Written by Patrick Galvan
Translator: Qin Tian
Proofreader: Yi Er San
Source: Off Screen (January-February 2023)
In the early 1910s, a young film lover named Sun Yu agreed to help his classmates run on the 400-meter dash in their middle school. He had little athletic ability and fainted and vomited before reaching the finish line, but he still developed a fascination with sports.
After graduating from Tsinghua University in 1923, Sun Yu came to the United States with a love of art, translated poetry, and studied film, theater and photography in New York. While the fact that he claimed to be the first Chinese filmmaker to study abroad is debatable, Sun Yu's overseas education led him to make his directorial debut upon returning to China and join Lianhua Pictures.
Lianhua is a progressive studio committed to investing more of its budget in the films it produces, and Lianhua Pictures' declaration is to "launch a movement to revive national cinema", and recruiting a highly educated and concerned director like Sun Yu into his leadership is undoubtedly more in line with the development of the film industry.
Sun Yu's early films for Lianhua covered themes such as opposition to capitalism (Spring Dreams in the Former Capital, 1930), marriage for love rather than profit (Wild Grass and Flowers, 1930), and anti-imperialism in the War of Resistance Against Japan (Gadgets, The Road, Journey to the Country).
Some of these films angered the government's censorship because the Kuomintang, led by Chiang Kai-shek, wanted to avoid conflict with Japan and disapproved of films that promoted communist-related sentiments (such as works that demonized capitalists).
After Sun Yu saw that his film "Together to the Country" was banned and was forced to hide the anti-Japanese sentiment in "Gadgets" (the villains in the film were set as "imperialists" and "enemies"), Sun Yu made a movie that coincided with the policies of the Kuomintang.
"Gadgets"
In 1934, Chiang Kai-shek delivered five speeches proposing ideas that came to be known as the "New Life Movement." The movement blamed the suffering of the Chinese working class on "unbearable filth," "hedonism," "laziness" rather than overbearing capitalism, and advocated solutions such as physical fitness. (In Chiang Kai-shek's words, "A healthy mind resides in a healthy body.") The timing is favorable for this revolution and its health initiatives.
Students who participated in the anti-imperialist May Fourth Movement in 1919 declared that health was crucial to China's future and that movie stars should show off their toned bodies and athletic abilities. The most popular actor at the time, Jin Yan, proved himself to be a capable basketball player, and the women's magazine "Linglong" ridiculed the actresses in bathing suits just to show off their figures. In 1932, a consulting columnist for the Morning Post recommended that Hu Die, the country's top female star, take tennis lessons to improve her physique.
Jin Yan, Sun Yu
In 1934, the Boy Scout Association of the Republic of China was founded, the first issue of "Bodybuilding Monthly" was printed, and in the same year, another newspaper called "Liangyou Pictorial" paid tribute to swimmer Yang Xiuqiong, calling her one of the national female role models. With the selection of the qualifiers for the Far East Championship to begin in April of that year, 1934 became the perfect time to launch a nationalist sports film. Lianhua's historical ties with the Kuomintang make it an ideal production company for such films. The company's board of directors includes the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of China and the President of the High Court of the National Government.
In addition, Luo Mingyou, the founder of Lianhua, signed an agreement in May 1933 to produce newsreels for the Kuomintang. However, Lianhua also released films that clashed with Kuomintang policy, Bu Wancang's Three Modern Women (1933), which dramatized the Japanese bombing of Shanghai in 1932 and Chinese workers stood up against their employers. As a result, the censors ordered the film to be withdrawn and re-cut.
Three Modern Women
However, while other film studios that violated censorship policies were forced to fire their employees or even burned down (such as Yihua Pictures), Lianhua Pictures survived, perhaps because Luo Mingyou also produced films that complied with national policy in response to the government, such as National Style (directed by Luo Mingyou and Zhu Shilin, 1935).
Although there are occasional films that cause trouble for UMF, the company and the government as a whole maintain a healthy relationship and are well positioned to produce a film that supports the New Life movement. More importantly, they hired a famous director with a strong interest in sports - Sun Yu.
"Sports Queen" tells the story of Lin Ying, a girl from a rural area with a free nature, who went to Shanghai to study at the Jinghua Women's Sports College. There, she was considered an outstanding track and field athlete, breaking three national records before qualifying for the aforementioned Far East Championships. Despite occasional inattention and brief "camaraderie" with football players, Lin embodies an understanding of the "true sportsmanship" that she believes can improve China.
After arriving in Shanghai, I saw the life of Shanghai people: "People are also very strange! Some are skinny as skeletons, others eat like fat pigs!" She continued: "Dad, I know why China is not strong! The first reason is that the body is too weak!" Her father replied, "You child! Speaking of which, it must always be about your sports to save the country!"
"Queen of Sports"
Lin Ying did not immediately become an activist who practiced the concept of "saving the country through sports". But at school, she developed a romantic affection for track and field coach Yun Peng, seeing him as a spiritual ally, whose wording on the podium was eerie and reminiscent of certain phrases from Chiang Kai-shek's speech on his new life. ("Have a sound body, and then have a sound mind!") The driving force behind any nation's self-improvement is a sound body." Through his moral indoctrination and her own experience (a football player forced Lin Ying to drink, which she immediately refused), Lin Ying regained her devotion to the spirit of athletics.
Three classmates conspired to defeat her in the qualifying tournament just in search of glory, but after one of the girls died of a heart attack, Lin Ying's belief in winning the competition deepened, and she allowed herself to be defeated in the competition, even though her opponent became famous, but she remained committed to the spiritual virtues represented by athletics.
