Zheng Junli
Encyclopedia
Zheng Junli (December 6, 1911 – April 23, 1969) was a Chinese
actor and director born in Shanghai
and who rose to prominence in the golden age of Chinese Cinema
.
and studied play acting.
During the 1930s, Zheng was an actor under contract with Lianhua Film Company
. While with Lianhua, he played a number of roles, notably as the love-interest Yu Haichou in the film New Women
opposite Ruan Lingyu
.
Zheng began to focus his efforts on directing, most notably with the film The Spring River Flows East (co-directed with Cai Chusheng
) (1947) and his anti-KMT
polemic Crows and Sparrows
(1948). In 1957, the latter was awarded Excellent Movie Award first-class (1949-1955) by Minister of Culture of PRC.
On 2nd meeting of CPC 7th national congress, Mao Zedong
mentioned some issues of CPC cadres after entering the cities. Zheng immediately followed the directive and made the movie "The Married Couple" (我们夫妇之间), starring Zhao Dan and Jiang Tianliu. It told a story that a CPC cadre ditched his original wife in village in order to marry a girl in the city, showing his failure to resist the temptation of "sugar-coated bullet". This movie was banned even before the public release.
Zheng was a member of Art Commission of Shanghai Film Studio, and used to support the making of "The Life of Wu Xun" (武训传). This movie was severely excoriated by CPC authority and Zheng felt guilty of that. His former production, "The Married Couple", was also criticized at this time, which exerted great pressure on the director.
In order to criticize "The Life of Wu Xun", Jiang Qing
and her gang went to Shandong to do research. They found another figure, Song Jingshi, a peasant uprising leader of "Black Flag Army" in history. They thus erected Song and Black Flag Army as revolutionary examples to further denounce Wu Xun. They borrowed Zheng Junli for a long time to study this movie script. However, a dilemma was encountered by Zheng and Sun Yu
, another screenplay writer. In the real history, Song Jingshi eventually surrendered to Qing Dynasty
, but for political purpose, Song must be depicted as a determined revolutionist. A compromise was finally reached as Song's surrendering was designed as a tactic. Due to the false position of "The Life of Wu Xun", Shanghai Film Studio hoped new production "Song Jingshi" would redeem its political mistakes. The then vice director of movie bureau, Cui Wei, acted as Song Jingshi himself. Other famed actors and actresses were all willing to perform minor supporting roles. But because of the fact that Song surrendered to Qing authority, the movie was only allowed to be released for a short period after four-five years after its completion. In the end, this film of "atonement" didn't pass the censorship and was banned.
After continuous lack of success, Zheng's next two biographical pictures
on Nie Er
and Lin Zexu
(both films starred actor Zhao Dan
) won wide acclaims, and somehow alleviated his feeling of guilty.
Zheng was severely persecuted in Cultural Revolution
, and died in prison in 1969.
He was a delegate to Shanghai municipal People's Congress, a member of 3rd and 4th CPPCC, a councilman of China Film Association, China Playwrights Association and Shanghai Film Association.
He used to think his performance was rigid and not satisfactory. Thus he made great efforts to study performing theories. He first tried to translate Acting: The First Six Lessons authored by Richard Boleslavsky. Since he hadn't completed his junior high study, his English was poor. Nevertheless he was very diligent. He did the translation relying on the English dictionary, and then double-checked the original book using a Russian-English dictionary and corrected any mistakes. After that, his English was greatly improved. He was also the first one who introduced the performing system of Constantin Stanislavski into China. Stanislavski's works were all written in Russian. Zheng thus found an English-Russian & Russian-English dictionary and translated Russian to Chinese through English, which was indeed a formidable job. His translation of An Actor Prepares of Stanislavski, co-authored by Zhang Min, was the first systematic work on art performing in plays in China.
Zheng also authored the book Art History of World's Movies. At the time when no one in China dared to break ideological shackle and compare films of western world with ones of Soviet Union's, it was a breakthrough by Zheng to write a chronicle of world films from a universal perspective.
Chinese people
The term Chinese people may refer to any of the following:*People with Han Chinese ethnicity ....
actor and director born in Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...
and who rose to prominence in the golden age of Chinese Cinema
Cinema of China
The Chinese-language cinema has three distinct historical threads: Cinema of Hong Kong, Cinema of China, and Cinema of Taiwan. Since 1949 the cinema of mainland China has operated under restrictions imposed by the Communist Party of China's State Administration of Radio, Film, and Television and...
.
Early years
Zheng was born into an impoverished family, often harassed by creditors. At early ages, he showed great interest in reading and art performing. He left junior high at second grade and entered "Nanguo Art School" led by Tian HanTian Han
Tian Han , born in Changsha, Hunan, was a Chinese drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. Tian contributed a great deal to the development of Chinese modern drama as well as Chinese opera...
and studied play acting.
During the 1930s, Zheng was an actor under contract with Lianhua Film Company
Lianhua Film Company
The Lianhua Film Company was one of two major production companies based in Shanghai, China during the 1930s, the other being the Mingxing Film Company.-Names:...
