Peng Xiaolian (; 26 June 1953 – 19 June 2019) was a

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

, scriptwriter and author. A graduate of the 1982 class of the Beijing Film Academy, she was a member of the Fifth Generation, although her style differed from the other members of this group. She is known for her series of films about Shanghai, including '' Once Upon a Time in Shanghai'' (1998), which won the Best Picture Award of the Huabiao Awards; ''

Shanghai Story ''Shanghai Story'' () is a 2004 Chinese film directed by Peng Xiaolian. A family drama, the film was the surprise winner of the 19th Golden Rooster Awards in China, where it won best picture over the heavily favored ''House of Flying Daggers''. Th ...

'' (2004), which won four Golden Rooster Awards including Best Director and Best Picture; and '' Shanghai Rumba'' (2006), based on the romance of the movie star couple

Zhao Dan Zhao Dan (June 27, 1915 – October 10, 1980) was a Chinese actor popular in the golden age of Chinese Cinema. Biography Zhao first became famous working in the Mingxing Film Company in the 1930s including playing opposite Zhou Xuan in '' St ...

and

Huang Zongying Huang Zongying (; 13 July 192514 December 2020) was a Chinese actress and writer. She starred in many black-and-white films such as '' Rhapsody of Happiness'' (1947), ''Crows and Sparrows'' (1949), ''Women Side by Side'' (1949), and ''The Life ...

Early life

Peng was born on 26 June 1953 in Chaling County, Hunan, and grew up in Shanghai. She was the youngest daughter of (1910–1968) and his wife Zhu Weiming.Peng, Xiaolian. ''Their Times.'' Shanghai: Eastern China Normal University Press, 2010. As a young child she experienced the terror of political persecution of her father. Baishan was the Minister of Propaganda in Shanghai when he was arrested for his association with Hu Feng, a literary critic and politician. Along with other associates of Hu, he was condemned as a core member of the "Hu Feng Counterrevolutionary Clique" and suffered in prison and labor camp. This family tragedy had a major influence on Xiaolian, who vividly depicts the terrifying memories in the 1987 novella "On My Back", the 1997 short story "To That Faraway Place", and in the 2009 documentary ''Storm under the Sun'' that she co-directed with Louisa Wei.Veg, Sebastian. ''Storm under the Sun'' in The China Quarterly, June (2009): 198-199. When the Cultural Revolution began in 1966, her mother began to suffer brutality from the Red Guards. The ultimate terror of the family came in 1968 when her father was beaten to death. Even years later, Peng insisted on writing about the chaotic years and the aftermath in fictions like the novel ''Shanghai Story'', the novella "Holding up the Book I Read Everyday" and the novella "Childhood: Secrets of Four Seasons". Like millions of her generation, she was sent down to the countryside for "re-education" by peasants during the Cultural Revolution. Although she spent nine years in the countryside of Jiangxi province, not many works of hers except for "Burning Connections" write about the experience.Peng, Xiaolian. ''On the Way Home''. Shanghai: Baihua Press, 2005. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Peng entered Beijing Film Academy in 1978 to study directing, together with Li Shaohong, Chen Kaige, Tian Zhuangzhuang and others, who would later be known as China's Fifth Generation film directors.

Career

Directorial debut

Upon graduation from Beijing Film Academy in 1982, Peng was assigned to work at

Shanghai Film Studio The Shanghai Film Studio (), one of the three biggest film studios in China, is the film division of the Shanghai Film Group Corporation in Shanghai, China. It is responsible for the production of Chinese films and TV programs. History Shanghai ...

, where she first worked as an assistant director. Three years later, she was given a teenage film ''Me and My Classmates'' to direct. The film was a success and won the Best Children's Film Award of the 1987 Golden Rooster Awards. As a reward, she was a given a chance to direct a film that she had wanted to direct: ''Women's Story'' (1988). This film made her known to the world, not only by entering festivals like The Creteil Women's International Film Festival and Hawaii International Film Festival, but also praised for its strong feminine subjectivity and its portrayal of rural Chinese women.

