Wikipedia

Peng Xiaolian

In thisChinese name,thefamily nameisPeng.

Peng Xiaolian(Chinese:BànhTiểuLiên;26 June 1953 – 19 June 2019) was aChinesefilm director,scriptwriter and author. A graduate of the 1982 class of theBeijing Film Academy,she was a member of theFifth Generation,although her style differed from the other members of this group.[1]She is known for her series of films aboutShanghai,includingOnce Upon a Time in Shanghai(1998), which won the Best Picture Award of theHuabiao Awards;Shanghai Story(2004), which won fourGolden Rooster Awardsincluding Best Director and Best Picture; andShanghai Rumba(2006), based on the romance of the movie star coupleZhao DanandHuang Zongying.

Peng Xiaolian
Bành tiểu liên
Peng Xiaolian in 1989
Born(1953-06-26)26 June 1953
Chaling,Hunan
Died19 June 2019(2019-06-19)(aged 65)
Shanghai
Alma materBeijing Film Academy
Occupation(s)Film director,writer
Years active1982–2018
Chinese name
Simplified ChineseBànhTiểuLiên
Traditional ChineseBànhTiểuLiên
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu PinyinPéng Xiǎolián
Wade–GilesP'eng Hsiao-lien
IPA[pʰə̌ŋ ɕjàʊljɛ̌n]

Early life

edit

Peng was born on 26 June 1953 inChaling County,Hunan,and grew up inShanghai.[2][3]She was the youngest daughter ofPeng Baishan[zh](1910–1968) and his wife Zhu Weiming.[4][5]As a young child she experienced the terror of political persecution of her father.[4]Baishan was the Minister of Propaganda in Shanghai when he was arrested for his association withHu Feng,a literary critic and politician. Along with other associates of Hu, he was condemned as a core member of the "Hu Feng Counterrevolutionary Clique" and suffered in prison and labor camp. This family tragedy had a major influence on Xiaolian, who vividly depicts the terrifying memories in the 1987 novella "On My Back",[6]the 1997 short story "To That Faraway Place",[7]and in the 2009 documentaryStorm under the Sunthat she co-directed withLouisa Wei.[8]

When theCultural Revolutionbegan in 1966, her mother began to suffer brutality from theRed Guards.[5]The ultimate terror of the family came in 1968 when her father was beaten to death. Even years later, Peng insisted on writing about the chaotic years and the aftermath in fictions like the novelShanghai Story,[9]the novella "Holding up the Book I Read Everyday"[10]and the novella "Childhood: Secrets of Four Seasons".[11]

Like millions of her generation, she was sent down to the countryside for "re-education" by peasants during the Cultural Revolution. Although she spent nine years in the countryside ofJiangxiprovince,[4]not many works of hers except for "Burning Connections" write about the experience.[12]

After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Peng enteredBeijing Film Academyin 1978 to study directing, together withLi Shaohong,Chen Kaige,Tian Zhuangzhuangand others, who would later be known as China's Fifth Generation film directors.[13]

Career

edit

Directorial debut

edit

Upon graduation from Beijing Film Academy in 1982, Peng was assigned to work atShanghai Film Studio,[4]where she first worked as an assistant director. Three years later, she was given a teenage filmMe and My Classmatesto direct.[14]The film was a success and won the Best Children's Film Award of the 1987Golden Rooster Awards.[4]As a reward, she was a given a chance to direct a film that she had wanted to direct:Women's Story(1988). This film made her known to the world, not only by entering festivals like The Creteil Women's International Film Festival and Hawaii International Film Festival, but also praised for its strong feminine subjectivity and its portrayal of rural Chinese women.[15]

Life in New York

edit

In 1989, Peng won a script award for her script "Difficult Truth" at Rotterdam Film Festival, but could not make the film in China due to the tightening ideology. She thought about leaving China and the success of her first two films helped to win a Rockefeller scholarship. She enrolled in the MFA program inNew York Universityand graduated in 1996. Although she did not complete a single film in New York, her experience in New York inspired many fictional works, including novellas “The Abingdon Square”, “Burning Connections”, “A Drop of Ram Shit” set in New York, “Exile’s Return” and “On the Way Home” —all collected in her novella collection titledOn the Way Home.[12]

Directorial career

edit

After returning to China in 1996, Peng co-wrote (with Guo Lingling) the script forHuang Shuqin's filmMy Daddy.[4]Together with Zhu Bin, she directed her first thriller,The Dog Homicide(1996).[4][16]

In the following decade, she made a series of films about Shanghai.[4]Once Upon a Time in Shanghai(1998), a historical film about theShanghai Campaignof 1949, won the Best Film Award of theHuabiao Awards.[17]Shanghai Women(2002) portrays contemporary life in the fast-changing city.Shanghai Story(2004), which explores the vicissitudes of life of a bourgeois family from the 1920s to the 1990s, won fourGolden Rooster Awards,including Best Director and Best Picture.[4][2]Shanghai Rumba(2006) is based on the romance of the famous movie star coupleZhao DanandHuang Zongying.[4]These films made her known as a representative figure in presenting the culture of Shanghai.[16]She also made a children's animation film,Keke's Magic Umbrella(2000).[1]

In 2009, Peng co-directed (withLouisa Wei) the documentaryStorm Under the Sun,an investigation of the Hu Feng affair which had implicated her father. Peng and Wei interviewed 26 people who had been denounced as "counterrevolutionaries" for their association with Hu Feng.[4][8]

