Yu Shan (俞珊, 1908 - 1968) was a Chinese actress and one of the earliest

drama Drama is the specific Mode (literature), mode of fiction Mimesis, represented in performance: a Play (theatre), play, opera, mime, ballet, etc., performed in a theatre, or on Radio drama, radio or television.Elam (1980, 98). Considered as a g ...

actors in China.

Life

Yu Shan was born in 1908, in Shanyin,

Zhejiang Province ) , translit_lang1_type2 = , translit_lang1_info2 = ( Hangzhounese) ( Ningbonese) (Wenzhounese) , image_skyline = 玉甑峰全貌 - panoramio.jpg , image_caption = View of the Yandang Mountains , image_map = Zhejiang i ...

(present-day

Shaoxing Shaoxing is a prefecture-level city on the southern shore of Hangzhou Bay in northeastern Zhejiang province, China. Located on the south bank of the Qiantang River estuary, it borders Ningbo to the east, Taizhou, Zhejiang, Taizhou to the south ...

, Zhejiang Province), to the prominent Shanyin Yu family. Her father, Yu Dachun, was a government official in the

Republic of China Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia. The main geography of Taiwan, island of Taiwan, also known as ''Formosa'', lies between the East China Sea, East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocea ...

. Her grandfather, Yu Mingzhen, was a late

Qing Dynasty The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing, was a Manchu-led Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China and an early modern empire in East Asia. The last imperial dynasty in Chinese history, the Qing dynasty was preceded by the ...

Hanlin academic who served as supervisor of the Jiangnan Naval Academy. Her first cousin once removed (Dachun's first cousin), , was a politician in the Republic of China. She started her education at the Nankai Girls' High School in

Tianjin Tianjin is a direct-administered municipality in North China, northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the National Central City, nine national central cities, with a total population of 13,866,009 inhabitants at the time of the ...

. She also studied at the

Shanghai Conservatory of Music The Shanghai Conservatory of Music (SHCMusic) is a municipal public college in Shanghai, China. It is affiliated with the City of Shanghai and is part of the Double First-Class Construction. The college was founded on November 27, 1927. The Sh ...

and was invited by

Tian Han Tian Han ( zh, 田汉; 12 March 1898 – 10 December 1968), formerly romanized as T'ien Han, was a Chinese drama activist, playwright, a leader of revolutionary music and films, as well as a translator and poet. He emerged at the time of the ...

, Chinese playwright, to join the South China Society in 1929, where she soon rose to fame playing the lead role in

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Fflahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish author, poet, and playwright. After writing in different literary styles throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular and influential playwright ...

's play ''

Salome Salome (; , related to , "peace"; ), also known as Salome III, was a Jews, Jewish princess, the daughter of Herod II and princess Herodias. She was granddaughter of Herod the Great and stepdaughter of Herod Antipas. She is known from the New T ...

''. The next year, she starred in Tian Han's adaptation of

Georges Bizet Georges Bizet (; 25 October 18383 June 1875) was a French composer of the Romantic music, Romantic era. Best known for his operas in a career cut short by his early death, Bizet achieved few successes before his final work, ''Carmen'', w ...

's ''

Carmen ''Carmen'' () is an opera in four acts by the French composer Georges Bizet. The libretto was written by Henri Meilhac and Ludovic Halévy, based on the novella of the same title by Prosper Mérimée. The opera was first performed by the O ...

''. Her performance of ''Salome'' was widely published in leading magazines including in ''Southland Monthly''. Her considerable “physical allure” was described by a magazine as a “peerless beauty.” She is also remembered for her association with “prominent male cultural figures” in China including

, Zhao Taimou,

Xu Zhimo Xu Zhimo (, , Mandarin: , 15 January 1897 – 19 November 1931) was a Chinese poet. Best known for his work in modern Chinese poetry, he strove to loosen Chinese poetry from its traditional forms and to reshape it under the influences of Weste ...

Wen Yiduo Wen Yiduo (; 24 November 189915 July 1946) was a Chinese poet and scholar known for his nationalistic poetry. Wen was assassinated by the Kuomintang in 1946. Life Wen Yiduo was born Wén Jiāhuá () on 24 November 1899 in what is now Xishui ...

, and

Liang Shiqiu Liang Shih-chiu (January 6, 1903 – November 3, 1987), also romanized as Liang Shiqiu, and also known as Liang Chih-hwa (), was a renowned Chinese educator, writer, translator, literary theorist and lexicographer. Biography Liang was born in ...

. In December 1933, Yu married educator Zhao Taimou, one of the advocates of the National Drama Movement and a member of the Preparatory Committee of

Qingdao University Qingdao University (abbreviation: QDU/QDU Med school; ) is a key provincial research university located in Qingdao, Shandong, China. The university was first established in 1985. In 1993, the former Qingdao University, Qingdao Medical College ...

. However, the two later divorced. In 1948, Yu Shan defected to the Communist-controlled area in North China. After the founding of the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, she worked for the Jiangsu Peking Opera Troupe and the Chinese Academy of Opera Studies. Her sister, Yu Jin, was a medical doctor. Drawing on her popularity, Huang Jing (1912–1958), one of her brothers, did “some political organization work in theatrical circles” in Shanghai. Yu died in 1968 during the

Cultural Revolution The Cultural Revolution, formally known as the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, was a Social movement, sociopolitical movement in the China, People's Republic of China (PRC). It was launched by Mao Zedong in 1966 and lasted until his de ...

References

{{Authority control 20th-century Chinese actresses 1908 births 1968 deaths