崔嵬

简介

Cui Wei, originally named Cui Jingwen, was born in 1912 into a poor peasant family in Wangjiabashan Village, Changcheng Town, Zhucheng, Shandong Province. He began working at a tobacco factory at age 13 and entered Lixian Middle School at 15. In 1930, he enrolled in the playwriting class at Shandong Provincial Experimental Theatre, but returned to Qingdao when the theatre closed. In 1931, he attended National Qingdao University as an auditor in the Chinese literature department, and began participating in left-wing theatre activities the following year. He moved to Beiping in 1933 to study at private Mingguo University, and in 1935 went to Shanghai to participate in stage plays under the Left-Wing Writers' League. In 1938, he went to Communist-controlled Yan'an, where he taught in the drama department at Lu Xun Academy of Arts, joined the Communist Party, and later headed the drama department at the North China United University's College of Arts in the Jin-Cha-Ji Border Region, leading the Frontline Drama Society. He joined Beijing Film Studio in 1954. During the Cultural Revolution, he was labeled "Northern Tyrant," criticized, and sent to labor schools. As an actor, his notable work "The Red Banner Song" won him Best Actor at the 1st Hundred Flowers Awards in 1962. As a director, "Little Soldier Zhang Ga" won the First Prize in National Children's Literary and Artistic Creation in 1980. He also directed several Peking opera films, including "Women Generals of the Yang Family," which won Best Opera Film at the 1962 Hundred Flowers Awards. In the 1950s and 1960s, Cui Wei was known as one of the "Four Great Directors of Beijing Film Studio" alongside three other famous directors. He served as a deputy to the Third National People's Congress and a member of the Fifth National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference. He died on February 7, 1979.