The Chinese Mirror

Zhu Qiuhen (1915 - ?)

    Zhu Qiuhen 朱秋痕 was a supporting player for the Mingxing studio in the 1930s, then in the twilight of her film career had some leads for the wartime "orphan island" era Yihua studio.  She was born Zhu Chaonan 朱超南 in Suzhou, Jiangsu, the daughter of prominent local stage actor Zhu Guyan 朱孤雁.  In her childhood, the father's profession moved them to Beijing and later Tianjin, where she learned acting.  Her father organized an acting company in Tianjian, where she honed her skills sufficiently to be recruited by Mingxing, the dominant Shanghai studio, making her screen debut in 1931's《In Old Beijing》.  Her father also joined the studio in the following year.  

    Although she worked steadily in Mingxing's productions, Zhu Qiuhen never rose above supporting roles, some no more than uncredited bit parts, and usually portraying negative characters, such as scheming concubines, promiscuous entertainers, etc.  It was rumored this typecasting was due to an incident in her early years with the studio.  Shanghai movie companies varied widely in their attitudes regarding romantic relationships among staff, attitudes which ranged from outright opposition to embracing them as potential public relations coups.  Mingxing fell into the former category, and it was said that she had upset its management by her pursuit of fellow actor Zheng Xiaoqiu, the frequent leading man of the studio's premiere diva Hu Die.  But the object of Zheng's affections at the time was Hu Die's younger sister Hu Shan, who had started out with Mingxing but by then had moved to the Shao (later Shaw) Brothers' Tianyi studio.  In the end it all came to nothing, as all parties involved married someone else. In Zhu Qiuhen's case, after the Japanese shut down the Mingxing studio in 1937, she  returned to the stage as a professional dancer, and later accepted an arranged marriage, after which she retired from show business.  

Filmography (all as actress):

1931:
In Old Beijing                        ... Miss Tong

1932:
Love and Death
Sorrow and Joy
The Flower of Freedom          ... Wanfang the maid
Adventures on the Battlefield    

1933:
The Sword of Morality
The Future
Manjianhong                          ... Wan's wife
A Sister's Tragic Tale
24 Hours in Shanghai              ... comprador's wife

1934:
A Brief Life                            ... Sibao
A Bible for Girls                     ... Zhu Wen
The Doctrine of Women          ... Miss Zhu

1935:
Human Relations                    ... Zhu Lingling
Big Family                              ... Yufen

1936:
Brothers                                ... Fang Zhifang
Spring Flower                        ... actress
New and Old Shanghai            ... Yu Lianzhu   

1937:
All Loves                                ... Ah Liang
Resilient Daughter             
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For further reading:

Gu, Guge 顾孤歌.  "Zhu Qiuhen's life."  Movie Times v.2, no.3, December 25, 1935.

Wang, Shuju 汪叔居.  "Zhu Qiuhen talks about living in Shanghai for three years as a woman."  Movie Times v.1, no.5, October 5, 1934.

Zhu, Qiuhen 朱秋痕.  "My thoughts on three years of playing debauched roles."  Movie Times v.1, no.3, January 5, 1934. 

Xu Suzhen (? - ?): Funny Lady

    Although Xu Suzhen 徐素贞 was a very popular comic actress with a movie career that spanned nearly two decades, most of her performing was done on the Shanghai stage, making her number of screen roles relatively few and infrequent.  She was the younger sister of silent star Xu Sue, and sister-in-law of early martial arts star and director Zhang Huichong, although surviving records do not show Xu Suzhen working in any of his movies.  Her film career began in 1923, with the female lead in《The Predestined》, but after this she returned to the stage.  In 1926, she was lured back to movies by the Kuaihuolin Film Company and cast in female leads in more than a dozen of its silent productions over the next few years, often paired with Han Lan'gen, Qin Haha and/or Zhou Kongkong, three of the top cinema comics of the silent and early sound eras.  In the 1926 fan voting for "Movie Empress," she came in second to Zhang Zhiyun. When Kuaihuolin shut down for fiscal reasons, she returned to the stage, but came back to movies in 1931 when the studio was restarted to make sound movies.  She continued intermittent film work through the 1930s for several smaller Shanghai studios, making her last appearance in 1939 for Linhua, a wartime "orphan island" Shanghai company, after which she retired. 

Filmography (all as actress):

1923:
The Predestined

1926:
As They Wished

1927:
Substitution
Four Guardian Warriors
Brother's Good Fortune  
The Matchmaker Makes a Fool of Herself
Adventures of a Modern Girl
A Woman Warrior

1929:
The Pirates [aka The Emperor of Shanghai]

1932:
Four Big Men

1933:
Adventures on a Desert Island, pts.I,II [aka Journey Through the Wilds]
The Twins
Saga

1934:
A Couple Reunited
A Virtuous Woman
A Woman Criminal

1935:
Three Daughters-in-Law [aka Three Brides]

1939:
A Pink Murderer

Huang Manli / Mary Wong (1913-1998)

  [left, Huang Manli early in her career, in the 1930s.]