Life in New York

In 1989, Peng won a script award for her script "Difficult Truth" at Rotterdam Film Festival, but could not make the film in China due to the tightening ideology. She thought about leaving China and the success of her first two films helped to win a Rockefeller scholarship. She enrolled in the MFA program in New York University and graduated in 1996. Although she did not complete a single film in New York, her experience in New York inspired many fictional works, including novellas “The Abingdon Square”, “Burning Connections”, “A Drop of Ram Shit” set in New York, “Exile’s Return” and “On the Way Home”—all collected in her novella collection titled ''On the Way Home''.

Directorial career

After returning to China in 1996, Peng co-wrote (with Guo Lingling) the script for

Huang Shuqin Huang Shuqin (9 September 1939 – 21 April 2022) was a Chinese film director known for her film ''Woman, Demon, Human'' (1987). Widely considered the first feminist Chinese film by critics and scholars,Kang, Kai. "Beyond New Waves: Gender and ...

's film ''My Daddy''. Together with Zhu Bin, she directed her first thriller, '' The Dog Homicide'' (1996). In the following decade, she made a series of films about Shanghai. '' Once Upon a Time in Shanghai'' (1998), a historical film about the Shanghai Campaign of 1949, won the Best Film Award of the Huabiao Awards. ''

Shanghai Women Shanghai (; , , Standard Mandarin pronunciation: ) is one of the four direct-administered municipalities of the People's Republic of China (PRC). The city is located on the southern estuary of the Yangtze River, with the Huangpu River flow ...

'' (2002) portrays contemporary life in the fast-changing city. ''

'' (2004), which explores the vicissitudes of life of a bourgeois family from the 1920s to the 1990s, won four Golden Rooster Awards, including Best Director and Best Picture. '' Shanghai Rumba'' (2006) is based on the romance of the famous movie star couple

and

. These films made her known as a representative figure in presenting the culture of Shanghai. She also made a children's animation film, '' Keke's Magic Umbrella'' (2000). In 2009, Peng co-directed (with Louisa Wei) the documentary ''Storm Under the Sun'', an investigation of the Hu Feng affair which had implicated her father. Peng and Wei interviewed 26 people who had been denounced as "counterrevolutionaries" for their association with Hu Feng.

Later life and death

Peng was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2013. She underwent chemotherapy and her health temporarily recovered. She began writing a book about her father titled ''Four Seasons of Childhood'', and planned to make it into a film. She also spent two years writing the book ''Editor Zhong Shuhe – A Documentary on Paper'', about the publisher Zhong Shuhe (). However, her health deteriorated again in November 2018 before she was able to finish either project. She died on 19 June 2019 in Shanghai, at age 66.

Selected filmography

As director

} (). Completed an unfinished documentary by Japanese director Shinsuke Ogawa. , - , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;",

2000 File:2000 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Protests against Bush v. Gore after the 2000 United States presidential election; Heads of state meet for the Millennium Summit; The International Space Station in its infant form as seen from ...

, style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", '' Keke's Magic Umbrella'' , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", Children's animation , - , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;",

1998 1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''. Events January * January 6 – The '' Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently ...

, style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", '' Once Upon a Time in Shanghai'' , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", Won the Best Film Award of the Huabiao Awards , - , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;",

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

, style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", '' The Dog Homicide'' , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", Co-directed with Zhu Bin () , - , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;",

1987 File:1987 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The MS Herald of Free Enterprise capsizes after leaving the Port of Zeebrugge in Belgium, killing 193; Northwest Airlines Flight 255 crashes after takeoff from Detroit Metropolitan Airport, k ...

, style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", ''

Women's Story A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardl ...

'' , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", , - , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;",

1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. **Spain and Portugal ente ...

, style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", '' Me and My Classmates'' , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", , style="text-align:left; vertical-align:top;", Won the Best Children's Film Award at the 1987 Golden Rooster Awards.

References

External links

* *
Peng Xiaolian
at the Chinese Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Peng, Xiaolian 1953 births 2019 deaths Film directors from Shanghai Beijing Film Academy alumni Chinese women film directors Chinese women screenwriters Asian Cultural Council grantees BAFTA winners (people) Screenwriters from Shanghai New York University alumni Chinese expatriates in the United States Chinese women novelists Film directors from Hunan Writers from Hunan People from Zhuzhou