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Ruan Lingyu
Ruan Lingyu (born Ruan Fenggen; April 26, 1910 – March 8, 1935), also known by her English name Lily Yuen, was a Chinese silent film actress. One of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930s, her exceptional acting ability and suicide at the age of 24 led her to become an icon of Chinese cinema. Early life Ruan was born to a working class family in Shanghai, and her ancestral home is in Xiangshan, Guangdong. Her father died when she was young, and her mother brought her up working as a housemaid. Career Early career In 1926, to help make ends meet, Ruan signed up for the prominent Mingxing Film Company. She made her first film at the age of 16. The film, ''A Married Couple in Name Only'' (掛名的夫妻/挂名的夫妻), was directed by Bu Wancang. Two years later, she was signed by Da Zhonghua Baihe Company (大中華百合公司/大中华百合公司), where she shot six films. Her first big break came in ''Spring Dream of an Old Capital'' ( or ''Reminiscenc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ruan (surname)
Ruan (, ) is a Chinese surname. The Taiwanese Hokkien version or is transcribed Oán and Ńg in Pe̍h-ōe-jī. The Cantonese version is romanized Jyun2 in the Jyutping system or Yún in the Yale system, or more commonly Yuen or Un (the latter is typical in Macau). In Hokchew Chinese, it is Nguang. Its Vietnamese equivalent is Nguyễn (pronounced in Northern Vietnamese and in Southern Vietnamese), and is the most common Vietnamese family name. Notable people named Ruan * Ruan Zongze, Dr. Ruan served in the Chinese Embassy in the United States as Minister Counselor. Currently, he is Executive Vice President and a senior research fellow at CIIS. He is also editor-in-chief of the CIIS journal -China International Studies, and member of the UNDP Human Development Report Advisory Panel. * Ruan Chengfa, a Chinese politician, governor of Yun Nan and Party secretary of Wu Han. *Ruan Yu, a literature writer during Han Dynasty (Chinese: 阮瑀; ?-212) * Ruan Xiaoxu, a bibliography ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Star Daily
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth make them appear as fixed points of light. The most prominent stars have been categorised into constellations and asterisms, and many of the brightest stars have proper names. Astronomers have assembled star catalogues that identify the known stars and provide standardized stellar designations. The observable universe contains an estimated to stars. Only about 4,000 of these stars are visible to the naked eye, all within the Milky Way galaxy. A star's life begins with the gravitational collapse of a gaseous nebula of material composed primarily of hydrogen, along with helium and trace amounts of heavier elements. Its total mass is the main factor determining its evolution and eventual fate. A star shines for most of its active life due t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Uruguay
Uruguay (; ), officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay ( es, República Oriental del Uruguay), is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast; while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast. It is part of the Southern Cone region of South America. Uruguay covers an area of approximately and has a population of an estimated 3.4 million, of whom around 2 million live in the metropolitan area of its capital and largest city, Montevideo. The area that became Uruguay was first inhabited by groups of hunter–gatherers 13,000 years ago. The predominant tribe at the moment of the arrival of Europeans was the Charrúa people, when the Portuguese first established Colónia do Sacramento in 1680; Uruguay was colonized by Europeans late relative to neighboring countries. The Spanish founded Montevideo as a military stronghold in the early 18th century bec ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
National Customs
''National Customs'' () is a 1935 Chinese film directed by Luo Mingyou and Zhu Shilin. The film was silent film star Ruan Lingyu's last performance before she died in 1935. This film is a propaganda film promoting the New Life Movement, which was launched in 1934. Cast *Lim Cho Cho as Zhang Jie, a rural school principal *Ruan Lingyu as Zhang Lan, Zhang Jie's elder daughter *Li Lili as Zhang Tao, Zhang Jie's younger daughter *Zheng Junli as Chen Zuo, a cousin of the Zhang sisters *Luo Peng Luo may refer to: Luo peoples and languages *Luo peoples, an ethno-linguistic group of eastern and central Africa **Luo people of Kenya and Tanzania or Joluo, an ethnic group in western Kenya, eastern Uganda, and northern Tanzania. *** Luoland, th ... as Xu Boyang, a classmate External links * * 1935 films Chinese silent films Chinese propaganda films Chinese drama films 1935 drama films Chinese black-and-white films Silent drama films {{China-film-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ai Xia
Ai Xia (; 29 November 1912 – 15 February 1934) was a Chinese left-wing silent film actress and screenwriter. She committed suicide in 1934, the first Chinese actor to have done so. Her suicide inspired Cai Chusheng's classic film ''New Women'' starring Ruan Lingyu, who also killed herself soon after the release of the film. Life and career Ai Xia was born Yan Yinan () on November 29, 1912 in Tianjin to a large middle-class family. She attended university. After graduating, she fell in love with her cousin and had a child. Her family disapproved of the relationship, resulting in her lover leaving. In 1928, she was in an arranged marriage but, as a personal protest, left home for Shanghai to pursue a career in film. Ai Xia started her career as a stage actor with the South China Theater Society (''Nanguo jushe''), founded by Tian Han, before joining the Leftists Dramatists League (''Zuoyi juzuojia lianmeng''). She was introduced to Mingxing (Star) Film Company in 1932. She wro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cai Chusheng
Cai Chusheng (January 12, 1906 – July 15, 1968) was a Cinema of China, Chinese film director of the pre-Communist era, and was the first Chinese director to win an international film award at the Moscow International Film Festival. Best known for his progressive output in the 1930s, Cai Chusheng was later severely persecuted and died during the Cultural Revolution. His ashes are kept at the Babaoshan Revolutionary Cemetery in Beijing. Biography Early career Cai was born in Shanghai to Cantonese people, Cantonese parents, but raised in Chaoyang District, Shantou, Chaoyang, Guangdong. He only had four years of formal education, and was home-schooled after he had spoken up for his class about the misbehavior of a teacher. While home-schooled, he studied Confucianism and practiced calligraphy and painting.Pickowicz, p. 371 Cai Chusheng initially worked in low-level positions in several small studios during the 1920s, before eventually joining Mingxing Film Company as a director ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
