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2/1/2021 Hu Ping – Women Film Pioneers Project
Hu Ping
Also Known As:
胡萍，胡瑛，胡曼倩
Lived:
1910 or 1913 - Unknown
Worked as:
film actress, film critic, journalist, screenwriter, theatre actress, writer
Worked In:
China
by Qin Xiqing
From 1931 to 1937, Hu Ping was a well-known left-wing film star and film critic (“Progressive
Star”). Her abrupt withdrawal from the film industry in 1937, after the Chinese-Japanese War in
Shanghai (also known as the “8.13 Incident”), led to repeated mentions in the wartime and post-
war press about her, most of which portrayed her as a “fallen” actress. Among various queries
about her possible whereabouts was one brief, positive review entitled “Thinking of Hu Ping,”
which recalled her as a talented young actress active before the war, and noted that “since the
anti-Japanese war ended successfully, most of the actors and actresses returned except the
versatile Hu Ping. It’s so puzzling why nothing is heard about her” (Xiangshui). As a film star with
a close connection to the Chinese left-wing cinema movement, Hu Ping is not completely
forgotten today and is mentioned several times in Chinese Film Development History, the most
widely read film history textbook in China, first published in 1963. The book credits her as an
actress in more than a dozen silent and sound films and as the scenario writer of A Tragic Tale
About My Sister/姊妹的悲剧 (1933), and notes her involvement with the League of Chinese Left-
Wing Dramatists (Cheng et al. 185, 244, 272, 297). However, at the same time, Hu remains an
obscure figure who, due to a lack of information about her, rarely attracts focused or in-depth
scholarly attention today, except for the occasional journalistic interest in her (e.g., Ge 2007).
Thus, in order to trace the contours of Hu’s film and journalistic career, this profile uses Chinese
periodicals from the 1930s and 1940s, memoirs by contemporary playwrights and writers,
Chinese Film Development History, and online sources as its main references.
Hu Ping was born Hu Ying in either 1910 or 1913 in Changsha, Hunan Province, China. Her
father, Hu Yinglin, was a proofreader for the New Hunan Newspaper (湖南新报) and was able to
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provide financial support for her education, though presumably with some difficulty (“Brief
Autobiography”). After primary school, Hu attended either Changsha Provincial Girls School,
Changsha Zhounan High School, or Ri Xin Women’s Fine Arts School, depending on different
sources (Qi Ni; “Stars and Talented Women”; “Brief Autobiography”), and worked as a part-time
waitress at the Far East Café Shop. In 1929, while still a student, she was asked by Zuo Tianxi (左
天锡), co-founder of a school theatrical troupe called Frozen Rain Drama Troupe, to play a role in
“Suzhou Night Talk” (“苏州夜话”) by the progressive playwright Tian Han (⽥汉). This experience
aroused her interest in stage acting. She joined the troupe and appeared in other plays, such as
Tian’s “Death of A Famous Actress” (“名优之死”),“Trash Can” (“垃圾桶”), and “Will to Life” (“⽣之
意志”), as well as two Japanese plays, “Eros,” by Mushanokoji Saneatsu, and “Father Returns,” by
Kikuchi Kan, in December 1929 and February 1930, respectively.
Hoping to have an acting career, Hu moved to Shanghai in the summer of 1930 accompanied by
Xiang Peiliang (向培良), a dramatist and friend of Tian Han. There, Hu attended Shanghai Art
School and joined the South China Society (1927-1930), which was led by Tian. However, due to
the group’s call for a people’s revolution during their staging of Tian’s adaptation of “Carmen,” the
troupe was banned by the authorities. Hu then joined the Purple Song Drama Troupe and
traveled to the city of Xiamen to stage “Nora” there for three days, playing the role of Kristine
Lind (“Brief Autobiography”). After coming back to Shanghai, she and two friends founded their
own theater troupe and staged the musical “Wang Zhaojun” (“王昭君”), in which she played a
supporting role. Unfortunately, audiences were unfamiliar with the new musical theater art form
and the production was a failure. The troupe dissolved soon after (Ma). Hu continued her stage
career, however. In the early spring of 1931, she joined Big Road Drama Troupe. According to the
1935 article “Hu Ping’s Stage Life” in Qing Qing Cinema, she co-starred with Zheng Jun (郑君⾥),
a well-known Chinese stage and film actor and director, in the play “The Men on the Kenk” by
Alfred Sutro, and the “audience [was] deeply moved and even shed tears” (Fusheng). Through
roles like this, Hu started to build a reputation in Shanghai, becoming known as an excellent
actress. In this period, she also joined the League of Chinese Left-Wing Dramatists, which
operated from 1931-1936, and became closely connected to a group of talented and pro-proletariat
playwrights and dramatists.
