page_title: Two Stage Sisters
section_title: Yuan Xuefen (袁雪芬)
hierarchical_section_title: Two Stage Sisters / Symbolism / Yuan Xuefen (袁雪芬)
caption_attribution_description: English: A portrait of Yuan Xuefen from the 1940s
context_page_description: Two Stage Sisters is a 1964 Chinese drama film produced by Shanghai Tianma Film Studio and directed by Xie Jin, starring Xie Fang and Cao Yindi. Made just before the Cultural Revolution, it tells the story of two female Yue opera practitioners from the same troupe who end up taking very different paths in their lives: "one succumbs to bourgeois affluence and privilege, while the other finds inspiration and fulfilment in the social commitment associated with the May Fourth movement and the thought of Lu Xun.” The film documents their journey through abusive feudal conditions in the countryside before achieving success and prestige on the stage, meanwhile historically following Shanghai's experience under Japanese and KMT rule. This original screenplay depicts the socio-political changes encompassing China from 1935-1950 through the theatrical world of Shaoxing, and accordingly mixes both a Chinese aesthetic with Hollywood and socialist realist forms. The main protagonist is said to be based on the life of Xie Jin's friend and opera-veteran Yuan Xuefen.
context_section_description: Yuan Xuefen, a friend of director Xie Jin, and one of the world's most notorious Shaoxing Opera experts is argued to be the "real life prototype" of Zhu Chunhua's character in the film. She was notably also a consultant on the film. After the film was banned, Yuan simultaneously received immense scrutiny and was targeted during the Cultural Revolution for her participation in the film's production. This was likely because "some of her undertakings inadvertently coincided with the interests of the left, such as her staging of Sister Xianglin and her refusal to be involved with the Yue Opera Workers’ Union, which was sanctioned by the Nationalist Social Affairs Bureau.” However, she claims she did not act out of political motivation until after liberation. 
  The film's other two characters Xing Yuehong and Shang Shuihua are also said to be loosely based on Ma Zhanghua (Yuan's real life stage sister) and Xiao Dangui ("Queen of Yueju"), who in reality suffered at the hands of their theatre bosses. "All these actresses, including Yuan’s famous “ten sisters” of yueju in 1940s Shanghai alluded to in the film, were Shengxian orphans, child brides, or poverty-stricken country urchins sold to country troupes to seek a living in the theater."
caption: Yuan Xuefen, the Opera expert who character Zhu Chunhua is based on and pays homage to.
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