Sunday Times

Wang Danfeng: China’s Audrey Hepburn 1924-2018

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● Wang Danfeng, who has died at the age of 93, was one of the most influentia­l Chinese film stars of the late 1940s and early ’50s. She became a victim of the Cultural Revolution and was banished for 15 years to a rural farmland, where she worked in the rice fields.

She appeared in about 50 films.

She was sometimes known as “the Chinese Audrey Hepburn”, and her allure lasted long after her retirement in the 1980s. As with her Western counterpar­t, Wang’s popularity increased among a younger generation who were obsessed by her “old world” glamour and her status as a woman who lived by her own terms.

She was born Wang Yufeng in Shanghai on August 23 1924. Aged 16 and still in high school, she was discovered by the film director Zhu Shilin, who was looking for a virginal beauty to play a supporting role in The Dragon Dungeon and Tiger’s Den (1941).

Interest in the young actress quickly gained pace when Zhu suggested changing her name to the more appealing Wang Danfeng and gave her the female lead in New Fisherman’s Song (1942), a box-office success that catapulted her to stardom.

During the next decade she was cast as the persecuted wife or abused lover in a string of melodramas and crime dramas. Her favourite, Dream of the Red Chamber (1944), co-starred Zhou Xuan.

As the Chinese Civil War raged, Wang moved to Hong Kong and signed a lucrative contract with Great Wall Movie Enterprise­s, taking the lead in half a dozen features. She returned to Shanghai in 1949 when she was hailed as one of Hong Kong’s four greatest film actresses alongside Zhou, Li Lihua and Bai Guang.

The country’s film industry had come under the single ownership of the Shanghai Film Studio. Wang continued to work, most memorably in Diary of a Nurse; the section in which she hums the song The Little Swallow to put a baby to sleep is one of the most famous scenes in Chinese film history.

In 1957 Wang joined the China Democratic League, becoming vice-chairwoman of the Ninth China Democratic League Shanghai Municipal Committee. But six years later she was criticised by the authoritie­s for her role as the patriotic courtesan Li Xuangjun in The Peach Blossom Fan. With her male co-star, Feng Zhe, and the film’s director, Sin Jing, she was sent to do hard labour in the countrysid­e, and did not work in movies for another 15 years.

Although Wang attempted a comeback after the Cultural Revolution, she failed to re-establish her star status.

Her final film appearance was in 1980 as a Japanese scientist in The Jade-Coloured Butterfly. She and her husband returned to Hong Kong where they ran a vegetarian restaurant called Gong De Lin.

She refused offers from Hollywood, but in 1985 she attended the second inaugurati­on of president Ronald Reagan, himself a former movie star.

In her late 80s Wang was feted by young filmmakers who tried to woo her out of retirement, but she remained content being remembered for her past work. Last year she was given a standing ovation at the Shanghai Film Festival after being wheeled on stage by her grandchild­ren to accept a lifetime achievemen­t award.

In 1951 Wang married Liu Heqing, whose father, Liu Zhongliang, was cofounder of the Cathay Film Company. He died in 2016 and she is survived by their four daughters.

 ?? Picture: Wikipedia ?? Wang Danfeng
Picture: Wikipedia Wang Danfeng

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