In 1931, Hu transitioned into film acting with a starring role in Hero on the Sea/海上英雄 (1931)
for Youlian Film Studio, a company famous for its martial arts films in the late 1920s and early
1930s. She then starred in Love Story of Forest Outlaws/绿林艳史 (1932) for Bai Hong Film
Studio, but neither the name of the studio nor the title were included in her filmography in
Chinese Film Development History. I also came across a very brief news item stating that she was
going to play a seductive vamp in Three Riders/三骑⼠ for Fudan Film Studio (Niu), but I have
not been able to find any further information about this project.
In 1932, Hu joined Star Film Company. There, she played supporting roles in Revival of National
Spirit/国魂的复活 (1932), Adventures on Battle Ground/战地历险记 (1932), Cosmetics Market/
脂粉市场 (1933), Prospects/前程 (1933), and Romance in Spring/春⽔情波 (1933), and starred in
Love and Life/恋爱与⽣命 (1932) and A Tragic Tale About My Sister/姊妹的悲剧. As Chinese
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cinema went through the slow transition from silent to sound filmmaking, these films were all still
silent except for Cosmetics Market. Heavily influenced by the guiding tenets of the League of
Chinese Left-Wing Dramatists and other pro-Communist writers, most of these films were
concerned with the suffering and pain of ordinary people. Consciousness-raising around women’s
issues was also a repeated theme, and these films often focused on women’s struggles for
independence.
In was within this context that Hu wrote her only film script: A Tragic Tale About My Sister.
According to the original scenario, published in Star in 1933, this now lost film tells the story of
Yu Ying, a poor village girl whose older brother and father, suffering from the hardships of rural
life, die at the hand of the bullying landlord Wang Ruilin. Yu Ying and her younger brother, Ying
Sheng, then flee to Shanghai to make a living working in a factory. While Ying Sheng gets involved
in a worker’s strike and is put into prison, Yu Ying is dismissed from the factory and has to
support herself, first as a housemaid and then as a dancer. She falls in love with a rich young man
named Youlin who ultimately betrays her and even plans to give her away as a gift to a warlord.
Miserable, Yu Ying then finds out that Youlin is the son of the landlord Wang Ruilin. Recalling the
death of her older brother and father, she is furious and seeks revenge. She consequently attempts
to murder Youlin while he is drunk one night, but, ultimately, gets arrested for attempted murder
(Hu, “Script Story,” 3-4).
In this melodramatic story, Hu shows sympathy for the poor and tries to portray the cruel side of
rural life in China in the early 1930s: the high price of land leasing, the low price of silk, vexatious
taxing, and natural disasters like floods or drought. A Tragic Tale About My Sister echoes another
film produced that year, Spring Silkworm (1933), made by the same studio, which tells the story
of the hardships faced by a family of silk growers. While there is no information regarding how
Hu came up with the story for A Tragic Tale About My Sister, she was publicly credited as the
scenario writer of this film (Hu, “Script Story,” 3; Tu 22), and she was praised as a female
screenwriter on par with Ai Xia (艾霞), who wrote and starred in A Modern Woman that same
year (“Passionate and Bold Hu Ping”). The fact that this was Hu’s only script led to some doubt
about her authorship, and a later news article even claimed that the script was written by Hu’s
lover, Hou Feng, since Hu did not come up with any scripts after they split up (“Old Stories of
Screen Stars”). However, Hu is not alone in creating only one piece of work; numerous Chinese
women filmmakers in the 1920s and 1930s produced only one film. For instance, China’s first
woman screenwriter Pu Shunqing (濮舜卿) only wrote Cupid’s Puppet/爱神的玩偶 (1925),
director Xie Caizhen (謝采貞) only made Orphan’s Cries/孤雏悲声 (1925), and Ai Xia only wrote A
Modern Woman, which perhaps suggests how challenging it was for Chinese women to maintain
behind-the-scenes roles in the film industry at that time.
