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Ruan Lingyu
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- This is a Chinese name; the family name is Ruan.
Ruan Lingyu (Chinese: 阮玲玉; pinyin: Ruǎn Língyù; April 26, 1910 – March 8, 1935) was a Chinese silent film actress. She was one of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930s.
Contents
- 1 Career
- 2 Death
- 3 Trivia
- 4 Selected filmography
- 5 See also
- 6 References
- 7 External links
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Career
Born as Ruan Fenggeng (阮凤根) in Shanghai, Ruan made her first film at the age of 16 for the then prominent Mingxing Film Studio. Her first big break came in Spring Dream of an Old Capital (故都春梦 or Reminiscences of Beijing, 1930). A massive hit, it was her first major work after signing for the newly-formed Lianhua Studio.
Thereafter Ruan became the company's major film star. Her best works came after 1931, starting with the melodrama
Love and Duty (戀愛與義務, 1931) (directed by
Bu Wancang). Beginning with
Three Modern Women (三个摩登女性, 1932; dir: Bu Wanchang), Ruan started collaborating with a group of talented leftist directors; most of her subsequent films have a strong socialist slant to it. In
Little Toys (小玩意, 1933), a film by
Sun Yu, Ruan played a long-suffering toy-maker. Her next film,
Shennü (神女,
The Goddess, 1934; dir:
Wu Yonggang), is often hailed as the pinnacle of Chinese silent cinema, with Ruan's portrayal of a sympathetic
prostitute one of the classics of the era. Later that year, Ruan made her last film,
New Women (新女性), with director
Cai Chusheng, where she played an educated woman forced to death by an unfeeling society.
Death
Following the completion of
New Women, Ruan's life began to unravel. Cai Chusheng, under massive pressure from street
tabloids, retaliating for a scathing depiction of them in
New Women, was forced to make extensive cuts to the film. Even then, Ruan's private life was mercilessly hoarded upon and her on-going lawsuit with her first husband a source of vindictive coverage. Faced with these public issues as well as with intense private problems, Ruan poisoned herself with an overdose of
barbiturates in Shanghai on
March 8,
1935, at the age of 24. Her death note apparently contained a line which says "Gossip Is a fearful thing", although some have doubted the note's authenticity. Her funeral procession was reportedly three miles long, with three women committing suicide during it
[1]. Even China's preeminent intellectual
Lu Xun was appalled at the details surrounding Ruan's death, and wrote an essay denouncing the tabloids
[2].
Trivia
- A complete print of the presumably lost Love and Duty (1931) was discovered in the 1990s in Uruguay.[3]
Selected filmography
- The Couple in Name (掛名的夫妻, 1927)
- The White Cloud Pagoda (白雲塔, 1928)
- Suicide Contract (自殺合同, 1929)
- Jie hou gu hong (劫後孤鴻, 1929)
- Qing yu bao jian (情欲寶鑑, 1929)
- Reminiscence of Peking (故都春梦, 1930)
- Wild Flowers (野草閒花, 1930)
- A Spray of Plum Blossoms (一剪梅, 1931)
- Peach Blossom Weep Tears of Blood (桃花泣血記, 1931)
- Love and Duty (戀愛與義務, 1931)
- Little Toys (小玩意, 1933)
- Three Modern Women (三个摩登女性, 1933)
- Goodbye, Shanghai (再會吧，上海, 1934)
- Sea of Fragrant Snow (香雪海, 1934)
- The Goddess (神女, 1934)
- New Women (新女性, 1934)
See also
References
- ^ http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/ArticleView.asp?link=yes&P_Article=12875
- ^ http://www.china.org.cn/english/features/film/165476.htm
- ^ http://www.sino.uni-heidelberg.de/eacs2004/content/programme/film_love_and_duty/index.php