    Huang Manli 黄曼梨 (Cantonese:  Wong Man-li, English name Mary Wong), was one of the most prolific Chinese movie (and later TV) actresses over five decades, mostly in her native Hong Kong, where she was born Huang Wensu 黄文素 in 1913, to a family with ancestral origins in Zhongshan, Guangdong.  After receiving an education in parochial schools operated by Italian missionaries, she joined the Jinan studio in Shanghai, making her debut in a 7-part martial arts series《24 Heroes》(1930-32).  When the Lianhua studio opened its Hong Kong branch in 1932, she returned home to make a succession of silents, and her first sound film in 1935, the Cantonese production,《Yesterday's Song》.  From that initial 1930 appearance through 1966, she amassed over 300 big screen credits, then moved into television, becoming a regular in several 1970s and 80s TV series and miniseries.  It is interesting how her roles evolved:  while at first she was often cast as evil and manipulative sister-in-law types who make the heroine's life miserable, she broke free from that to become most familiar to Cantonese movie fans as the long-suffering and faithful "dutiful wife and loving mother" character type portrayed so often on 1930s Shanghai screens by Lin Chuchu.  

[right, Huang Manli in the 1940s, in a typical suffering mother role]

    In her later years, especially on TV, Huang Manli often portrayed family matriarchs.  Offscreen, Huang Manli was very active in professional matters, being one of the co-founders of the Hong Kong and South China Film Industry Workers Union in 1952, and later serving two terms as the organization's president.  Huang Manli died in Hong Kong of natural causes on April 8, 1998. 

 

[left, a middle-aged matriarch, 1950s and beyond]

Ye Juanjuan (1908 - ?)

  [left, Ye Juanjuan in a Lianhua publicity portrait.]   

    By the late 1920s, the number of movies being produced by Shanghai studios was creating a growing demand for a wider pool of attractive young people to appear in them.  But while in the earlier part of the decade a lead or major supporting role was almost a guarantee of stardom and a good career, Chinese filmmaking had reached the point where the number of failures matched or exceeded the successes.  One of those who never attained the stardom expected of them was Ye Juanjuan 叶娟娟.  The only recorded information about Ye Juanjuan's early years is that she was born in 1908, and entered motion pictures in 1928 with the Haifeng Film Company, then worked for the Jinan and the Shanghai Film Companies.  Nearly all of her early work was as a supporting player.  When the Shanghai Company was merged into the Lianhua studio in 1931, she became one of the latter's pool of leading ladies.  However, unlike her Lianhua colleagues Ruan Lingyu, Lin Chuchu and Chen Yanyan, Ye Juanjuan never caught on as a star, and while she appeared in some of Lianhua's major successes in the early 1930s, they were all in supporting roles.  She moved to the smaller Yihua studio in 1934, and after making three films for Yihua, acting the female lead in one, she disappeared from the screen.  Chinese sources say she retired, but it may have been the studio dropped her.  The last recorded information regarding Ye Juanjuan is that she made an unsuccessful suicide attempt on January 25, 1936, but whether this was due to career failure or other reasons is not stated.

                [right, Ye Juanjuan in a still from one of her later films.]             

Filmography (all as actress):

1928:
Reviving Romance 
Zhaojun Goes Beyone the Great Wall

1929:
A Tender Lover
Good Luck
Hongyun Takes Power
Flying Swordswoman Lu Sanniang

1930:
24 Swordsmen
Island of Beautiful Women
Ghost of the Gold
Black Mask
Recapturing the Treasure
Swordsman
Burning of Pingyang City, III, IV

1931:
Amazing Monk of the Wild Mountains
Devoted Mother
Flowers of Peace
Chaotic Jinghong
Two Stars of the Milky Way

1932:
Three Live Rock
Wild Rose
Spring in the South

1933:
Isolated Army
City Crime
Spotless
Daybreak
Morning in the Metropolis

1934:
Cotton Blossom Village

1935:
Heroes of the Times
Escape 

Wang Huijuan (? - ?)

    Wang Huijuan 王慧娟 made her movie debut in 1931 in a Fudan Pictures film《A Man and a Woman》.  The following year she moved to the Shao (Shaw) Brothers' Tianyi Film Company, where she was usually cast in important supporting roles in such pictures as《A Young Actress》,《Willow Blossoms》,《A Movie Actress》,《Shattered Dream in the Dance Hall》and other films.  In 1934, she moved to the Mingxing studio, making《A Bible for Girls》, among others.  She made er last screen appearance in 1939, in the China Arts Pictures film《The Swallow Thief》.  While little else is known of her, she must have been a capable and believable character actress, as in one film she played the lead actress's grandmother, and then in their next film she played the same actress's younger sister.

