engine.  The quotes from Ruan Lingyu were drawn from a chapter in:  Tang, Lusun 唐鲁孙 Tang Lusun Collected Works:  Eating and Talking China, from East to West.  (Guilin:  Guangxi Normal University Press, 2007).  It is excerpted online here.  [retrieved 4-30-2012] 

Shi Chao (? - 1944)

    Shi Chao 施超 was a native of Minhou, Fujian province.  After graduating from middle school he entered movies in 1930 with the newly-founded Lianhua film studio with a supporting role in《Wild Flowers Among the Weeds》.  After this initial appearance, Shi returned to school, enrolling in a Beijing business school, and upon graduation was hired by a Tianjin motion picture theater as its manager.  But the acting bug apparently returned, and in 1935 he joined the Denton film studio in Shanghai for a major supporting role in《Spirit of Liberty》.  With the Japanese invasion, he was one of many in the Shanghai film community who went to Chongqing to make resistance films and stage productions.  Shi Chao died on October 26, 1944, but whether his death was war-related or just coincidental is not recorded.

Filmography (all as actor):

1930:
Wild Flower Among the Weeds

1935:
Spirit of Liberty

1936:
A Night of Madness
Soaring Aspirations

1937:
Song at Midnight
Youth on the March

1939:
China's Sons and Daughters 

Li Junpan (? - ?)

    Li Junpan 李君磐 was another veteran stage actor who came to movies in the early sound era, although his film debut was a 1930 silent made for the Jinlong (Golden Dragon) Film Company,《Strange Tales of the Western Countries》, for which he also wrote the script in addition to acting the lead.  It was supposed to be two-part film, but Golden Dragon went out of business and Li returned to the stage.  He returned to films in 1933  with the Lianhua studio, with supporting roles in such classics from that studio as《City Nights》,《Queen of Sports》and most notably in《Goddess》, as the sympathetic schoolmaster who adopts the son of the title character after she is imprisoned.  During the rest of the decade, Li concentrated on stage work, but still had important roles in such later classics as《Lost Lamb》and《Song at Midnight》.

Filmography (as actor, unless noted otherwise):

1930:
Strange Tales of the Western Countries    (also writer)

1933:
City Nights

1934:
Queen of Sports
Goddess
Golden Age

1935:
Mad Faint
Little Angel
Song of Praise
Cause of Ruin                                        (writer)

1936:
Good Men
Lost Lamb

1937:
Song at Midnight

1938:
Miserable Sisters

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 (1904 - ?)

    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 ... 

 

Zheng Zhenduo (? - ?)

    Zhang Zhenduo 张振铎 (? - ?) had a decade-long career in both silent and early sound films, nearly all with the Shaw Brothers' Tianyi studiio, where he was a mainstay supporting actor.  Most of his appearances were as major supporting characters, often a military figure or principal villain, but sometimes as male lead.  Nothing is recorded as to his origins or pre-movie activities.  Zhang entered motion pictures in 1927 with a minor Shanghai studio, the Tiansheng (Natural) Film Company, in《The Case of the Lost Baby-Prince》，after which he moved to Tianyi.

 Filmography (all as actor):

1927:
The Case of the Lost Baby-Prince, pts.I-II (aka The Leopard Changes its Spots)
New Camellia
The Hero with White-haired Legs

1928:
Journey to the West

1929:
Invincible Hero
The Bloody Blade
Emperor Qian Long Tours the South, pts. I-IV

1930:
Emperor Qian Long Tours the South, pts.V-VII
College Queen
Yang Naiwu and Xiao Baicai, pts.I-III
Li Sanniang
Cases of Judge Shi, pt.I

1931:
Arsene Lupin
Emperor Qian Long Tours the South, pts.VIII-IX
The Last Love

1932:
One Night of Luxury
The Girl Yunlan
Trace

1933:
All for Legacy
Loving Pursuit
A Woman's Life
The Waif
Struggle
Lucky Land
Flaming Youth
A Movie Actress

1934:
Joyous Enemies

1935:
The Beauty's Favor
Burial at Sea
Two Brothers

1936:
Flowers and Grass