When I first heard about Shi Hua as a child, I later saw the movie "Chicken Feather Letter" and I was crazy, and Shi Hua was the director of this film. When I grew up, I learned that Shi Hui was a famous talent in the history of Chinese film and drama, and the "Emperor of Drama" in Shanghai in the 1940s and 1950s.
Shi Hua was born in Tianjin in 1915, and his family road had fallen by birth. In 1916, Shi Shaolian, Shi Hua's father, took his wife Shen Shuzhen and his children to Beijing to make a living. Shi Hua began to attend shida elementary school at the age of 6, and his classmate Dong Shixiong was the later film and drama actor Lan Ma. After graduating from primary school, Shi Hua was admitted to Henan Middle School. After graduating from junior high school, he did not continue his education due to his father's unemployment. Since then, in order to make a living, he has worked as a tea house, a servant, and a station conductor.
In 1934, after being introduced by Blue Horse, he entered the Beijing Tomorrow Theater Troupe to do drama business. In 1935, he made a cameo appearance in the drama "Buy and Sell" in the tea house, and appeared on the stage for the first time. From then on, he became interested in being an actor and began to pay attention to other people's performances and think about performance problems.
In 1936, he joined the Salon Troupe and performed Cao Yu's drama "Sunrise". In the same year, he participated in the drama "Put Down Your Whip" directed by Chen Mian and performed by the China Traveling Theater Troupe, and has since changed its name to "Shi Hua".
In 1937, he played the scheming ambitionist Pan Yueting in "Sunrise" performed by the April Society. In 1938, he was appointed as the director of drama affairs of the Beijing Drama Society, and from November 26 to 27, he played Lu Gui, a slave who saw money in the drama "Thunderstorm", and Mr. Cao Yu said that he played Lu Gui better than he wrote.
In 1950, his self-directed and self-starring feature film "My Life" was released, in this film based on Lao She's novel, he played the old policeman "I", which won the second prize of the Chinese Ministry of Culture's 1949-1955 Outstanding Film Award for Feature Film.
In 1951, based on the short story of the same name, he wrote and directed himself in the war film "Guan Lianchang", in which he portrayed the role of Guan Lianchang of the People's Liberation Army who was heroic, kind, and loved the people.
On February 2, 1953, he entered the Shanghai Film Studio. In the same year, he directed Zhang Junxiang's film "Chicken Feather Letter", which reflected the combat life of children in the anti-Japanese base areas during the War of Resistance Against Japan, which won the winner of the 9th Edinburgh International Film Festival in the United Kingdom and the third prize of the Chinese Ministry of Culture's 1949-1955 Outstanding Film Award for Feature Film.
Shi Hua has been an artist for 16 years, engaged in film creation for 9 years, and acted, edited and directed 18 films in 9 years. With talent and hard work, he became the "drama emperor" of the 40s; with humility and understanding, he took up the guide tube and wrote and directed himself as the business card of Chinese film history, "My Life" and "Guan Lianchang". Japanese film critic Tadao Sato said: "In the past, I only knew that there was a Zhao Dan in China, but now I find that there is also Ishiwa.
In 1948, Shi Hui wrote and directed the movie "Mother", and peking opera actor Tong Baoling played a role in the film, and later Shi Hui and Tong Baoling fell in love. Because Shi Hua was 16 years older than Tong Baoling, the Tong family did not accept Shi Hua at first, but at Tong Baoling's insistence, in 1953, the two finally got married.
Shi Hui and "Golden Voice" Zhou Xuan once had a relationship, but later broke up due to some misunderstandings. The marriage with Tong Baoling was the only marriage in Shi Hua's life, which was very rare in the literary and art circles at that time.
One evening in mid-November 1957, he put on a beautiful brown tweed coat, wore his famous watch, which was only 6 pieces in Shanghai, kissed his wife Tong Baoling, who had been married for three years, went to the bank to remit the last money to his mother, and then came to the Huangpu Wharf, bought a ferry ticket, and boarded the "Democracy No. 3" passenger ship bound for Ningbo. Since then, the "drama emperor" of the 40s, the choreographer, director and acting all-rounder of the film industry have disappeared. After 17 months, his body was found on the beach.
It is often said that an artist has two lives, one is natural and the other is artistic. Although Shi Hua left this world, he left his works to future generations forever— from this point of view, Shi Hua is still alive.