page_title: Ouyang Yuqian
section_title: 1920s and 1930s — film and drama
hierarchical_section_title: Ouyang Yuqian / Career / 1920s and 1930s — film and drama
caption_attribution_description: 中文: 欧阳予倩
context_page_description: Ouyang Yuqian was a Chinese playwright, Peking opera actor and writer, film screenwriter and director, and drama educator. He is considered by drama historians as one of the three founders of Chinese spoken drama, together with Tian Han and Hong Shen. He was also one of the top Peking opera performers, regarded as a southern counterpart of Mei Lanfang.
  Ouyang Yuqian was the founding president of the Central Academy of Drama from 1950 until his death in 1962. He also served as vice chairman of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles, vice chairman of the Chinese Dramatists Association, and chairman of the Chinese Dancers Association.
context_section_description: After Zhang, Zheng, and Zhou started the Mingxing Film Company in 1922, they invited Ouyang Yuqian to join their studio, but Ouyang declined because, according to himself, he was earning a "substantial salary" as a Peking opera performer. He did help out on several occasions, but at the same time wrote three films for the rival China Sun Motion Picture Company from 1926 to 1928. He acted in two of the three films, Why Not Her? (玉潔冰清) and A Wandering Songstress (天涯歌女), and directed the third, Three Years Later (三年以后).
  In 1929, Ouyang Yuqian was invited by Chen Mingshu, chairman of Guangdong Province, to establish the Guangdong Drama Research Institute in Guangzhou. His political view turned increasingly left-wing, especially after the 1932 Japanese attack of Shanghai. He joined the Left-Wing Dramatist League in Guangzhou and participated in the first drama festival in the Soviet Union. In 1933, he joined Chen Mingshu's Fujian Rebellion, and was forced to escape to Japan after its failure.
  After returning to Shanghai in 1934, Ouyang Yuqian joined Xinhua Film Company and wrote his first sound film New Peach Blossom Fan (新桃花扇). In 1935, he joined Mingxing, by then one of the largest Chinese film studios, and helped the studio secure a crucial bank loan using his own family resources. He made three films with Mingxing: Qingming Festival (清明时节), Xiao Lingzi (小玲子), and Red Haitang (海棠红).
caption: Ouyang Yuqian
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