Filmography (all as actress):

1931:
A Man and a Woman
The Last Love

1932:
The Girl Yunlan
One Night of Luxury
A Young Actress
Two Daughters of the Northeast (aka Two Orphan Girls on the Battlefield)

1933:
A Movie Actress
All for the Legacy
Willow Blossoms

1934:
Shattered Dream in the Dance Hall
Daybreak
The Best of Enemies
A Bible for Girls

1935:
Big Family

1939:
The Swallow Thief 

Tang Tianxiu (1901? - ?)

    Although never a big star, Tang Tianxiu 汤天绣 was a familiar face on Chinese movie screens for a decade.  She was born Tang Tianxiu 汤天秀 (slightly different in Chinese) in Suzhou, JIangsu and raised in Hankou (now Wuhan).  She was a child bride, betrothed at an early age.  So while most movie actresses in the classic era began their careers in their late teens, she did not enter films until her mid-20s when, in response to an advertisement by the  Da Zhonghua (Greater China) film company seeking children to play roles in the film《Mother's Happiness》, she took her daughter for an audition.  But the filmmakers were most impressed with the mother, and signed her to a contract.  After appearing in that 1926 film, she had major supporting roles in three films over the next two years.  In 1928 and 1929 she made 16 films for Da Zhonghua, most of them of the martial arts/swordsman genre, and in 12 of which she acted the lead.  She joined the new Lianhua studio in 1930, and appeared in 16 more films, including major supporting roles in such classics as "Dawn in the Metropolis," "Little Toys," "Song of the Fishermen," and "New Women."  At some point she succeeded in extricating herself from her arranged first marriage, and after making her last film in 1935, she remarried to a wealthy man, and retired from the screen.  [above right, Tang in a Lianhua studio publicity photo.  Click on image to enlarge.]

Filmography (all as actress):

1926:
Mother's Happiness
Cycles of Debt

1927:
Pitiful Qiuxiang
Sex Trap

1928:
Patriotic Souls
Shadows in the Old Palace
Fabulous Swordsman
That's Me
Ma Zhenhua
Secret History of the Qing Court
The Miner and the Boss' Sister

1929:
The Head Lost at Midnight
How Lu Sanniang Flew Through the Air
Kisses Once
Four Heroes of the Wang Family, II
White Rat
The Savior
Detective Number 55
Three Heroes of the Wang Family
Miscarriage of Justice

1930:
Flirtaceous Swordsman
Man and Beast
Because I am Your Younger Brother

1931:
Lust
Hengniang
Two Stars of the Milky Way
The Souls of Freedom

1932:
Hell at Sea
Loving Blood of the Volcano

1933:
Dawn Over the Metropolis
The Road
Little Toys

1934:
A Beautiful Night
New Women
Song of the Fishermen
Goodbye! Shanghai

1935:
Settle Down by the Hanjiang River 

Wang Huixian (? - 194?)

    Wang Huixian 王慧仙 was a native of Zhejiang province.  Her parents were fans of the Kun school of opera, which heavily influenced her from childhood and spurred her interest in acting.  In 1925 she joined the New Youth Film Company, acting the lead in《Variations》, after which she moved to the Xinhua (New China) company, cast in an important supporting role in 《A Peach Blossom in Human Form》.   Wang Huixian then joined the Da Zhonghua (Greater China) studio, at the time one of the top Shanghai production companies.  But after starring in three films which won her both audience and critical approval, and seemingly on the verge of major stardom, she accepted a marriage proposal and retired from acting. She is known to have died of tuberculosis in the 1940s, exact date unrecorded.

 

Filmography (all as actress):

1925:
Variations
A Peach Blossom in Human Form 

1926:
Freedom of Marriage [aka Elopement]

1927:
Three Flying Swords
Seven Strange Adventures on Mount Yangzai 

Zhai Qiqi (? - ?)

