The Chinese Mirror

Gu Wuwei (1892-1961)

    Gu Wuwei 顾无为 was born in Shaoxing, Zhejiang in 1892, and grew up in Nanjing.  He initially trained for a law enforcement career, and after attending the Shanghai Police Academy, graduated from the Southern Law School.  But he became increasingly involved in political activities, and after joining the Tongmenghui, the amalgam of revolutionary groups supporting Sun Yat-sen, he turned to writing revolutionary plays, and abandoned his original career path to do publicity and liaison work for Sun.  With the founding of the Republic, he established a theater in Changsha, Hunan.  In 1915 he moved to Shanghai and continued his political work, and at one point was arrested for his open opposition to Yuan Shikai's attempt to install himself as a new emperor.  Artistically, Gu Wuwei concentrated on writing operas, performing in most of them.  In 1925 he founded the Da Zhongguo (Great China) film studio, and took on the role of principal director.  He directed, wrote and acted in several films throughout the 1920s, both for his own studio and then for the Great Wall studio.  He then took on the position of CEO of the Dahua Film Company, and also operated motion picture and stage theaters in Shanghai and Nanjing.  When the PRC was founded in 1949, Gu Wuwei relocated to Hong Kong, where he died in 1961.
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Filmography (as director, unless noted otherwise):

1925:
Who is the Mother?                  (also actor)

1926: 
Hell and Heaven                      (also actor)
The Milky Way Lovers               (writer)
Princess Lotus, I-III                   (writer)

1927:
Conquering the Dragon King
General Xue Conquers the West I,II
Three Kingdoms:  Cao Cao had the Emperor in his Power (actor)
Three Kingdoms:  Fengyi Pavilion
Bloodshed at Mandarin Duck Mansion                               (actor)

1928: 
Rescuing Mother from the Mountain
Hong Hai'er 

Liu Zhonghao (1910 - ?)

Liu Zhonghao 柳中浩 (1910 – ?) was born in Shanghai, his ancestral home being Yin Country, Zhejiang.   His father Liu Yutang 柳钰堂was from Ningbo, a city whose natives are renowned for their business shrewdness.  In the late 19th century, Liu Yutang found work on a boat that shipped duck eggs to Shanghai, and seized that opportunity to rise rapidly to the top levels of the industry.  Although he died young, he left his three sons a sizable inheritance.  In 1926, Liu Zhonghao and elder brother Liu Zhongliang 柳中亮 established the World Theater in Nanjing as a cinema house, and by 1934 Liu Zhonghao had amassed enough capital to found the Gold City Theater in Shanghai, to specialize in showing Chinese-made films.  In 1937 he established the Gold Capital Theater, which also specialized in Chinese productions.  In 1938, he and Liu Zhongliang started the Guo Hua 国华 ("Chinese Language") Film Company, and in less than 4 years their studio turned out more than 40 motion pictures, most of them in ancient costume.  When the Pacific War erupted in December, 1941, the Liu brothers refused to cooperate with the Japanese army, so their studio was shut down and the two theaters converted to stage production facilities.  After the war, the brothers established a new film studio, Guotai 国泰 (National Safety).  In 1948 the brothers agreed to part ways commercially, with Liu Zhonghao continuing to operate "Guotai" and Liu Zhongliang setting up a new studio, "Datong," (Great Unity) in partnership with his son Liu Heqing 柳和清.  The two studios continued after the founding of the People's Republic, until January 1, 1952, when as part of its transition to socialism the new government ordered all private and jointly state-private studios be consolidated into one studio, which eventually became the Shanghai Film Studio.

Lu Jie (1894-1967)

