Hu De ( Chinese trad. 胡蝶 , pinyin : Hú Dié ) - Chinese actress.
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Biography
Hu De was born in 1907 in Shanghai in the family of an engineer of the National Railway Company of China. Her father was transferred between the polling stations, so Hu Ruihua's childhood and youth (as they called her in fact) took place on frequent journeys: she lived and studied in Shanghai, Tianjin , Yingkou , and Beijing . Thanks to this girl spoke fluently in several dialects. [ clarify ] , which played a role with the advent of sound film.
After graduating from school in 1924, she returned to Shanghai, where she enrolled in the newly opened “Film School” at annual acting classes. At the end of the course in 1925, she acted in her first film, Victory on the Battlefield. After that, she starred in more than 20 films studios Yulyan and Tianyi . She herself invented her stage name Hu De, where De means butterfly. Therefore, it, after Hong Kong, is often called Butterfly Hu.
In 1928, she was invited to the largest film company at the time, Minxin . Almost from the very beginning, Hu De became the leading actress of the company: she starred in the high-budget action movie Girl Detective and in the famous 18-series action movie blockbuster The Burning of the Red Lotus Monastery, filmed for three years from 1928 to 1931.
She also starred in the first Chinese sound film Singer Red Peony, about the life of a talented singer who was mistreated and exploited by her husband. She starred in patriotic films calling for a fight with a foreign aggressor. The highest achievement of her acting skills was the film " Twin Sisters ", where she played two sisters who grew up in different conditions and therefore different not only externally but also internally. The film was very popular in China and went on screens not only in China, but also in Southeast Asia, in Japan and even in some countries of Western Europe. Later, in Hong Kong , the sequel was shot: “The Sisters Are Restored” (1941), in which Hu De again played two sisters, but this film was lost.
Hu De had many different roles covering almost all types of social groups of Chinese women: including maidservants, loving mothers, teachers, prostitutes, actresses, dancers, rich women, factory workers, and peasant women. In 1933, in a large-scale survey conducted by the Shanghai Star magazine (moreover, residents of various regions of the country participated in the survey), viewers recognized it as the “empress of cinema” .
Portraits of Hu De were printed on the pages of magazines. She became a star in the full sense of the word. So in 1931, the commander of Chinese troops in Manchuria , the young marshal Zhang Xuelyan (the one who tried to seize the Soviet section of the CER in 1929), knowing from intelligence reports about a possible provocation by the Japanese army, preferred to spend the evening dancing with Hu De at the reception, organized by the actress who arrived on tour, and not in his headquarters. At this time, the Japanese army launched an offensive. And although the marshal, having received the message, immediately went to the headquarters, this fact hit the press, and a scandal broke out .
In 1935, Hu De was a member of the Chinese delegation at the Moscow International Film Festival , after which the delegation visited Germany, France, England and Italy, before returning to Shanghai via Hong Kong. The trip was an important milestone for the Chinese film industry, which declared its existence.
In 1937, the war began, Hu De donated part of their savings for the purchase of aircraft for the Chinese army. The war continued, the Chinese army retreated. When the Japanese launched an offensive on Shanghai, Hu De went to Hong Kong, where she founded her own film studio and made several films, including a remake of the first Chinese sound film “Red Peony Singer”. In December 1941, after several weeks of fighting, the Japanese seized Hong Kong. Hu De and her husband were in the territory occupied by Japanese troops. The Chinese press announced that they may have died during the bombing, but the Japanese found them. Hu De and Chinese opera singer Mei Lanfang received an invitation to arrive in Tokyo . Japanese propagandists conceived the film "Hu De and Mei Lanfang Visits Tokyo", which is supposed to help establish Japanese-Chinese friendship. Hu De could not refuse directly, but she asked to postpone the beginning of the shooting, arguing that she was pregnant. The Japanese agreed to wait a few months.
In 1942, with the help of his acquaintances and partisans, Hu De and her husband managed to escape. They reached Chongqing , where the capital of China was temporarily moved after the Japanese captured Nanjing . Hu De agreed to take part in the filming of the anti-Japanese film Path to the Formation of a Nation. In 1944, when Hu De returned home after field shooting, she found her mother and her friend, who told her that Ban Yusheng, husband of Hu De, was arrested several days earlier for what it was, and that they could not be with him contact. A mother’s friend suggested Hu De to turn to Dai Li , the all-powerful chief of intelligence and special operations in China (the post was officially called the head of the Military Statistics Bureau).
Hu De turned to Dai Li. He promised to help, soon her husband was released, after that the family couple was given a house for use. Husband initiated by Dai Li was assigned to a very lucrative position - the head of the commission for solving business issues for the Chinese government in southern Yunnan province (he had to deal with the procurement of products and uniforms for soldiers, organize the production of necessary products and materials, conduct his business in this direction) . However, after Hu's husband’s departure, De De was faced with a choice: either she would become Dai Li's mistress, then her husband would be safe and would have a good position, or she would refuse, then he would force her into cohabitation, but her husband would lose not only the position, but and freedom, and possibly life. To his husband, who returned to Chongqing, the people of Dai Li said that he would not see his wife anyway. But he has a choice: either he goes back to Yunnan to continue to do business and supply the army, or he will be arrested. Ban Yusheng was forced to submit.
After some time, Dai Li decided to marry her. Ban Yushen - the actress’s unfortunate husband was given an ultimatum or a life or a petition for divorce. Moreover, none other than Du Yuesheng , one of the bosses of the triad, the Chinese mafia, spoke to him, which again speaks of the power of Dai Li. Ban Yusheng was forced to agree. A similar ultimatum was presented by Hu De: either she would become the wife of Dai Li, separated from her husband, or she would remain a mistress, but also a widow. In March 1946, everything was preparing for divorce and the subsequent wedding, which was to take place in Shanghai. Dai Li flew to Beijing. Hu De and Pan Yusheng were able to meet on March 17, 1946, and while they were saying goodbye, the plane on which Dai Li was flying from Beijing to Nanjing crashed.
Hu De and Pan Yusheng immediately left for Hong Kong, where they settled. Ban Yusheng returned to work at Jardine Matheson , Hu De helped him, even starred in one commercial. Occasionally starred in the movie. In 1952, Ban Yusheng died of liver cancer.
After his death, Hu De again began to actively act in films (for the period 1960-1963, she starred in 14 films), playing older women. The last time she starred in 1967
In 1975 she emigrated to Canada. She died in Vancouver in 1989. Her last words were: “The butterfly flies away” .
Notes
- ↑ Internet Movie Database - 1990.