. While with Lianhua, he played a number of roles, notably as the love-interest Yu Haichou in the film New Women
New Women
New Women was a silent Chinese film released in early 1935 in Shanghai by the Lianhua Film Company. It is sometimes translated as New Woman. The film starred Ruan Lingyu and was directed by Cai Chusheng....
opposite Ruan Lingyu
Ruan Lingyu
Ruan Lingyu , born Ruan Fenggen , was a Chinese silent film actress. One of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930s, her death at the age of 24 led her to become an icon of Chinese cinema.- Career :...
.
From Sino-Japanese War to Establishment of PRC
After the warSecond Sino-Japanese War
The Second Sino-Japanese War was a military conflict fought primarily between the Republic of China and the Empire of Japan. From 1937 to 1941, China fought Japan with some economic help from Germany , the Soviet Union and the United States...
Zheng began to focus his efforts on directing, most notably with the film The Spring River Flows East (co-directed with Cai Chusheng
Cai Chusheng
Resting Place= Babaoshan Revoluntionary CemeteryCai Chusheng was a Chinese film director of the pre-Communist era. Known best for his progressive output in the 1930s, Cai Chusheng later became a victim to the persecutions of the Cultural Revolution.- Early career :Born in Shanghai to Cantonese...
) (1947) and his anti-KMT
Kuomintang
The Kuomintang of China , sometimes romanized as Guomindang via the Pinyin transcription system or GMD for short, and translated as the Chinese Nationalist Party is a founding and ruling political party of the Republic of China . Its guiding ideology is the Three Principles of the People, espoused...
polemic Crows and Sparrows
Crows and Sparrows
Crows and Sparrows was a 1949 Chinese film made by Kunlun Studios on the eve of the Communist victory and directed by Zheng Junli. Notable for its extremely critical view of corrupt Nationalist bureaucrats, the film was made as Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing-based government was on the verge of...
(1948). In 1957, the latter was awarded Excellent Movie Award first-class (1949-1955) by Minister of Culture of PRC.
PRC period
Zheng welcomed the establishment of the new government of CPC. As a left-wing director, he was at first one of the beneficiaries. He moved his family from dilapidated dormitory in Kunlun Studio to the best residential area in Shanghai, opposite to the house of Song Qingling.On 2nd meeting of CPC 7th national congress, Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong
Mao Zedong, also transliterated as Mao Tse-tung , and commonly referred to as Chairman Mao , was a Chinese Communist revolutionary, guerrilla warfare strategist, Marxist political philosopher, and leader of the Chinese Revolution...
mentioned some issues of CPC cadres after entering the cities. Zheng immediately followed the directive and made the movie "The Married Couple" (我们夫妇之间), starring Zhao Dan and Jiang Tianliu. It told a story that a CPC cadre ditched his original wife in village in order to marry a girl in the city, showing his failure to resist the temptation of "sugar-coated bullet". This movie was banned even before the public release.
Zheng was a member of Art Commission of Shanghai Film Studio, and used to support the making of "The Life of Wu Xun" (武训传). This movie was severely excoriated by CPC authority and Zheng felt guilty of that. His former production, "The Married Couple", was also criticized at this time, which exerted great pressure on the director.
In order to criticize "The Life of Wu Xun", Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing
Jiang Qing was the pseudonym that was used by Chinese leader Mao Zedong's last wife and major Communist Party of China power figure. She went by the stage name Lan Ping during her acting career, and was known by various other names during her life...
and her gang went to Shandong to do research. They found another figure, Song Jingshi, a peasant uprising leader of "Black Flag Army" in history. They thus erected Song and Black Flag Army as revolutionary examples to further denounce Wu Xun. They borrowed Zheng Junli for a long time to study this movie script. However, a dilemma was encountered by Zheng and Sun Yu
Sun Yu (director)
Sun Yu 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...
, another screenplay writer. In the real history, Song Jingshi eventually surrendered to Qing Dynasty
Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty was the last dynasty of China, ruling from 1644 to 1912 with a brief, abortive restoration in 1917. It was preceded by the Ming Dynasty and followed by the Republic of China....
, but for political purpose, Song must be depicted as a determined revolutionist. A compromise was finally reached as Song's surrendering was designed as a tactic. Due to the false position of "The Life of Wu Xun", Shanghai Film Studio hoped new production "Song Jingshi" would redeem its political mistakes. The then vice director of movie bureau, Cui Wei, acted as Song Jingshi himself. Other famed actors and actresses were all willing to perform minor supporting roles. But because of the fact that Song surrendered to Qing authority, the movie was only allowed to be released for a short period after four-five years after its completion. In the end, this film of "atonement" didn't pass the censorship and was banned.
After continuous lack of success, Zheng's next two biographical pictures
Biographical film
A biographical film, or biopic , is a film that dramatizes the life of an actual person or people. They differ from films “based on a true story” or “historical films” in that they attempt to comprehensively tell a person’s life story or at least the most historically important years of their...
on Nie Er
Nie Er
Nie Er , was a Chinese composer. He is known for composing the national anthem of the People's Republic of China, the March of the Volunteers. In numerous Shanghai magazines he went by the English name "George Njal"...
and Lin Zexu
Lin Zexu
Lín Zéxú ; 30 August 1785 – 22 November 1850) was a Chinese scholar and official during the Qing Dynasty.He is most recognized for his conduct and his constant position on the "high moral ground" in his fight, as a "shepherd" of his people, against the opium trade in Guangzhou...
