The Chinese Mirror

Zhao Jingxia (? - ?)

[We could find no portrait photo of Zhao Jingxia:  despite her numerous film appearances, the only image we could confirm was definitely her was from the 1926 film we wrote about earlier, 《He Wants a Baby》.]

    Shanghai native Zhao Jingxia 赵静霞 joined the Shenzhou Film Company after graduating from middle school, and first appeared in 1925's《Unbearable Memories》as the spoiled daughter of a wealthy man.  This supporting role gained her a contract with the larger and more prosperous Mingxing studio, but also typecast her as a secondary player.  She was usually the second or third female in cast credits, often as the young wife of a supporting male character.  Zhao's debut role for Mingxing was as the concubine Pingjin in 1926's 《He Wants a Baby》.  This would be the first of more than 30 silent films she would make with Mingxing, although she had an uncredited part in China's first sound film, 《Songstress Red Peony》and one lead role in 1931's 《A Miss From Shanghai》.  By the turn of the decade, her roles had been getting steadily smaller, so she retired from the screen after 1931.  [Complete filmography follows after the bump]

Liang Menghen (? - ?)

     Liang Menghen 梁梦痕  was a popular leading lady for several of Shanghai's smaller studios during the silent era.  A native of Lingnan, (an old term for what is now the Guangdong-Guangxi region), she was home schooled by her teacher father, an in-depth education that included the learning of English.  She made her movie debut in 1925 with the Da Ya (Great Asia) film studio as the lead in "Misgivings," showing obvious talent.  In 1927 she moved to Li Minwei's Minxin studio, appearing in several of its films, then in 1929 to the Great Wall studio, continuing her career into the rest of the silent era.  The records do not explain why her movie career ended when it did, but since she came from a region where the Cantonese dialect was dominant, the coming of sound probably ended it, as it did for so many Cantonese speakers.  

[Selected filmography follows after the bump]

Xu Qinfang (1909-1985): the 'Huangjiang Heroine'

     Xu Qinfang (徐琴芳) was born in 1909 to a scholarly family in Wujin,  Jiangsu, the daughter of a famous Confucian scholar.  Her father taught her to read Tang poetry at an early age, and while she excelled in school, she was also athletic, fond of horseback riding and able to drive a chariot at high speed.  At the age of 16, her father escorted her from Wujin to Shanghai where she enrolled in the Da Zhonghua studio's film school, but later joined the new Youlian studio, operated by Chen Kengran, who she later married.  After acting in several films for Youlian, she made her first sword film in 1928, writing and acting the lead in "Shuang Jian Xia" 《双剑侠》(Double Sword Heroes), then from 1930-32 she had the title role in a popular 13-part series, "Huangjiang Nüxia," 《荒江女侠》(Huangjiang Heroine) becoming one of the first female stars of Chinese cinema's classic era of martial arts movies.  When the Japanese attacked Shanghai in January, 1932, setting off a two-month conflict, several of the city's film studios were forced out of business, Youlian among them.  So in 1933 Xu Qinfang and Chen Kengran moved to the Mingxing studio, where they continued their movie careers as actress and director, respectively.  Xu's first film for Mingxing was a talkie, "Jian Mei zhi Lu"《健美质路》(An Actress on the Way), in which she co-starred with Zheng Xiaoqiu.     

[right, Xu Qinfang with Zheng Xiaoqiu in 1933 publicity still]

    In 1935, she moved over to the Xinmin studio, and after full scale war with Japan erupted in 1937, she had lead roles in films for Shanghai's handful of wartime studios:  Tianyi, Yihua, Guohua and Huaxin.  She left Shanghai in 1941 and participated in theater work in the unoccupied areas of Guilin and Chengdu, modern plays and Beijing operas which were patriotic and morale-boosting.  In 1949, she resumed her movie career, but after two films returned to the stage, acting in and teaching Beijing opera performing with the Shanghai People's Opera Troupe.  