Later life and death

edit

Peng was diagnosed withbreast cancerin 2013. She underwentchemotherapyand her health temporarily recovered.[17]She began writing a book about her father titledFour Seasons of Childhood,and planned to make it into a film.[17]She also spent two years writing the bookEditor Zhong Shuhe – A Documentary on Paper,about the publisher Zhong Shuhe (Chung thúc hà). However, her health deteriorated again in November 2018 before she was able to finish either project.[17]She died on 19 June 2019 in Shanghai, at age 66.[17][18]

Selected filmography

edit

As director

edit
Year English Title Chinese Title Notes
2018 Please Remember Me Thỉnh ngươi nhớ kỹ ta [16]
2009 Storm Under the Sun Hồng nhật gió lốc Documentary about theHu Fengaffair, co-directed withLouisa Wei.[8]
2006 Shanghai Rumba Thượng Hải Rumba Based on the lives ofZhao Danand his wifeHuang Zongying[4]
2004 Shanghai Story Mỹ lệ Thượng Hải Won four 2004Golden Rooster Awards,including theBest PictureandBest Directorawards.[4]
2002 Shanghai Women Làm bộ không cảm giác [1]
2001 Red Persimmons Mãn sơn hồng thị Japanese:Mãn sơn hồng thị(Manzan Benigaki). Completed an unfinished documentary by Japanese directorShinsuke Ogawa.[19]
2000 Keke's Magic Umbrella Ca cao ma dù Children's animation[1]
1998 Once Upon a Time in Shanghai Thượng Hải kỷ sự Won the Best Film Award of theHuabiao Awards[17]
1996 The Dog Homicide Khuyển sát Co-directed with Zhu Bin (Chu bân)[16]
1987 Women's Story Nữ nhân chuyện xưa [1]
1986 Me and My Classmates Ta cùng ta các bạn học Won the Best Children's Film Award at the 1987Golden Rooster Awards.[4]

References

edit
  1. ^abcdeDavis, Edward L. (2009).Encyclopedia of Contemporary Chinese Culture.Taylor & Francis. p. 635.ISBN978-0-415-77716-2.
  2. ^abNhớ lại! Đạo diễn Bành tiểu liên đi rồi, làm chúng ta nhớ kỹ nàng.Shanghai Online(in Chinese (China)). 19 June 2019.Retrieved21 June2019.
  3. ^Fan Jialai phạm giai tới (20 June 2019).Kỷ niệm ｜ văn học sáng tác giả Bành tiểu liên: Một cái thuần túy lý tưởng chủ nghĩa giả.The Paper(in Chinese (China)).Retrieved21 June2019.
  4. ^abcdefghijklmnYe, Tan; Zhu, Yun (2012).Historical Dictionary of Chinese Cinema.Rowman & Littlefield. pp. 123–4.ISBN978-0-8108-6779-6.
  5. ^abPeng, Xiaolian.Their Times.Shanghai: Eastern China Normal University Press, 2010.
  6. ^Peng, Xiaolian. “On My Back" inHarvest: A Literary Bimonthly,No. 4 (1987): 25-38, 65.
  7. ^Peng, Xiaolian. "To That Faraway Place" inFiction World,No. 6 (1997): 113-6.
  8. ^abcVeg, Sebastian.Storm under the Sunin The China Quarterly, June (2009): 198-199.
  9. ^Peng, Xiaolian.Shanghai Story.Shanghai: Shanghai Social Science Press, 2005.
  10. ^Peng, Xiaolian. "Holding up the Book I Read Everyday” in Jiangnan, No. 5 (2009): 31-53.
  11. ^Peng, Xiaolian. "Childhood: Secrets of Four Seasons” inHarvest: A Literary Bimonthly,No. 3 (2015): 73-89.
  12. ^abPeng, Xiaolian.On the Way Home.Shanghai: Baihua Press, 2005.
  13. ^Ni, Zhen.Memories of Beijing Film Academy: The Genesis of China's Fifth Generation.Durham: Duke University Press, 2002.
  14. ^Peng, Xiaolian. “My Shanghai, My Films” in S. Louisa Wei and Yang Yuanying,Women’s Cinema: Dialogues with Chinese and Japanese Female Directors.Shanghai: Eastern China Normal University Press, 2009, 125-130.
  15. ^Kuoshu, Harry H.Metro Movies: Cinematic Urbanism in Post-Mao China.Carbondale: Southern Illinois University Press, 2011; Lewis, Catherine E. “Sewing, Quilting, Knitting: Handicraft and Freedom inThe Color PurpleandA Women’s Story”inLiterature/Film Quarterly,29: 3 (2001): 236–45.
  16. ^abcdChen Chen Trần Thần (20 June 2019).Kỷ niệm Bành tiểu liên: Không có điện ảnh chụp, đối nàng mới là tra tấn.The Paper(in Chinese (China)).Retrieved20 June2019.
  17. ^abcdefLuo Xin la hân (20 June 2019).Kỷ niệm ｜ Bành tiểu liên, đem đuốc hỏa nỗ lực truyền lại cho người khác.The Paper(in Chinese (China)).Retrieved21 June2019.
  18. ^Feola, Josh (19 June 2019)."Fifth-Gen Filmmaker Peng Xiaolian Passes Away at 66".RADII.Retrieved21 June2019.
  19. ^"Red Persimmons".Icarus Films. 11 February 2015.Retrieved20 June2019.
edit
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Peng_Xiaolian&oldid=1131430240"