The Chinese Mirror

Zi Luolan (1915 - )

[left, a newspaper photo of Zi Luolan, taken in 1940 when she was 25.  For other images of Zi, see our post discussing her 1931 film,《Two Galaxy Stars》

    The actress billed in Shanghai as Zi Luolan 紫罗兰 and in Hong Kong as Violet Wong was born Huang Ziluo 黄紫罗 in 1915.  She was a child prodigy, displaying considerable musical talent at a very early age, and making her public debut at the age of 8 in the 1923 Guangzhou Spring Festival entertainment concert.  After appearing in a small role in the Tianyi studio's first sound film《Pleasures of the Dance Hall》, she co-starred opposite Jin Yan in《Two Galaxy Stars》, a major success for the Lianhua studio, and which led to their being paired again in《A Music Teacher》the following year.  Had she remained in Shanghai, Zi Luolan might have become one of Lianhua's premiere leading ladies during the late silent era, but by the time her last Shanghai film was released she had left for Hong Kong.  There, in April, 1932 she married a young man who was the son of a prominent political figure in the Nationalist government.  (The couple divorced in 1940.)  In 1935, with the renaissance of the Hong Kong motion picture industry under the leadership of Li Beihai, Zi Luolan returned to the screen, and for the rest of that decade she worked steadily in Hong Kong Cantonese films.  In addition, she was a major star of Cantonese opera, so prominent in that role that Chinese sources usually list her as an opera performer first, and a movie star second.  (A scene from one of her most popular operatic performances was recreated in the classic 1986 action comedy《Peking Opera Blues》, in which the character played by Sally Yeh finally gets the chance to appear on stage, previously forbidden by tradition.)  But while she was primarily regarded as an opera star, "Violet Wong" had a prolific film career in Hong Kong in the 1930s, making 13 films in 1939 alone.  In 1940 she turned to war work and organized the "Violet Song and Dance Troupe," a 15-member aggregation which toured Southeast Asia giving patriotic and morale-boosting performances to the Chinese community in that region.

(Complete filmography follows after the bump)

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             
*******************
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

Lü En (1920-2012)

    Lü En 吕恩 (1920-2012) was born Yu Chen 俞晨 in Changshu, Jiangsu province.  In 1938 she was admitted to the National Drama College, graduating in 1941.  She had a long stage career, appearing in dozens of dramatic works in Chongqing, Shanghai, Hong Kong, Beijing and other places.  She also made over 10 movies in the postwar era, and then after the founding of the Beijing People's Art Theatre became a member of its stock company in 1953.   Her two signature roles are considered to be that of Fanyi in the stage production of《Thunderstorm》and Bai Koudai ("White Pockets") in the 1982 motion picture《Rickshaw Boy》.  During the "Cultural Revolution" she was made to labor long hours in the sun, as a result of which she contracted the inflammatory autoimmune disease lupus erythematosus, and although she was cured, she was forced to bid farewell to the stage. In the 1990s she was honored with various awards for her achievements in fostering and developing Chinese theater, and in 1999 was awarded the "Lifetime Contribution Award" by the State Council, China's supreme governing body.  In her later years, Lü En was invalided from various ailments.  She died August 15, 2012, age 91. 

[right, Lü En in a publicity photo from《Thunderstorm》] 

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]

Shu Lijuan (? - ?)

    Shu Lijuan 舒丽娟 had a long screen acting career, mostly in supporting roles.  She began with the Tianyi studio in 1930, and after acting the female lead in a few of Tianyi's costume dramas, she became one of the Shao (Shaw) brothers mainstay supporting actors throughout that decade.  The exact number of her film appearances is unknown, as she was often well down in the credits or uncredited, but usually playing a leading character's mother or aunt.  During World War II she worked for all the Shanghai "Orphan Island" studios at one time or another, then continued acting after the war, with her last film credit in 1947.

 

Filmography (all as actress):

1930:
Yang Yunyou Marries Dong Qichang Three Times
Third Aunt Li
A Complicated Case, pt.2

1931:
The Qianlong Emperor Travels the South, pts.7,9
Buddhist Red Tears

1932:
Orchid Girl
Two Daughters of the Northeast

1933:
Two Ducks on a Sea of Evil

1934:
Mr. Wang
Joyous Enemies

1935:
Two Brothers

1936:
By the Huangpu River

1937:
Great Wealth, pts.1,2

1938:
Sunrise

1939:
The Leper Girl

1941:
Way of Living
A Little Lady

1944:
Song of the City
Dragon and Tiger
The Great Detective

1945:
Many Household Renewed

1947:
Nepotism

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
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
Three Heroes Named Wang

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