阮玲玉

简介

Ruan Lingyu, born Ruan Fenggen with the school name Ruan Yuying, was born in Shanghai in 1910 with ancestral roots in Guangdong Province. Her father was a worker at an oil company in Shanghai and died when she was six years old, after which she and her mother lived together in hardship. In 1926, at age sixteen, she married Zhang Damin and in the same year joined the Stars Film Company, beginning her film career with movies such as "Nominal Couple." In 1928 she moved to the Great China-Lily Film Company, and in 1930 joined the Lianhua Film Company, where she achieved great fame through the film "Wildflower" playing a flower seller. Her work can be divided into two periods: in the first period she starred in popular social films and fantasy films portraying lower-class fallen women, while in the second period under the influence of the emerging film movement, her style shifted, with the pivotal film "Three Modern Women" where she played a socially conscious factory worker. She later produced notable works such as "Sea of Snow and Fragrance," "Small Toys," and "The Goddess," portraying women from various social classes. She was praised as China's Garbo and Bergman. On March 8, 1935, International Women's Day, she took an overdose of sleeping pills and died by suicide at home following conflicts with her lover Tang Jishan and legal disputes from her former husband, at the age of twenty-five.