Xu Qinfang died February 8, 1985.  Not much information is available concerning her early years other than what is given above, but Chinese sources describe her as having been a "heroine" off-screen as well as on from her quick actions during the student demonstrations of 1925.

Gao Qianping (?-?)

     Little is recorded about the life of Gao Qianping (高倩苹), although she was in more than 30 films, in both lead and major supporting roles, but her later life is noteworthy for its having taken an unusual career path.  She made her first screen appearance in 1927, in a small role, then had an important supporting role in the one production from Yang Naimei's self-invested film company, 1928's "Strange Woman."  The following year she joined the Xinmin studio, acting the female lead in "Wandering Swordsman."  During the era when martial arts films were a mania, she was featured in several of these, usually as the damsel in distress.  Her roles improved after she joined the Mingxing studio, and with the rise of the left-wing film movement, appearing in such major motion pictures as "Harvest," "Two on One" and "Spring Silkworms."  Gao was in more than 30 productions during her film career, acting a wide variety of characters.  The details are not recorded, but in 1935, she had what is described as a "non-romantic entanglement" with fellow Mingxing actor Gao Zhanfei; whatever the incident, the outcome was that Gao Qianping retired from films, after which she studied law and later joined the ranks of Shanghai attorneys, an unusual career twist.

Tang Tianxiu (? - ?)

    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 entered films in 1926 with the Da Zhonghua (Greater China) film company, and 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 such classics as "Dawn in the Metropolis," "Little Toys," "Song of the Fishermen," and "New Women."  She retired from the screen in 1935.

Han Yunzhen (? - ?)

    Han Yunzhen (韩云珍) was born in Beiping (now Beijing).  Her family moved to Shanghai and later Suzhou and after graduating from a girls' secondary school in Suzhou, she took a teaching job there.  The details as to how the transition to acting came about are unrecorded, but in 1923 she joined Dan Duyu's Shanghai Film Company, and after making several films for that studio she largely free-lanced for several Shanghai studios throughout the 1920s, retiring in 1932.
   In most of her movies Han was cast as a sexpot, a woman of easy virtue and strong desires who, regardless of social status, was not above a bit of the old slap-and-tickle when the opportunity arose.  From the pictures here, one might assume she was convincing in such roles.
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Filmography (all as actress):

1923:
The Widow Wants to Remarry
Heaven's Book
Abandoned Wife

1925:
Back Home From the City
Yanghua's Hate
A Stormy Night

1926:
Transparent Shanghai
Live on Love
Three Girls in Shanghai

1927:
A Dissolute Young Lady

1928:
Bloodshed in the Lion Chamber

1929:
Confessing her Sins
The Beauty Under the Blade

1930:
The Burning of Red Lotus Temple (parts 4 - 16)

Yang Jingwo (? - ?)

     Although she made just a few films in the late 1920s, and most of those in supporting roles, the films were major ones.  Yang Jingwo 杨静我 was a native of Shanghai, and after a public school education joined the Baihe Film Company as an actress in 1925, working at Baihe and its post-merger successor Da Zhonghua Baihe her entire career.  Yang's first screen appearance was in "A Student's Hard Life", written and directed by Guan Haifeng, and her only lead role was in 1927's "Redress of Grievance", a film treatment of the classic detective novel, "Casebook of Judge Bao".  Her last appearance was in a 1930 martial arts series, "The Burning of Seven-Star Mansion".

Filmography (all as actress):
1925:
A Student's Hard Life
The Young Factory Owner
1926:
Live on Love 
Ma Jiefu
Mother's Happiness
A Visit Home
1927:
Redress of Grievance
The Beauty Trap (pts.I-II)
1928:
A Complicated Plot
1930:
Red Heroine (pt.II)
The Burning of Seven-Star Mansion (Pts.I-VI)

Wang Xieyan (? - ?)