    Born in Jiading, Jiangsu (now Jiading, Shanghai) in 1894, Lu Jie 陆洁was forced to drop out of middle school in 1910 when economic setbacks plunged his family into poverty.  He went to Shanghai to find an apprenticeship, but then moved on to Singapore to seek his fortune.  After applying himself to self-study, and mastering English, he returned to Shanghai in 1918 and went to work for the YMCA.  He acquired a strong interest in movies, and with Gu Kenfu and Zhang Guangyu founded "Motion Picture Review," China's first movie magazine.  Lu Jie's responsibility was translating and writing articles dealing with foreign motion pictures.  In addition, he initiated and standardized translations of foreign film terminology into Chinese, coining such terms as "daoyan" 导演 (direction), "mingxing" 明星 (star) and "dianying benshi" 电影本事 (filmability) for Chinese filmmakers and fans.
    In 1923, Lu Jie started a business specifically aimed at handling advertising for each of Shanghai's film studios and in connection with this  began publication of another of China's earliest movie magazines, "Movie Semiweekly."  While it lasted only two months, Lu brought out more than 20 issues during that time.
     Lu Jie joined the Da Zhonghua Film Company in February, 1924 as a writer, and when that studio merged in the following year with the Baihe studio, he was a key figure in the work of reorganization.  Lu continued as a screenwriter for the new company, and either wrote the scripts or contributed the subtitles for some of the studio's most successful films throughout the rest of the 1920s.  By the end of that decade, the overall high quality of his work was regarded as a standard for China's growing film industry.  At the beginning of the 1931, he was named head of the Lianhua Film Company's No.2 studio, and under his stewardship the studio turned out a succession of recognized classics from China's first golden age of moviemaking, including "Little Toys," "Song of the Fishermen," and "The Big Road."  During Shanghai's "Orphan Island" period, Lu pulled together the management, administration and talent of three small, struggling wartime studios into one which survived for much of the war.
     When the Wenhua film studio was established in October, 1946, Lu Jie assumed the dual posts of general manager and studio head.  Although the company had fewer than 50 employees in total, under his management the Wenhua studio was able to produce four quality productions a year.  After the founding of the People's Republic, he held a succession of consulting posts, first for the Shanghai Film Studio and later for the Shanghai Municipal Film Bureau.  During his many years of service to China's movie industry, Lu Jie acquired a large collection of memorabilia related to Chinese cinema, a collection he donated to the country upon his retirement.
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Filmography:

1924
Public Opinion – writer
1925
Amid the Battle of Musketry – writer
Young Factory Manager – director
1926
Reclaim the Wasteland – writer
Transparent Shanghai – director
1927
The Sex-Trap (I,II) – co-directed
1928
A Complicated Plot (I,II) – writer, director

Gu Kenfu (189?-1932)

    Little personally is known about Gu Kenfu 顾肯夫, especially his early years.  He was born in the late 19th century in Suzhou, Jiangsu, and his original profession was the law.  In 1921 he was cast as a woman in the China Film Research Society's production of "Yan Ruisheng."   He was one of the founders in 1922 of China's first movie magazine, "Motion Picture Review," taking on its chief editorial responsibilities.  At the same time he joined the Mingxing company, participating in set management and editing.  In 1923, he started his own film studio, the Da Zhonghua (Great China) Company.  In addition to serving as studio head, Gu also wrote and directed films, then started and operated the company's film school.  In 1928 he drew on his legal background to participate in drafting the Shanghai Film Review Regulations, and in 1929, served as an advisor to the national government's commission on opera and film.  In 1932, Gu was the leader in establishing the Chinese Film Education Association, but died suddenly that same year.
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Filmography

1921:
Yan Ruisheng – actor

1924:
Public Opinion – co-director

1925:
The Newcomer's Family – writer

1926:
Shanghai Nights - - writer
Leopard – director
Three Girls in Shanghai – writer
The Gate of Justice – director, writer
All for Love – director

1927:
The Good Son – co-director
A Crushing Blow – actor
A Prostitute's Wish – director

Zhou Jianyun (1883-1967)

    Zhou Jianyun周剑云 (1883-1967).  Native of Hefei, Anhui.  Was head of the Shanghai Aili Library and editor in its publishing division.  One of the five co-founders and directors of the Mingxing (Star) Film Company in 1922. In addition to serving as one of the new studio's directors, he took on several concurrent executive posts, including manager, director of official correspondence, publishing director and head of its business department. 

Highlights of Zhou Jianyun's film career:
1928:  initiated and accomplished an alliance of Mingxing with five other Shanghai film companies to establish a China-wide movie distribution network. 
1932:  facilitated a linkup between left-wing artists with the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to develop the Party's work in film circles. 
1935:  member, Chinese delegation to the Moscow International Film Festival.
1936:  supported the policy of "serving the times," his second cooperation with the CCP.
1937:  After the destruction of the Mingxing studios by the invading Japanese forces, held a post with the Jinxing (Gold Star) Film Co.
After WWII, organized the Da Zhonghua (Great China) Film Co. of Hong Kong.  Retired from motion pictures after 1949.  Died in 1967.