Singer and film artist Zhang Fan

Singer and film artist Zhang Fan is a famous child star who became famous in the 1930s in Chinese film history. She was born in Shanghai. Because of her talent, she loved singing and performing since she was a child. At the age of 13, Zhang Fan was originally old enough to go to school, but because of her poor family, he was forced to drop out of school to make a living. Unexpectedly, she came across a good opportunity. At that time, the Shanghai "Ming Yue Opera Society" founded by the brothers Li Jinguang and Li Jinhui was recruiting students. They discovered that Zhang Fan had a talent for acting and made an exception for admission. She is grateful that she has found a good place to display her talents. Zhang Fan practiced diligently in the drama club and quickly mastered the basic knowledge about vocal music, and also understood the scientific principles of vocal production and scientific methods of voice training. Not long after arriving at the drama club, she was assigned to perform on stage. She and Liming Jian (Mrs. Guo Moruo Yu Liqun) performed in three operas on the same stage, namely "The Grape Fairy", "Peanuts", and "The Little Painter" (This opera mainly satirizes the outdated and pedantic Bible-reading education). Due to her outstanding performance, she became a sensation in Shanghai. Fans in Shanghai's primary and secondary schools all remember Zhang Fan's name. Later, "Ming Yue Opera Society" changed its name to "Greater China Song and Dance Ensemble". Zhang Fan accompanied the group to perform in Hong Kong, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, Philippines, Vietnam, Cambodia and other countries, and was welcomed by local overseas Chinese. To this day, old fans in Singapore and other places still sing songs sung by Zhang Fan. A few years later, Zhang Fan was admitted to the actor training class of Xinhua Film Company and entered the film industry from the music world. In the early 1940s, the company produced a movie "Four Sisters" adapted from the novel "Pride and Prejudice" by American female writer Austen. Zhang Fan plays the third child in the film. The film became an instant hit and the four heroines in the film became famous in the Shanghai film industry. Then the film's director Li Pingqian wrote a feature film specifically for Zhang Fan, called "Songs from Beyond the World." The plot of the story is: It describes the story of a little orphan girl who worked hard to become a singer. Zhang Fan's acting skills are fully demonstrated in the film. After decades of acting, Zhang Fan has created countless screen and screen images. She played the protagonist Xiuhua, the third sister, in the film "Four Sisters", the heroine Alian in "The Song of Heaven and Earth", the daughter in "Cries of Tears", and She played the heroine in "Midnight Song", Aunt Wang in "The Burden", Grandma in "Stepmother", Old Widow Ma in "Four Generations Under One House", etc. Among them, Aunt Wang played in "The Burden" and Grandma played in "Stepmother" were nominated as outstanding supporting actress candidates for the third TV series "Flying Award", and "Four Generations Under One Roof" won the first China Film Performing Arts Society Society Award. She was a member of the China Film Association and the Chinese Dramatists Association during her lifetime. Zhang Fan started recording records in 1938, and her first gramophone record was "Flying Around the Field" published by EMI's sub-label Li Ge. She has recorded about a dozen personal gramophone records, all of which were recorded before 1949 and were produced by the EMI and Liguo labels, including "Bug Song", "Peach Blossoms Are Red", "I" "There is a glimmer of hope", "Hazy Moon", "Spring Dawn on Su Causeway", "Happy New Year", "I Want to Dream of You", "My Heart", "Flowers in the Wilderness", "Mandarin Ducks on the Water", "New Moon" "Up on the Grassland", "Hometown", "Flying Over the Field", "Night Car", "Warm and Ambiguous Love", "The Love of Village Girl", "Connected Needlebook", "Sighing the Fireworks", "Hometown Song" and " The Only Way to Love" etc. During the liberation period, Zhang Fan rushed from Shanghai to Nanjing and joined the "Frontline Repertory Theater" of the Nanjing Military Region. After the liberation of Shanghai, Zhang Fan continued to play roles in films such as "Love", "Love Debt", "Couple in Distress", and "Sorrow". In 1958, he was transferred to the Actor Troupe of Bayi Film Studio. Over the past few decades, she has produced many films and created more than 80 roles for middle-aged and elderly women. He has participated in the filming of many film and television dramas such as "The Beautiful Country", "Rage", "The Wave of Eternal Life", "Secret Drawings", and "Sharing Wealth and Suffering". She never chooses roles when acting, and has always enjoyed being a green leaf. When the Beijing Film Studio rushed to schedule the TV series "Four Generations Under One Roof", she played the role of the old widow Ma. The director said that she was older than Beijing. Bayi Film Studio produced "The Land of Rebirth", in which she played the wife of the Japanese war criminal Ito. She specially went to the old site of the Fushun War Criminals Management Center to experience life. After a lot of hard work, she was able to play the submissive behavior of the war criminal's wife in a meticulous and realistic way when she was on camera. In 1987, she won the first China Film and Performing Arts Society Award. At the end of 2001, Zhang Fan, who was already 80 years old, received an invitation from the "Old Songs Club" in Singapore as a guest to meet old friends from the 1930s. Their performance attracted many fans and was headlined by Singapore's "Xin Min Daily" The concert event was published in the news. During the "Cultural Revolution", Zhang Fan was labeled as a "pornographic film girl" and imprisoned in a "cowshed", where she was subjected to endless criticism. At the same time, her husband Xu Yikang (screenwriter of Bayi Studio) was also sent to Gansu for reform through labor because he was a capitalist. The couple and their four children were severely damaged both physically and mentally. It's just because Zhang Fan has an open-minded mind, is optimistic about fate in the face of adversity in life, and managed to survive the ten years of turmoil.