     Wang Xieyan (王谢燕), was a familiar lao dan (an older female character, usually an important supporting role) in silent era films.  Her first screen appearance was in 1924 in the Baihe studio's "Tea Picking Girl."  She subsequently worked in more than 20 movies at the Mingxing, Minxin and Fudan studios in such significant motion pictures as "Roses Bloom Everywhere in April (1926)," “A Beauty of 16 (1927)," "The Wandering Songstress (1927)," "A Dream of Red Mansions (1927)," "She Wants to be Free (1928)," "Yang Xiaozhen," and "The Burning of Seven Star Mansion I-V (1929-30)."

Fu Lühen (1907 - ?)

    Fu Lühen 傅绿痕 was born in Shanghai, birth name Fu Zhufeng 傅珠风.  After attending several of Shanghai's better girls' schools, she joined the Mingxing studio at age 18, and appeared in six of that studio's films between 1925-26.

Zhou Wenzhu (? - ?)

    Zhou Wenzhu 周文珠 was a native of Zhenhai, Zhejiang.  She entered films via the Mingxing studio's film school, and with other Mingxing students made her first, uncredited screen appearance in 1922's "The King of Comedy Visits Shanghai." Although her first credited role was with Wang Hanlun in "An Orphan Saves his Grandfather," and actually made her film debut a bit earlier than Yin Mingzhu, Zhou Wenzhu never equaled their fame.   This may have been because the majority of her early films were short features, but her personal life didn't help her career.  After ending a relationship with an overseas Chinese returnee, she married her boss, actor-director Wang Cilong (younger brother of actor-director Wang Yuanlong).  Husband and wife were both drug addicts, and their life together was on a steadily downward slope from the wedding day on, culminating in a divorce at the end of the 1930s (Wang Cilong had moved in with another woman).  While he continued supporting Zhou and their child after that, Wang's drug use worsened, leading to his death in 1941, age 34.  This terminated completely the financial support of his wife and child.  She was unable to obtain any assistance from her former studio, and her own past drug use had left her physically and mentally incapable of making any sort of comeback.  In the end, she was reduced to street begging, her child by the hand.  Her ultimate fate is unrecorded.
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Filmography (all acting):

1922:
The King of Comedy Visits Shanghai ... (uncredited)
1923:
An Orphan Saves his Grandfather ... Madame Huang
1925:
On a Stormy Night ... Yuqing
Tears on the Battlefield ... Huiru
1926:
Ma Jiefu ... Madame Yin
Mother's Happiness ... Mama   [still photo, above right]
Circle of Debt ...
A Visit Home ... Zhou Meiyun
Transparent Shanghai ... Zhou Yunyu
1927:
The Beauty Trap ... Wu Guotai
Disciples Contend in the Spring ...
Redressing a Grievance ... Liu's wife
1928:
Four Heroes of the Wang Family, pt.I  ...
A Demon's Shadow in the Imperial Palace ...
The King of Money ... Kang Lin's mother
A Complicated Plot ... Meifang
Ma Zhenhua ... Ma Zhenhua
Secret History of the Qing Court ... Huifang
A Shanghai Dance Hostess ... Rose
Silver Gun Robber ... Zhou Ahmei
1929:
Four Heroes of the Wang Family, pt.II ... Wang Kejun / the beautiful concubine
1930:
Road to Riches ... Chen Liyun
Burning of the Red Lotus Temple, pts.XII, XIV ...
Circus Girl ... the circus girl
A Red Egg ...
1931:
Struggle Between Love and Desire ... Zhou Wanzhen
Hengniang ... Hengniang
A Free Soul ... Luo Lüniang
Two Galaxy Stars ...
1932:
Confronting the National Crisis Together ... first daughter-in-law
Hell at Sea ...
1934:
Give Back My Home ... Meili
1937:
Song at Midnight ... old woman
Youth on the March ...
1940:
Pan Qiaoyun ... Grandmother Hu
1943:
Under the Roofs of Shanghai
(actually filmed sometime before WW2, released in 1943)