HUNG SHEN

born Dec. 31, 1894, Ch'ang-chou, Kiangsu province, China died Aug. 29, 1955, Peking Pinyin Hong Shen pioneering Chinese dramatist and filmmaker. Educated in Peking and at Harvard University in the United States, Hung Shen taught dramatic arts and Western literature at various universities after his return to China in 1922. Invited to join the Shanghai Dramatic Society in 1923, he soon began directing plays there by modern Chinese authors, including himself, and by Western writers whom he translated (e.g., Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere's Fan, 1924). In 1930 Hung Shen joined the Star Motion Picture Company and produced one of China's first sound films, which enjoyed tremendous popularity. In 1932 the company sent him to Hollywood to study film technique. On his return he produced a highly successful anti-Japanese film. During the Sino-Japanese War (193745), he directed tour companies in plays boosting wartime morale for the Nationalist government. Under the Communist government from 1949, he was active in cultural administration and served as vice chairman of the Chinese Stage Artists. An active member of the Tso-i Hsi-ch-chia Lien-meng (Left-wing Dramatists League) in the 1930s, Hung Shen often included a strong political message in his carefully staged productions. His plays and films also reflected the Western dramatic techniques he had studied in the United States.