Ruan Lingyu - Career

Career

Ruan was born in Shanghai in 1910 to a working-class family. Her father, a worker, died when she was young, and her mother brought her up working as a housemaid.

In 1926, to help make ends meet, Ruan signed up for the then prominent Mingxing Film Studio. She made her first film at the age 16. That film, A Married Couple in Name only (掛名的夫妻/挂名的夫妻) was directed by Bu Wancang.

In 1928, she signed for Da Zhonghua Baihe Company (大中華百合公司/大中华百合公司) where she shot six films.

Ruan's first big break came in Spring Dream of an Old Capital (故都春夢 or Reminiscences of Beijing, 1930) which was a massive hit in China. It was Ruan's first major work after signing for the newly-formed Lianhua Studio in 1930. In it, she successfully played a prostitute by the name of Yanyan.

Thereafter Ruan became Lianhua's major film star. Her most memorable works came after 1931, starting with the melodrama Love and Duty (戀愛與義務, 1931) (directed by Bu Wancang). Ruan had by then gained popularity owing to a string of lead roles and in 1933, Ruan was voted second runner-up in a poll held by Star Daily (明星日報) for China's "movie queen" (Hu Die emerged the winner and Chen Yumei was first runner-up).

Beginning with Three Modern Women (三個摩登女性/三个摩登女性, 1932; dir: Bu Wanchang), Ruan started collaborating with a group of talented leftist Chinese directors. In Little Toys (小玩意, 1933), a film by Sun Yu, Ruan played a long-suffering toy-maker. Her next film, The Goddess (神女 Shennü, 1934; dir: Wu Yonggang), is often hailed as the pinnacle of Chinese silent cinema; Ruan sympathetically portrayed a prostitute bringing up a child. Later that year, Ruan made her penultimate film, New Women (新女性), directed by Cai Chusheng, where she played an educated Shanghai woman forced to death by an unfeeling society.

A final film, National Customs (國風) was released shortly after her death.