Ruan Lingyu
Ruan Lingyu, born Ruan Fenggen, also known by her English name Lily Yuen, was a Chinese silent film actress. One of the most prominent Chinese film stars of the 1930s, her exceptional acting ability and suicide at the age of 25 led her to become an icon of Chinese cinema.
Her films Little Boys , Goddess and New Women are available with English subtitles on YouTube.
Early life
Ruan was born to a working class family in Shanghai. Her father died when she was young, and her mother brought her up working as a housemaid.Career
Acting career
In 1926, to help make ends meet, Ruan signed up for the prominent Mingxing Film Company. She made her first film at the age of 16. The film, A Married Couple in Name Only, was directed by Bu Wancang. Two years later, she was signed by Da Zhonghua Baihe Company, where she shot six films. Her first big break came in Spring Dream of an Old Capital which was a massive hit in China. It was Ruan's first major work after signing with the newly formed Lianhua Studio in 1930. In it, she played a prostitute by the name of Yanyan.Breakthrough and personal struggles
Thereafter, Ruan became Lianhua's major film star. Her most memorable works came after 1931, starting with the melodrama Love and Duty. Ruan had by then gained popularity owing to a string of lead roles, and in 1933 she was voted second runner-up in a poll held by Star Daily for China's "movie queen".. Beginning with Three Modern Women, Ruan started collaborating with a group of leftist Chinese directors.Final days before death
In Little Toys, a film by Sun Yu, Ruan played a long-suffering toy-maker. Her next film, The Goddess, 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, in which she played an educated woman forced to death by an unfeeling society. The film was based on the life of actress Ai Xia, who killed herself in 1934. Her final film, National Customs, was released shortly after her death.One of Ruan's earliest films, Love and Duty, directed by Bu Wancang, was discovered in Uruguay in 1994.
Personal life
At the age of 16, Ruan became acquainted with Zhang Damin, whose family her mother worked for. Zhang was later driven out of his wealthy family due to his spendthrift ways and became a chronic gambler, supported by Ruan's salary. Unable to tolerate Zhang's gambling, Ruan split with him in 1933. She then began living with Tang Jishan, a tea tycoon. In 1935, Zhang filed a lawsuit asking for reparations from Ruan. The tabloids seized on this opportunity to probe into Ruan's private life and put her under intense pressure.Following the completion of New Women, Ruan's life began to unravel. The film opened in Shanghai in 1935. Cai Chusheng was under massive pressure from tabloid reporters, who were extremely hostile, owing to the scathing depiction of the Shanghai tabloids in the movie. Cai was forced to make extensive cuts to the film. Even after that, Ruan's private life was mercilessly seized upon by the tabloids and her lawsuit with her first husband, Zhang Damin, became a source of vindictive coverage.
Death
Faced with her various public issues and intense private problems, Ruan committed suicide by using overdose of barbiturates in Shanghai on March 8, 1935, at the age of 24. Her suicide note apparently contained a line which says "gossip is a fearful thing", although recent researchers have doubted the note's authenticity as it appeared to have been forged by Tang Jishan. Even China's preeminent intellectual Lu Xun was appalled at the details surrounding Ruan's death and wrote an essay entitled "Gossip is a Fearful Thing", denouncing the tabloids.Recent researchers believe her deteriorating abusive relationship with Tang Jishan and Zhang Damin's law suit were the cause to Ruan’s death. It was further intensified by the mob media of China after New Women was released, since the film depicted the life of actress Ai Xia, who committed suicide due to media rumors on her private life. Ruan is also believed to have been physically abused when she died before that evening.
Funeral services and subsequent tributes
Her funeral service at the Wanguo Funeral Home lasted for three days. Several well-known film actors and actress attended her funeral, including Wang Renmei, Lin Chuchu and Liang Saizhen, and her pallbearers included some of the leading film directors like Lai Man-Wai, Fei Mu, Wu Yonggang and Cai Chusheng. After the service, Ruan's casket was taken to a cemetery in Zhabei district.Her funeral procession was reportedly long, with three women committing suicide during the event. The New York Times called it "the most spectacular funeral of the century".
Ruan Lingyu's tomb was ruined during the Cultural Revolution which occurred from 1966 to 1976.
In 1996, a uniquely designed monument dedicated to her was erected in Fushou Memorial Garden in Shanghai.
Portrayal in popular culture
Films
Zhang Damin, who tried to tell his story regarding Ruan's suicide, agreed in 1935 to star as himself in a film titled Tears of Love. The film was aborted following angry backlash. Zhang did not give up, however. In 1937, a Hong Kong film titled Who's to Blame? directed by Shum Kat-sing appeared, starring Zhang as himself and Tam Yuk Lan as Ruan; this may have been the same film as Tears of Love. In 1938, Zhang starred in yet another Hong Kong film, Wife of a Friend, written and directed by Mak Tai-fung. This film did not invoke Ruan's name, but the reference cannot be more obvious: according to a handbill, the film told about an immoral womanizer who abandons his own wife to seduce his friend's, with the friend's wife committing suicide in the end. Neither film seems extant, and Zhang died from an illness later in 1938 in Hong Kong, apparently broke and penniless.In 1991, Hong Kong director Stanley Kwan made a movie about her life, Center Stage, starring Maggie Cheung as Ruan Lingyu. Cheung won the Berlin Film Festival Silver Bear for Best Actress. Zhang Damin and Tang Jishan are portrayed by Lawrence Ng and Chin Han respectively.
TV series
In 1985, Cecilia Wong played Ruan in a 20-episode TV series aired on Asia Television, titled Ruan Lingyu.In 2005, Jacklyn Wu Chien-lien played Ruan in a 30-episode Chinese TV series, also titled Ruan Lingyu.
Kong Lingjie played Ruan Lingyu in the 1996 Chinese TV series Movie Queen Butterfly.