Actress Ruan Lingyu in the 1930鈥檚

cctv.com 07-04-2005 15:33

Shanghai in the 1930鈥檚 was China鈥檚 movie-making centre. Much like Hollywood at the same time, the industry was dominated by a few powerful studios. Each of them went all out to promote their star actors. Ruan Lingyu was one of the period鈥檚 biggest stars. She began acting at sixteen and appeared in 29 films before she died at twenty-five. By the standards of the day, she was an unconventional person. The pressures of public life and unrestrained gossip put her under unbearable pressure. Anyone who watches her old movies can see what an accomplished actress she was. But that legacy is overshadowed by her early death at her own hand.

Ruan Lingyu鈥檚 relationship with Tang Jishan was a scandal. It was almost unheard of for an unmarried couple to live together. Later, Ruan Lingyu found that Tang Jishan was already married and was having an affair with another actress. Despite the strains of public disapproval and her own disappointment, Ruan Lingyu could not escape. Nobody could foresee the tragedy that was about to unfold.

Before her suicide, Ruan Lingyu was vilified as an adulteress while little mention was made of Tang Jishan鈥檚 marriage and other affairs. In the end, she fell victim to the same pressures as some of the heroines she played on the screen. While hundreds of thousands mourned her passing at a public ceremony in Shanghai, some saw her death as the deserved result of her own misdeeds. Recently, new information has come to light regarding her relationship with Tang Jishan. Although he had doctored her last letters, the originals have now been found. Tang Jishan can now be seen as the violent philanderer who made Ruan Lingyu into his innocent victim.

Editor:Liu  Source:CCTV.com