Interestingly, Hu was reportedly planning to direct A Tragic Tale About My Sister herself, but her
proposal was rejected by Star Film Company. According to a 1933 article in Ling Long, Wang
Jiting, an actor at the studio, was appointed to be the director, which angered Hu, who announced
her plan to leave the company when shooting was complete (“Anecdotes About Chinese Film”).
Another news report stated that the company was carefully searching for a qualified director for
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the film and that Hu was going to be the assistant director (Suzhoulao). Based on these different
versions of the story, it could be inferred that there was some sort of negotiation between Hu and
the studio concerning the position of director. According to Chinese Film Development History,
the film was co-directed by Gao Lihen, one of the studio’s important directors, and Wang Jiting
(Cheng et al. 244, 542). No official record confirms Hu’s credit of assistant director on this
project, and there is no indication that she tried to direct another film. Soon after production
completed, she left the Star Film Company for the newly established Yi Hua Film Company.
At Yi Hua, Hu starred or co-starred in Flames/烈焰 (1933), Women/⼥⼈ (1934), and The Golden
Times/黄⾦时代 (1934), her last three silent films. In these, she played women who were
charming, daring, and strong-minded—character types that are more often than not considered to
be “fallen” women. In Flames, she played a woman named Ah Zhen who abandons her boyfriend
for a rich man (Zheng and Guiqing 2659-60). In The Golden Times, she played Tao Li, a beautiful
and vain young woman who ends up becoming a warlord’s concubine (Zheng and Guiqing 2955-
56). In Women, however, she played Jin Ling, a strong-willed and independent young woman
who is expelled from school for fighting against an injustice toward her female classmate,
eventually becoming a gynecologist (Zheng and Guiqing 2957-58). In 1933, the Yi Hua Film
Company was attacked by the “Blueshirts,” a political organization supported by the Kuomintang
(the Chinese Nationalist Party), for its pro-Communist films that advocated for a class struggle
between the rich and the poor. It became increasingly difficult for the left-wing filmmakers to
work at the company. However, Hu stayed and acted in four more sound productions. She then
moved to the Xinhua Film Company and was cast in four more talkies, among which The
Phantom Lover/夜半歌声 (1937) and Youth on the March/青年进⾏曲 (1937) were the most
successful and mark the peak of her stardom.
As a well-known writer, Hu regularly published articles in newspapers and magazines over the
course of her film career. In these articles, she told stories about the struggles she faced in her
acting career and expressed her tender feelings about the world and her life in a fresh and natural
style. She also wrote about the cinema, arguing that it was an art form that should reflect the
reality of life rather than avoid it. Unsurprisingly, her ideas about cinema were in line with
Marxist-oriented left-wing thinking. For example, in “The Task of Cinema in My Point of View,”
she wrote:
[I]n the contemporary society which is so chaotic and disconcerting, cinema shouldn’t
be an entertainment for the leisured class, but should be an instrument for masses to
cry out. Therefore, the stories and descriptions of cinema should go deep into the life
of the people, delicately and accurately represent their situation, point out a correct
way-out for them. And this is exactly the mission for the modern cinema. (4)
Similarly, in “Chinese Cinema From Now ON,” she reiterated this belief that film should not only
be entertainment but also an instrument for educating people: “Standing in the position of
revolution, we naturally take film as the phonograph for the oppressed. It can be used as an
instrument to inspire and awaken people and teach the oppressed to rebel against their enemy”
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(46). Seeing the rapidly developing economic crises around the world and the ways that
imperialist countries exploited their colonies, Hu worried that China, a semi-colonial country and
a potentially large market, was also in danger of being exploited. She wrote, “Undoubtedly, we are
going to take film as an anti-imperialist weapon. We are going guide the people to be aware of the
ugliness of the imperialism, to fight against the carving up China by imperialists by exposing their
conspiracy” (46). For her, film was the best weapon for a developing nation to fight against
imperialism and feudalism.
