Hu Die

Hu Die (

Hu Die was born Hu Ruihua (

In 1924, Hu Ruihua moved back to Shanghai with her family. When China (Zhonghua) Film School, the country's first film actor training school, opened, she was the first student to enroll. She adopted the professional name "Hu Die", meaning "butterfly",[2] and Butterfly Wu in English (Wu is the Shanghainese pronunciation of Hu).^[1]

The Tianyi film Lady Meng Jiang

Hu Die on the cover of The Young Companion, 1926

Hu Die played her first role in the film Success, as a supporting actress. She played her first major role in the film Autumn Stirs Resentments (Qiu Shan Yuan), and fell in love with her co-star Lin Xuehuai. The relationship did not work out, and the local newspapers were filled with rumours when they broke off their engagement.^[4]

In 1926, Hu Die had her big break when she was signed by Tianyi (Unique) Film Company, one of the major studios of Shanghai, headed by Runje Shaw (Shao Zuiweng). Tianyi catered to the tastes of the common people with rapid production of films. Hu Die starred in 15 films within the two years she worked for Tianyi. Many of them, such as The Traumatic Romance of Liang and Zhu (1926) and Lady Meng Jiang (1927), were popular, but not considered artistically worthy.^[4]

In 1928, Hu Die declined to renew her contract with Tianyi, and signed with the rival

In 1931, Hu Die starred in Sing-Song Girl Red Peony (dir. Zhang Shichuan), the first Chinese sound film (although it was sound-on-disc, not sound-on-film). Compared with other silent-era film stars, who were mostly southerners with poor Mandarin, Hu Die made the transition to sound with ease. She appeared in more sound films and was able to sing in The Flower of Freedom, a real sound film of much higher quality.^[5]

Hu Die starred in Twin Sisters (Zimei Hua, dir. Zheng Zhengqiu) in 1934, in which she skilfully played the double role of twin sisters with very different personalities.^[2] The film was not only extremely popular but also won critical acclaim. It is generally considered her best film.^[6][2]

On 18 September 1931, Hu Die arrived in

In 1933, the newspaper Star Daily (明星日报) conducted China's first public poll for the most popular movie stars. Fans across the country, as well as some from Japan, participated in the poll, and the results were unveiled in a public ceremony on 28 February. Hu Die was the runaway winner with 21,334 votes, more than twice as many as the first runner-up Chen Yumei, and almost three times the votes her friend Ruan Lingyu received. She was crowned China's first "Movie Queen".^[7][8][9]

In February 1935, Hu Die was invited to join a Chinese delegation to participate in the

In 1931, a cousin introduced Hu Die to Pan Yousheng (潘有声), a young employee of a Shanghai trading firm. Hu Die was careful about her personal life and their relationship progressed slowly until autumn 1935, when they announced their impending marriage. Their wedding was the most important social event in Shanghai of that year. Famous film stars served as

Soon after arriving in Chongqing, Hu Die starred in the film The Road to Nation Building to aid the war effort. While she was filming on location in Guilin, the Japanese launched the major offensive Operation Ichi-Go. The film crew lost all their equipment, and had to join the tens of thousands of refugees fleeing the war front on foot. The Road to Nation Building was Hu Die's only unfinished film, and she later described the incident as "the most tragic moment of my life".^[10]

While in Chongqing, Hu Die became connected with the powerful spy master Dai Li.^[11] She had been previously introduced to Dai Li in Shanghai by her colleague Xu Lai, who was married to a close friend of Dai Li's.^[12] According to the memoir of Dai Li's lieutenant Shen Zui, Hu Die became Dai Li's mistress during the period.^[11]

Hu Die returned to Shanghai after the

Hu Die retired in 1966, after a career spanning more than four decades. It was said that in 1967 she married an admirer named Zhu Fangkun (or Song Kunfang), who had given her financial support in the difficult period following Pan Yousheng's death.[11] She emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1975 to join her son. She lived a low-key life and avoided attention by using the name Pan Baojuan. She dictated her memoir in 1986, which first appeared in Taiwan's United Daily News in serials, and was published in Taiwan in 1987.^[13] She died on 23 April 1989, after suffering a stroke.^[11]

Hu Die had an illegitimate daughter named Hu Ruomei (胡若梅), later renamed to Hu Yousong (胡友松), who was born in 1939. The identity of her father is unknown. She was raised by a foster mother and stayed in mainland China while Hu Die moved to Hong Kong. In 1966, Hu Yousong married Li Zongren, who had briefly served as president of the Republic of China, and was 49 years her senior. After Li Zongren died in 1969, she was persecuted during the Cultural Revolution, and later became a Buddhist nun.^[14]

• The Burning of the Red Lotus Temple (1928–31), a martial arts film
• Sing-Song Girl Red Peony (1931), a sound film
• Twin Sisters (1934)

• Lee, Lily Xiao Hong; Stefanowska, A. D.; Wiles, Sue (2003). Biographical Dictionary of Chinese Women. M.E. Sharpe.
  ISBN 978-0-7656-0798-0
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• Perkins, Dorothy (2013). Encyclopedia of China: History and Culture. Routledge.
  ISBN 978-1-135-93562-7
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• ISBN 978-0-520-92876-3
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• Xiao, Zhiwei (2002). Encyclopedia of Chinese Film. Routledge.
  ISBN 978-1-134-74554-8
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• Ye, Tan; Zhu, Yun (2012). Historical Dictionary of Chinese Cinema. Rowman & Littlefield.
  ISBN 978-0-8108-6779-6
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• Hu Die at
  IMDb
• Hu Die at the Hong Kong Movie Database