Hu Die
In 1928 Tianyi's star actress Hu Die defected to the Mingxing Film Company, Tianyi's main rival, and Chen Yumei replaced her as Tianyi's number one actress. She starred in more than 30 movies made by Tianyi, most notably "A Girl Named Yunlan" (芸兰姑娘, 1932), "Livelihood" (生机, 1933), and "The Struggle" (挣扎, 1933). Many of her roles were of a tragic nature. During an interview, she named "Livelihood", a progressive movie banned by the Shanghai Municipal Council, as one of her favourite films. She sang many of the theme songs in her movies, several of which topped the charts, and she released a record by Pathé Records.