In an article entitled “About National Defense Movies,” Hu supported the 1936 call, made by
leading left-wing writers and artists, for an anti-Japanese national defense film (国防电影). She
agreed with many that the cinema could be used as a weapon for national liberation. (In answer to
this call, a few anti-Japanese war films were produced, such as Blood on Wolf Mountain [狼⼭喋
⾎记, 1936] and Soaring Aspiration [壮志凌云, 1936].) In her article, Hu also pointed out the
importance of creating appealing cinematic products since the Chinese film industry was still
subject to market and commercial forces at that time (14).
What happened to Hu Ping after the “8.13 Incident” remains a mystery today. She stayed for a
short time in Wuhan and then disappeared from public view after the city was occupied by the
Japanese army in October 1938 (“Progressive Star”). There are numerous and contradictory
descriptions of her later life. She reportedly either married a Hong Kong merchant (“Film Star Hu
Ping ”) or a professor at Hu Nan University (“Hu Ping Becomes a Professor’s Wife”). Other
sources suggested she either became the mistress of a military officer in Yunnan (Huang 285-56)
or a Buddhist nun (Qing). Pan Jienong, a famous screenwriter, recalled seeing Hu in the arms of
Xu Kan, the Minister of Food of the Kuomintang government, on the street in Chengdu in 1942
(189-91). And Fei Ge reported in 2007 that Hu lived anonymously until the Cultural Revolution in
the 1960s in her hometown of Changsha (D2).
While we do not know what happened to Hu, it is clear that she was a product of a particular
moment in Chinese history, when there was a move for women’s liberation in education, the
economy, and the arts in the 1920s and 1930s, which made it possible for her to pursue a theater
and performance career. Actively involved in left-wing politics in the 1930s, she was an
independent and bold figure on screen and on the page with her critical writing. Known as the
“Red Girl” because she often dressed in red from head to toe, she was also a fashion icon,
embodying with her chosen color both the revolution and urban modernity. In this way, as in her
short but prolific film career, Hu epitomized the complex economic, political, and cultural forces
that shaped mainstream Chinese cinema during both the late silent and early sound eras.
Bibliography
“Anecdotes About Chinese Film: Hu Ping Is Leaving the Star Film Company. ” Ling Long/玲珑
vol. 13, no. 14 (1933): 628.
“Brief Autobiography of Hu Ping”/ “圈外胡萍⼩传.” Cinema News/电影新闻 vol. 2, no. 1 (1935): 7.
https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/hu-ping/ 5/82/1/2021 Hu Ping – Women Film Pioneers Project
Cheng, Jihua, Shaobai Li, and Zuwen Xing. Chinese Film Development History/中国电影发展史.
Beijing: China Film Press, 1981.
“A Dozen Facts about Hu Ping”/ “关于胡萍⼀打.” Shadow Picture/影画 vol.1, no. 13 (1934): 17.
“Film Star Hu Ping, Temporarily Living in HK, Married to Sheng Laoqi”/“旅港明星胡萍,下嫁盛⽼
七.” Electric Sound/电声 vol. 8, no. 12 (1939): 565.
Fusheng. “Hu Ping’s Stage Life”/“胡萍的演剧⽣活.” Qing Qing Cinema/青青电影 vol. 11 (1935): 2.
Ge, Fei. “Red Girl Hu Ping”/“红姑娘胡萍.” Beijing Youth Newspaper/北京青年报 (14 May 2007):
D2.
Hu, Ping. “About National Defense Movies”/“关于国防电影.” Xin Hua Pictorial/新华画报 vol. 1,
no. 2 (1936): 14.