New Women
''New Women'' () is a 1935 Chinese silent drama film produced by the United Photoplay Service. It is sometimes translated as ''New Woman''. The film starred Ruan Lingyu (in her penultimate film) and was directed by Cai Chusheng. This film became one of Ruan Lingyu’s better known works. Her suicide on International Women’s day (8 March 1935) drew attention to the controversial status of new women and made this film a sensation in modern China. The product of "New Women" has been the result of a social economic trend and reform social movement that has been going on for decades. It offered criticism to China's traditional ideology and offered a change in China’s “old women” to “new women” as an alternative social convention. ''New Women'' was considered to be a “problem film” in inciting “the woman question”. This question is actually a set of questions which pertain to how the ‘new women’ of China would be considered within society. Questions such as what ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prostitute
Prostitution is the business or practice of engaging in sexual activity in exchange for payment. The definition of "sexual activity" varies, and is often defined as an activity requiring physical contact (e.g., sexual intercourse, non-penetrative sex, oral sex, etc.) with the customer. The requirement of physical contact also creates the risk of transferring diseases. Prostitution is sometimes described as sexual services, commercial sex or, colloquially, hooking. It is sometimes referred to euphemistically as "the world's oldest profession" in the English-speaking world. A person who works in this field is called a prostitute, or more inclusively, a sex worker. Prostitution occurs in a variety of forms, and its legal status varies from country to country (sometimes from region to region within a given country), ranging from being an enforced or unenforced crime, to unregulated, to a regulated profession. It is one branch of the sex industry, along with pornography, stri ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Wu Yonggang
Wu Yonggang (November 1, 1907 – December 18, 1982) was a prominent Chinese film director during the 1930s. Today Wu is best known for his directorial debut, '' The Goddess''. Wu had a long career with the Lianhua Film Company in the 1930s, in Chongqing during the war, and in the mainland after the 1949 communist revolution. Biography Wu Yonggang was born in Shanghai in 1907, but was considered a native of his ancestral home Wu County, Jiangsu in Chinese convention. Wu Yonggang was one of the major leftist film directors of pre-Communist China. For the early part of his career, Wu was a set designer with Dazhonghua Baihe, before transferring to the Shaw Brothers' Tianyi Film Company. He was eventually noticed by Shi Dongshan at the newly formed Lianhua Film Company. His first film from the director's chair, 1934's '' The Goddess'' (under contract with Lianhua), earned both him and the film's star, Ruan Lingyu, rave reviews. A prolific director, Wu continued to make films we ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Goddess (1934 Film)
''The Goddess'' (Chinese: 神女) is a 1934 Chinese silent film released by the Lianhua Film Company (United Photoplay). The film tells the story of an unnamed woman, who lives as a streetwalker by night and devoted mother by day in order to get her young son an education amid social injustice in the streets of Shanghai, China. It stars Ruan Lingyu in one of her final roles, and was directed by Wu Yonggang. Lo Ming Yau produced the film and Hong Weilie was the cinematographer.Wood, Bret.The Goddess (1934)" Turner Classic Movies. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2017. The public responded with enthusiasm, largely due to Ruan Lingyu's popularity in Shanghai in the early 1930s.Hildreth, Richard.The Goddess. The Goddess , Silent Film Festival. N.p., n.d. Web. May 2017. Four years after the original release of ''Goddess'', Yonggang Wu remade the film as ''Yanzhi Lei)'' with changes made to the cast, the setting, and parts of the storyline. After Stanley Kwan's revival of Ruan Lingyu's story throu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sun Yu (director)
Sun Yu (March 21, 1900 – July 11, 1990) was a major leftist film director active in the 1930s in Shanghai. One of the core directors of the Lianhua Film Company, Sun Yu made a name for himself with a series of socially conscious dramas in the early to mid-1930s. After the Japanese invasion of China in 1937, Sun Yu made his way to the interior, where he continued to make films glorifying the war effort against the Japanese. His career took a turn for the worse after the Communist victory in 1949. In ''The Life of Wu Xun'', Sun Yu's big-budget biographical picture of the titular Qing Dynasty educator, Sun attracted the wrath of Mao Zedong, who personally criticized the film in an essay. Though Sun never fully recovered from the episode, he has regained his reputation as one of the foremost filmmakers of the golden age of Chinese cinema. Besides his work in cinematography, Sun Yu is known as a poet and translator, with two translations of Li Po's poems appearing in ''Poetry'' mag ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Little Toys
''Playthings'' (), also known as ''Little Toys'', is a 1933 silent film directed by filmmaker Sun Yu. It is one of two films Sun Yu directed in 1933 (the other being '' Daybreak''). The film stars popular Chinese actress Ruan Lingyu, and was produced by the leftist film production company, Lianhua Film Company. The story follows a village toy-maker, Sister Ye, who urges a group of villagers to continue making traditional playthings despite immense competition from foreign toy factories. Synonymous to many other films made during the same time period, ''Playthings'' is a patriotic propaganda film that expresses skepticism towards China's rapid urbanization and industrialization. Made after Japan's invasion of China, ''Little Toys'' is a "Marxist war melodrama, containing strong nationalist sentiment yet reflecting Western influences." Today, the film is recognized as one of the best Chinese films of the 20th century. Cast *Ruan Lingyu as Sister Ye, the main character and a ski ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