(both films starred actor Zhao Dan
Zhao Dan
Zhao Dan 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 Street Angel...
) won wide acclaims, and somehow alleviated his feeling of guilty.
Zheng was severely persecuted in Cultural Revolution
Cultural Revolution
The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, commonly known as the Cultural Revolution , was a socio-political movement that took place in the People's Republic of China from 1966 through 1976...
, and died in prison in 1969.
He was a delegate to Shanghai municipal People's Congress, a member of 3rd and 4th CPPCC, a councilman of China Film Association, China Playwrights Association and Shanghai Film Association.
Academics
Zheng devoted to translating and authoring works on films and plays. So far his published works include The Birth of a Role (角色的诞生) and Voice-over (画外音), among others.He used to think his performance was rigid and not satisfactory. Thus he made great efforts to study performing theories. He first tried to translate Acting: The First Six Lessons authored by Richard Boleslavsky. Since he hadn't completed his junior high study, his English was poor. Nevertheless he was very diligent. He did the translation relying on the English dictionary, and then double-checked the original book using a Russian-English dictionary and corrected any mistakes. After that, his English was greatly improved. He was also the first one who introduced the performing system of Constantin Stanislavski into China. Stanislavski's works were all written in Russian. Zheng thus found an English-Russian & Russian-English dictionary and translated Russian to Chinese through English, which was indeed a formidable job. His translation of An Actor Prepares of Stanislavski, co-authored by Zhang Min, was the first systematic work on art performing in plays in China.
Zheng also authored the book Art History of World's Movies. At the time when no one in China dared to break ideological shackle and compare films of western world with ones of Soviet Union's, it was a breakthrough by Zheng to write a chronicle of world films from a universal perspective.
As director
| Year | English Title | Chinese Title | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1947 | The Spring River Flows East | 一江春水向东流 | Co-directed with Cai Chusheng Cai Chusheng Resting Place= Babaoshan Revoluntionary CemeteryCai Chusheng was a Chinese film director of the pre-Communist era. Known best for his progressive output in the 1930s, Cai Chusheng later became a victim to the persecutions of the Cultural Revolution.- Early career :Born in Shanghai to Cantonese... |
| 1949 | Crows and Sparrows Crows and Sparrows Crows and Sparrows was a 1949 Chinese film made by Kunlun Studios on the eve of the Communist victory and directed by Zheng Junli. Notable for its extremely critical view of corrupt Nationalist bureaucrats, the film was made as Chiang Kai-shek's Nanjing-based government was on the verge of... |
乌鸦与麻雀 | |
| 1951 | The Married Couple The Married Couple -Plot:The story is about a businessman who is desolate. He becomes bored in his day to day affairs at the office and decides to contact some of his customers personally. One of them, N., is an old man whose had previous personal and business contact with. He meets N at his house, and notices how... |
我们夫妇之间 | Also known as Husband and Wife |
| 1955 | Song Jingshi | 宋景诗 | Also known as The Rebels |
| 1958 | Lin Zexu | 林则徐 | |
| 1959 | Nie Er | 聂耳 | |
| 1961 | Spring Comes to the Withered Tree | 枯木逢春 | |
| 1964 | Li Shanzi | Zheng's last film, never released due to political reasons |
As actor
| Year | English Title | Chinese Title | Role |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1932 | Wild Rose | 野玫瑰 | Xiao Li |
| 1932 | Pink Dream Pink Dream Pink Dream is a 1932 Chinese silent film and an early film by director Cai Chusheng. A melodrama, the film's social critique of the decadent urban lifestyle was nevertheless met with criticism by Shanghai's progressives as overly decadent and influenced by American cinema, particularly the film's... |
粉红色的梦 | |
| 1933 | The Blood of Passion on the Volcano | 火山情血 | Song Ke |
| 1934 | The Big Road The Big Road The Big Road , also known as The Highway is a 1934 Chinese silent film directed by Sun Yu and starring Jin Yan and Li Lili. The film deals with a group of workers who are constructing a highway for use in the war against the Japanese.... |
大路 | |
| 1934 | New Women New Women New Women was a silent Chinese film released in early 1935 in Shanghai by the Lianhua Film Company. It is sometimes translated as New Woman. The film starred Ruan Lingyu and was directed by Cai Chusheng.... |
新女性 | Yu Haichou |
| 1935 | Song of China Song of China Song of China also known as Filial Piety is a 1935 Chinese film directed by Fei Mu and Luo Mingyou for the Lianhua Film Company.... |
天伦 | |
| 1935 | National Customs 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 before her death by suicide in 1935.- Cast :*Lam Cho-cho as Zhang Tao*Li Li-li as Zhang Jie*Luo Peng as Bo Yang... |
国风 | Chen Zuo |
External links
- Zheng Junli by the Chinese Movie Database
- Analysis of The Spring River Flows East (includes a short biography of Zheng)