---. “Chinese Cinema From Now ON”/“今后的中国电影.” Cultural Circle/⽂化圈 vol. 1, no. 2
(1933): 45-6.
---. “A Fragment of Life”/“⽣活的⽚断.” Movie Fan Monthly/影迷⽉报 vol. 1, no. 9 (1934): 6.
---. “From Stage to Screen”/ “从舞台到银幕.” Drama/戏 vol. 2 (1933): 15.
---. “How I Started Stage Playing (cont’d)”/ “我怎么演起戏来（续).” Modern News/现代新闻 vol.
1, no. 2 (1934): 38.
---. “On Peach Blossom Fan”/“关于桃花扇.” Xin Hua Special Peach Blossom Fan/新华特刊桃花扇
(1 Nov. 1935): Rpt. in Selected Historical Materials of Chinese Cinema: Movie Reviews (1921-
1949). Ed. Duofei Chen. Beijing: China Film Press, 2014. 548.
---. “Script Story of A Tragic Tale About My Sister.” Star/明星 vol. 1, no. 3 (1933): 3-4.
---. “Starvation”/“饿.” Oriental Magazine/东⽅杂志 vol. 32, no. 1 (1935): 48-9.
---. “The Task of Cinema in My Point of View”/ “电影任务的我见.” Star/明星 vol. 1, no. 3 (1933):1-
4.
---. “Under the Mercury Lamp”/ “⽔银灯下.” Cinema of the Times/时代电影 no. 6 (1934): 23.
“Hu Ping Becomes a Professor’s Wife: Once A Coquettish Girl, Now Turning a New Leaf”/“胡萍作
了敎授太太：當年⾵騷⼀時, 現在改過⾃新.” Drama World/戏世界 vol. 385 (1948): 7.
“Hu Ping: Red Girl with Red Passion”/“胡萍:红⾊的姑娘有着红⾊的热情.” Star/明星 vol. 3 (1938):
7.
Huang, Miaozi. “The Woman Who Loves Hot Pepper”/“爱吃辣椒的⼥⼈.” In A New Version of the
Tales of the World/世说新篇. Beijing: SDX Joint Publishing Company, 2006. 285-6.
https://wfpp.columbia.edu/pioneer/hu-ping/ 6/82/1/2021 Hu Ping – Women Film Pioneers Project
Ma, Jun. “A Wondering Girl: Hu Ping”/“⼀个流浪的姑娘胡萍.” Chinese Cinema/中国电影 vol. 1,
no. 4 (1937): 18.
Mingda. “Hu Ping, the Mystery of Disappearance: A Mysterious Legendary Life of a Woman Film
Star ”/ “胡萍: 失踪之谜: ⼥明星的神秘传奇⽣活.” Film Drama/影剧 vol. 8 (1946): 1.
Niu, Si. “Stars News”/ “星訊.” Screen Weekly/银幕周报 vol. 3 (1931): 5.
“Old Stories of Screen Stars.” Star/明星 [Shanghai] vol. 8 (1939): 10.
Pan, Jienong. “Shining Hu Yin, Fallen Hu Ping”/“ 闪光的英茵殒落的胡萍.” In Sixty Years of Stage
and Screen: Memoir of Pan Jienong/舞台银幕六⼗年. Nanjing: Jiangsu Ancient Works Publisher,
1994. 189-91.
“Passionate and Bold Hu Ping”/ “热情⽽勇毅的胡萍.” Star/明星 [Shanghai] vol. 4 (1938): 4.
“Progressive Star: Hu Ping’s Recent Developments”/“前进明星:胡萍的近况.” Metropolis/都会 vol.
8 (1939): 136.
Qi Ni, Jiaying. “Hu Ping, A Writer & Star in the Republic of China: ‘Red Girl’ with Multiple
Skills”/ “民国 ‘作家明星’胡萍——‘红姑娘’⼀⾝本领.” Sohu.com (30 August 2017).
https://www.sohu.com/a/168321577_301361.
Qing, Qing. “Hu Ping Becomes a Buddhist Nun”/“胡萍做了尼姑.” Southeast Wind/东南风 vol. 15
(1946): 6.
