Wu Yanshu

Biography

Wu Yanshu is a renowned Chinese actress and director, born in 1938 in Guangzhou into an intellectual family, and was a rare only child at the time. She moved with her family to Shanxi province at a young age due to her father's work at the medical college there. After graduating from high school in 1956, she joined the Shanxi Drama Theatre and became a stage actress. She began her film career in 1959 with the film "Song of Joyful Waters" directed by Lei Qiang. She worked at the Shanxi Drama Theatre from the early 1960s, performing multiple times at the Great Hall of the People in plays like "Liu Hulan," where she was received by Premier Zhou Enlai and many other leaders. She retired in 2003 and returned to acting in 2011 when her daughter brought her to Beijing. She gained widespread acclaim in her later years, receiving Golden Horse Award nominations for Best Supporting Actress for "Finding Mr. Right 2" and "Love Education" in 2016. She won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Supporting Actress for "The Relocation" in 2017 and won Best Actress at the Beijing International Film Festival for "Song of Spring" in 2022. She also appeared in the TV series "My True Friend" in 2019.