    Little is known about the early and later years of the life and career of Zhai Qiqi, other than that she entered motion pictures with the Changcheng (Great Wall) studio in 1925, cast in important supporting roles.  Great Wall's practice was to provide Western language names in credits, as this was thought to lend more prestige to their films when they played away from the Chinese mainland, e.g. in Southeast Asia.  We know from Zhai Qiqi's one movie that has survived,《A String of Pearls》(1926), in which she played the female lead's best friend, that Zhai was billed as "E.E. Dick."  And while we know nothing of her pre-movie years, she appears to have been a bit older at the outset of her career, which suggests she might have come from a stage acting background.
    In her first two films, she had the second female lead, as the principal actress's best friend.  In her third film,《The Hypocrite》(1926), she had the female lead, but for reasons unknown, she disappeared from the screen for several years after that.  She came back to movies in 1934, in the popular "Mr. Wang" comedies, reverting in a a way to "best friend" mode, as Mrs. Chen, wife of the title character's best friend and partner in buffoonery.
*****************************
Filmography (all as actress):

1925:
Cupid's Puppets
1926:
A String of Pearls
The Hypocrite
1935:
Mr. Wang's Secret
Mr. Wang's New Year
Mr. Wang Goes to the Countryside
1936:
Mr. Wang's Marvelous Heroism
1937:
Mr. Wang's Path to Riches
Willow Village

Tao Yayun (? - ?)

    Although she was never a star, and little is recorded regarding her personal life, Tao Yayun 陶雅云 was a frequently-seen supporting actress in the pre-sound era, mostly for the Shao (Shaw) brothers' Tianyi studio.  Her first role was an important supporting one, in《She Wants to be a Freewoman》(1927), for a minor studio, First China.  The following year she joined Tianyi, and for the next several years was one of that studio's supporting mainstays, often in the second female lead after Chen Yumei, Tianyi's marquee name and studio head Shao Zuiweng's girlfriend.  But by 1931, her roles grew smaller and smaller, and she left.  It is not recorded whether her departure was by mutual agreement, a unilateral decision, or perhaps the coming of sound, but she left Tianyi after 1932.  She made one more film in 1933, for a minor studio, after which she retired. 

Filmography (all as actress):

1927:
She Wants to be a Freewoman

1928:
Double Pearl and Phoenix, pts.I, II 

1929:
A Fabulous General
The Greatest Hero
Emperor Qianlong's Travels in the South, pts.II, II
The Bloody Blade
The Burning of White Lotus Platform, pts.i, II

1930:
College Queen
The Concubine's Secret
Yang Naiwu, pts.I-III
Emperor Qianlong's Travels in the South, pts.V, VI
The Cases of Lord Shi, pt.III

1931:
The Cases of Sherlock Holmes
Emperor Qianlong's Travels in the South, pts.VII, IX

1932:
The Girl Yunlan
A Married Woman

1933:
The Engagement

Hu Shan (1910 - ?)

    Like her more famous elder sister Hu Die, Hu Shan 胡珊 was born in Shanghai to a Cantonese family with ancestral roots in Heshan, Guangdong.  While never attaining the superstar status of her sister, she had a good movie career, starting out with the Tianyi studio in the plum title role in "Hua Mulan Cong Jun"《花木兰从军》[Hua Mulan Joins the Army], regarded as her signature film.  After that, she joined her sister at the Mingxing studio, appearing in two supporting roles there before leaving after 1929 to join the Fudan studio.  It is unrecorded whether her departure from Mingxing was at all connected to director Zhang Shichuan's decision to promote her sister as the studio's sole diva, but it is notable that Hu Shan's roles had been shrinking, and shortly after Zhang made his decision, Hu Shan left Mingxing for the smaller Fudan studio.  At Fudan, she again had first billing, but after the studio ceased operations at the end of 1931, she was forced to move on once more, rejoining Tianyi, where she had started.  She made a successful transition to sound, acting the lead in several early sound movies for Tianyi, the last in early 1935.  After making two more films in 1935 for Jixing (Lucky Star), a small Shanghai studio, she retired.

   

[left, Hu Shan in later career]  

    Details of Hu Shan's later life are unrecorded, but Hu Die's posthumously published memoirs included several photos of herself with family members.  One of these was of the two sisters sitting together in Hu Die's home in Vancouver, so we can assume that like her sister, Hu Shan also lived out her days in Canada.

****************
[above right:  During her second stint at Tianyi, Hu Shan (left) with Chen Yumei]

Filmography:

1927
Hua Mulan Joins the Army  ... Mulan

1928
Kick   ... Miss C.
The Girl Detective  ...  gangster's widow

1929
A Duel of Swordsmen
Emperor Qianlong Tours the South, pts. 1,2
The Bloody Blade
Burning of White Flower Tower

1930
Burning of Seven Stars Mansion, pts. 1-6

1931
Flowers of Blood, Traces of Tears
A Man and a Woman

1932
One Night of Luxury
Two Daughters of the Northeast (aka Two Orphan Girls on the Battlefield)

1933
All for the Legacy
Quest for Love
Wandering
A Movie Actress

1934
Time Passes By (aka Homecoming)
Two Guys and a Girl (aka Quarrelsome Lovers)

1935
Song of the Rose
Fang Yunying
Troubled Sisters