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Li Lili

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For the Hong Kong actress, see Lily Li.

Template:Chinese name Template:Infobox Chinese-language singer and actor

Li Lili (Chinese: 黎莉莉; 2 June 1915 – 7 August 2005) was a Chinese film actress and singer. Her films Little Toys, The Big Road and Storm on the Border were blockbusters of the 1930s and 1940s.[1][2] She was sometimes called "China's Mae West".[3]

Biography

Li Lili in the 1930s

Li was born Qian Zhenzhen in Beijing, 1915. Her father, Qian Zhuangfei, was a famed secret agent and hero of the Communist Party of China.[4] In 1927, she moved to Shanghai, where her father encouraged her to join the China Song & Dance Troupe, later renamed Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe. Li Jinhui, now considered[by whom?] the Father of Chinese popular music, was the conductor of the troupe and adopted her as his god-daughter, and she changed her surname to his.[citation needed]

The troupe were very popular in 1920s Shanghai. Li Lili, Wang Renmei, Xue Lingxian (薛玲仙) and Hu Jia (胡笳) were known as Bright Moon's "Four Divas" (四大天王).[5][6] The troupe was merged into the Lianhua Film Company in 1931. Li became an actress, and starred in Sun Yu's 1932 Loving Blood of the Volcano. Set in the South Seas with plenty of dancing, this allowed Li to play to her strengths.[7] She and Wang Renmei then acted together in Poetry Written on the Banana Leaf.[citation needed]

Sun Yu wrote Queen of Sports and The Big Road for her to star in, and she won audiences with her fashionable and energetic image, gaining the nickname "Sweet Sister". Magazines characterized her as being interested in music and books.[8] From 1935 to 1937, she starred in eight more films with the Linhua Film Company.[9]

Li Lili, together with Wang Renmei and Xu Lai, her former colleagues at the Bright Moon Troupe, were the earliest stars to portray the energetic, wholesome, and sexy "country girl" prototype, which became one of the most popular figures in Chinese cinema, and later inherited by the cinema of Hong Kong.[10]

After war with Japan broke out in 1937, she joined the China Film Studio in Chungking, China's wartime capital. There she met and married Luo Jingyu, a section head, who became head of the studio. In 1939, she filmed Cai Chusheng's Orphan Island Paradise in Hong Kong; it was another hit. Back in Chongqing, she starred in another hit film Storm on the Border, for which she was highly praised.[citation needed]

Li travelled to the United States in 1946, studying acting at The Catholic University of America in Washington, language and singing in New York, and make-up at the University of California. She also observed filmmaking in Hollywood.[citation needed]

She returned to China, and to acting at the Beijing Film Studio. In 1955, she studied at Beijing Film Academy, and later taught in the acting department. Her son, Luo Dan, married the daughter of Marshal Ye Jianying; Ye became China's head of state in the late 1970s.[4]

During the Cultural Revolution, Li and her husband were denounced and tortured on the orders of Mao's wife Jiang Qing. Li had acted with her, and outshone her, in films such as Blood on Wolf Mountain. Li later told her family that she refused to denounce anyone. Luo, however, was killed.[4]

In 1991, she was given the "Special Honour Award" by the Chinese Academy of Motion Picture Arts.[citation needed]

By the end of her life, Li Lili was the last living Chinese movie star from the silent era. She died of a heart attack in Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing on August 7, 2005, aged 90.[citation needed]

Filmography

Li Lili in the 1934 film Queen of Sports

References

  1. ^ Elaine Duan, Top 10 legendary Chinese women in the 1930s: Li Lili, China.org.cn, 2011-08-15. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  2. ^ "A Jasmine Swinging In the Wind – Movie Star Li Lili's Screen Career". All-China Women's Federation. 2006-12-11. Archived from the original on 2012-07-01.
  3. ^ Xiao, Zhiwei; Zhang, Yingjin (2002). Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Routledge. p. 219. ISBN 978-1-134-74554-8.
  4. ^ a b c Shaun Rein (Li Lili's grandson-in-law) (2010-08-17). "What I Learned from China's Angelina Jolie". Forbes. Archived from the original on 2010-08-18. Retrieved 2010-10-24.
  5. ^ Elaine Duan (2011-08-15). "Top 10 legendary Chinese women in the 1930s". china.org.cn. Retrieved 2014-02-26.
  6. ^ *Zhang, Yingjin (1999). Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943. Stanford University Press. p. 146. ISBN 9780804735728.
  7. ^ "Silent Film Star Li Lili: a TV interview". English translation by Chinese Mirror. 2004-08-21. Archived from the original on 2012-07-01. {{cite web}}: Italic or bold markup not allowed in: |publisher= (help)
  8. ^ Michael G. Chang (Yingjin Zhang) (1999). Cinema and Urban Culture in Shanghai, 1922-1943. Stanford University Press. pp. 148–9. ISBN 0-8047-3188-8. {{cite book}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help)
  9. ^ Top 10 women of old Shanghai: Li Lili, China.org.cn. Retrieved 2012-05-06.
  10. ^ Ho, Sam (1 January 2004). Hong Kong Cinema: A Cross-cultural View. Scarecrow Press. p. 267. ISBN 978-0-8108-4986-0.
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