“Stars and Talented Women Connected with Changsha In the Republic of China”/“民国时期与长
沙结缘的明星与才⼥. CNXXPL/新湘评论 (28 May 2018).
Suzhoulao. “Brief News from the Film Circle: Hu Ping Is Going to be Assistant Director”/ “银坛屑
闻: 胡萍将做副导演.” Modern Life/现代⽣活 vol. 3 (1933): 13.
Tu, Nan. “Hu Ping Is Both a Writer and Artist”/“胡萍是⽂学家又艺术家.” Silver Picture/银画 vol.
3 (1933): 7, 22.
Xiangshui. “Thinking of Hu Ping”/“怀念胡萍.” New Light/新光 vol. 6 (1947): 1.
Zheng, Peiwei and Liu Guiqing, eds. Chinese Silent Films Scripts/中国⽆声电影剧本. Beijing:
China Film Press, 1996.
Filmography
A. Archival Filmography: Extant Film Titles:
1. Hu Ping As Actress
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Cosmetics Market/脂粉市场. Dir.: Zhang Shichuan, sc.: Ding Qianping, cam.: Dong Keyi (The
Star Film Company, China, 1933) cas.: Hu Die, Gong Jianong, Yan Yuexian, Wang Xianzhai, Sun
Min, Ai Xia, Wang Mengshi, Gao Yian, Wang Yiwu, Liu Jinyu, Hu Ping, sd, b&w, 35mm. Archive:
China Film Archive.
The Phantom Lover/夜半歌声. Dir./sc.: Ma Xu Weibang, ed.: Chen Yiqing, cam.: Yu Xingsan and
Xue Boqing (Xin Hua Film Company, China, 1937) cas.: Hu Ping, Jin Shan, Zhou Wenzhu, Shi
Chao, Xu Manli, Gu Menghe, Wang Weiyi, Chen Yun, Xiao Ying, Li Junpan, Liu Shangwen, Chen
Baoqi, Wang Yingying, Zong You, Liang Xin, Cai Juefei, sd, b&w, 35mm. Archive: China Film
Archive.
Youth on the March/青年进⾏曲. Dir.: Shi Dongshan, sc.: Tian Han, prod.: Zhang Shankun, ed.:
Xu Ming, cam.: Xue Boqing (Xin Hua Film Company, China, 1937) cas.: Hu Ping, Zhang Huilin,
Zhang Ke, Shi Chao, Chen Tianguo, Wang Zhong, Yan Yan, Xu Manli, Li Mingjian, Gu Eryi, Lv
Ban, Huang Junzhen, Zhou Wenzhu, Yan Qun, Chen Yun, Tong Yuejuan, Xu Tao, Xiao Ying,
Wang Weiyi, Li Dizhi, sd, b&w, 35mm. Archive: China Film Archive.
B. Filmography: Non-Extant Film Titles:
1. Hu Ping as Screenwriter and Actress
A Tragic Tale About My Sister/姊妹的悲剧, 1933.
2. Hu Ping as Actress
Hero on the Sea/海上英雄, 1931; Love Story of Forest Outlaws/绿林艳史, 1932; Revival of
National Spirit/国魂的复活, 1932; Love and Life/恋爱与⽣命, 1932; Adventures on Battle
Ground/战地历险记, 1932; Prospects/前程, 1933; Romance in Spring/春⽔情波, 1933; Flames/烈
焰, 1933; Women/⼥⼈, 1934; The Golden Times/黄⾦时代, 1934; Flying Flower Village/飞花村,
1934; Sad Song of Life/⽣之哀歌, 1935; Men on Earth/⼈之初, 1935; A Hero of Our Time/时势英
雄, 1935; New Peach Blossom Fan/新桃花扇, 1935; It’s a Mad Night/狂欢之夜, 1936.
Citation
Xiqing, Qin. "Hu Ping." In Jane Gaines, Radha Vatsal, and Monica Dall’Asta, eds. Women
Film Pioneers Project. New York, NY: Columbia University Libraries, 2020.
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