Lin Ying is played by Li Lili (formerly known as Qian Hao Hao), a talented actor promoted by Sun Yu and a rising star in the 1930s. As the daughter of a Communist intelligence worker, Li Lili appeared on the screen with her father Qian Zhuangfei in "Yanshan Xiayin" (1926) at the age of eleven.
As a teenager, she became the adopted daughter of Li Jinhui, the head of the Chinese Song and Dance Troupe, and changed her name to Li Lili, presumably to save her from her father, who was hunted down by the Kuomintang. In 1931, the Chinese Song and Dance Troupe was merged into Lianhua Film and renamed Lianhua Song and Dance Class.
Due to the rise of sound films, Lo Mingyou realized that he needed vocal-trained actresses to cope with the new era of cinema. This also laid the foundation for Li Lili to embark on the road of actress. She initially played small roles in some films, such as the pianist in Bu Wancang's A Cut of Plum (1931) and the singing star in Silver Han Double Star (1931) directed by Shi Dongshan. She eventually caught Sun Yu's attention. "Lily Li was very young and naïve," the director recalled, "and I noticed her precisely because of this innocence."
"Silver Han Double Star"
However, naïve is not one of the adjectives that define Lili's screen image. Film historian Tonny Wren offers a more apt description, and in his description of the 1985 Chinese Film Retrospective, he more accurately described the actress as "a sexy actress with an exotic, energetic and extremely confident character."
This is most vividly shown in her first film with Sun Yu, Volcanic Blood (1932), in which Li Lili plays a dancer at a tropical overseas club in Nanyang, who interrupts a "boxing match" by taking the stage and showing off her sexiness. Sun Yu recreates the budding star in Gadgets, this time as a positive role model, a young woman who stirs the dedication of her Chinese compatriots and leads children to gymnastics.
"Gadgets"
As the scene later shows, Lily Li is handy for fitness. Compared with petite idols such as Hu Die and Ruan Lingyu, she shows her charm with a healthy, sexy and outstanding body. (Many of the scenes in Sports Queen are composed to center her up to show her muscular legs, and historian Victor Fan notes that tabloids often describe Li Lili's legs as "jade pillars.") ）
Behind the scenes, Li Lili actively practices basketball and rides horses. Cycling to and from the English department at Nantai Business School, she has a tennis racket hanging from her bag. As a result, Shanghai's news media and municipal organizations quickly took advantage of her physical vitality. She attended the opening ceremony of the Shanghai swimming pool, and a 1934 promotional photo showing her being coached by track and field athletes is no different from the training scene in "Sports Queen". In the words of film historian Ding Yaping, Li Lili is "the perfect object for Chinese cinema in the 1930s to introduce to modern audiences, because her physical beauty has a modern style."
In "Sports Queen", Li Lili shows some of what Sun Yu calls "naïve". Although she is a staunch advocate of "true sportsmanship", she occasionally succumbs to her temptations, for example, trying to courtship her coach, who rejects Lin's "progress" – enjoying the social life after fame despite their mutual attraction. Lin Ying also has a mischievous side.
In a key scene, Lin Ying tries to escape from a footballer who tries to seduce her, but is immediately relieved by her coach. On their way back to campus, Lin Ying said to listen to him, "Talk less, work harder." But it was also during this night walk that she still maintained a good impression of Yunpeng. She shivered in the cold wind from time to time and glanced coyly at the coach, who took off her jacket for her to wear, making sure he gave Lin Ying enough care.
The filming of "Sports Queen" was mainly carried out at Shanghai Liangjiang Women's Sports Normal School, where many of the athletes in the film are students. Although director Sun Yu advocated the values of the New Life movement, he still managed to show his social tendencies in his works, which usually disturbed censors but fascinated Sun Yu.
Halfway through the film, as Lin Ying becomes a national track and field star, the camera cuts to a group of impoverished men, including a troubled former athlete. The hysterical shouting ("The Price of Glory") by this man (played by Sun Yu cameo) ends the scene as he remembers his long-lost fame, and the film is interspersed with a montage of trophies superimposed on each other, seemingly denouncing the transience and superficiality of fame and fortune, which is not uncommon in Sun Yu's films, and this montage scene also foreshadows the end of Lin Ying's final victory in the competition. ("Hmph! Queen, everything that wants to be a queen, everything that holds a queen," the coach told her after the game, "Let's bury them all one day!" ）
Sun Yu also mixed the film with a hint of anti-Japanese sentiment: a newspaper briefly mentioned that Manchukuo, which had become a puppet state of Japan three years earlier, had been disqualified from the qualifying tournament. However, in the interview, the director talked about the information of the film so far, he told Lianhua Pictorial: "A strong body may not necessarily save the country, but citizens who want to save the country must have a strong body."
Released on April 14, 1934, on the same day as the actual trials for the Far East Championships, the opening caption reads, "To the Warriors Who Work for the True Spirit of Sports," was a huge success and spawned a series of merchandise, including the hit music flyer Sports Queen: An Anthology of Modern Pop Songs. Athletic ability is still an advantageous characteristic of celebrities. Magazines such as Women's Life and Qingqing Films featured photographs of sports stars and politicians, and "female athlete films" have been popular for decades, including Women's Basketball No. 5 (Xie Jin, 1958) and the 1961 Hong Kong film Sports Queen.
Li Lili still embodies a positive and inspiring attitude towards life after the political storm (she also co-starred with Lan Ping in 1936's "Wolf Mountain Blood"). Despite her husband's death, Li Lili remained passionate about acting, experienced a second marriage, and became a professor at the Beijing Film Academy.
Later in life, she remained optimistic. "Sometimes you need to swim against the current," she once told her grandson-in-law. "Even if everyone is moving in a bad way, you should do the right and ethical thing, even if it means going against everyone else." Never forget that."