Chen Bo'er was born on July 15, 1907 in Anbu Town, Chaozhou, Guangdong Province, to an overseas Chinese merchant family. Originally named Chen Shunhua, he used to use the name Chen Zuofen, and later took the word "Bo'er" in honor of his beloved father Chen Xiangbo. At the age of ten, Chen Bo'er went to Hong Kong with her parents to study. At the age of fourteen, he returned to his hometown and went to Xiamen Jimei School to study. In the autumn of the following year, he was admitted to Nanjing Jiangsu Christian Girls' High School for study. In 1925, he transferred to Shanghai Yanmoshi Middle School to attend high school. In 1927, Chen Bo'er was expelled from the school for participating in the anti-Chiang Kai-shek demonstrations. In 1928, he entered Shanghai University of the Arts to study Chinese. In October of the same year, he joined the Grand League for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms headed by Lu Xun, and joined the Shanghai Art Drama Society, where he began to engage in left-wing drama activities. He has performed dramas such as "Gentleman on the Beam", "The Contest of Love and Death", "Charcoal Pit Man", "No War on the Western Front", "Street Man" and so on. Blacklisted by the authorities, he was forced to go to Hong Kong in the winter of 1930 to earn a living, and co-founded Lingdong Middle School, where he also worked as a teacher of Chinese and English.
In 1934, he returned to Shanghai and joined the star film company as an actor, starring in the film "Youth Line" (as Shen Lan), and entered the film world. At the end of the year, he joined Dentsu Film Company and starred in the film "Tao Li Robbery" (as Li Lilin), which meticulously expressed the various emotional changes of the characters in the tortuous and bumpy life, so he became famous in the film world. In 1937, he organized the Shanghai Women's and Children's Frontline Condolence Group to go to the Suiyuan Front to comfort the anti-Japanese soldiers, and participated in the battlefield mobile drama team (later renamed the anti-enemy drama team). He has performed in "Put Down Your Whip", "Zhangjiadian", "Smuggling", "Defending Lugou Bridge" and other dramas. In the autumn of the same year, he joined the Communist Party of China in Nanjing. At the beginning of 1938, he was elected as a director of the National Film Industry Anti-Enemy Association. Participated in the film "Eight Hundred Heroes" (as Boy Scout Yang Huimin) at the China Power Plant. Soon after, he went to Yan'an and led an inspection delegation of women and children behind enemy lines in North China to go deep into various base areas to carry out anti-Japanese drama activities.
In 1939, Chen Bo went to Chongqing to engage in anti-Japanese propaganda and liaison work. In 1940, he returned to Yan'an and entered the Yan'an Marxist-Leninist College to study. During this period, he wrote progressive plays such as "Comrade, You Have Gone the Wrong Way", "Wounded Soldier Song", "The Glory of Labor", directed "Professor Mamen", "Russians", "Frontline", "New Trojan Horse Plan" and other plays, and planned and organized the filming of the first film "Labor Hero in the Border Area" in the Liberated Areas (which was later stopped for some reason). At the beginning of 1946, together with Wu Yinxian, Yuan Muzhi, Zhang Xinshi and Shu Qun, he participated in the preparatory work of the Northeast Film Studio. He is one of the five founders of East Shadow and Long Shadow. After the establishment of Dongying, he served as the general secretary of the party branch and the director of the art department of the Northeast Film Studio. In 1947, he led the work of the newsreel group, dispatched more than 20 news photo teams to the northeast front, rear, factories, rural areas, mines, schools, and grasslands of Inner Mongolia, and filmed and edited seventeen special films based on documentaries, "Democracy in Northeast China". He also directed the first puppet film "Emperor's Dream".
Statues of the founders of The Long Shadow, Wu Yinxian, Yuan Muzhi, Chen Bo'er, Shu Qun, and Zhang Xinshi
In 1949, Chen Bo'er wrote the script for the feature film "Radiant". In the autumn of the same year, he was transferred to the deputy director of the Art Committee of the Film Industry Administration and the director of the Arts Department. In 1950, he presided over the establishment of the Institute of Performing Arts and served as its director. On November 9, 1951, while giving a report to the artistic cadres of the Shanghai Film Studio, he died of a heart attack at the age of 44. As an actor, Comrade Chen Bo'er's performance is real and moving, leaving an unforgettable impression on the audience; As a film entrepreneur, she worked diligently and selflessly, and made outstanding contributions to the film industry in New China. On December 27, 1995, Chen Bo'er won the Actress Award at the Century Awards of Chinese Film.
Chen Bo'er and Nie Rongzhen took a group photo
Chen Bo'er and Zhu De took a group photo
Tomb of Chen Bo'er
In 1934, he played Shen Lan in the movie "Youth Line";
Movie stills
In 1934, he played Li Lilin in the movie "Peach and Lee Robbery";
In 1936, he played Zhao Yuhua in the movie "Life and Death Together";
In 1938, he played Yang Huimin in the movie "Eight Hundred Heroes";