Wang Renmei

Wang Renmei
Native name	王人美
Born	December 1914 Changsha, Hunan, China
Died	2 April 1987 (aged 72) Beijing
Other names	Wang Shuxi (王庶熙)
Occupation	Actress, singer
Notable work	Wild Rose Song of the Fishermen
Spouse(s)	Jin Yan (1934–44) Ye Qianyu (1955–87)
Parent(s)	Wang Zhengquan (father)

Wang Renmei (Chinese: 王人美; Wade–Giles: Wang Jen-mei; December 1914 – 2 April 1987) was a famous Chinese actress and singer nicknamed the "Wildcat of Shanghai". She was mainly active during the 1930s, and her most notable film was the 1934 Song of the Fishermen directed by Cai Chusheng, which was the first Chinese film to win an international prize. In 2005, she was chosen as one of the 100 best actors of the 100 years of Chinese cinema.

Wang was married to Jin Yan, the Korean-born "Emperor of Chinese Cinema", and later to Ye Qianyu, a prominent artist.

Wang Renmei was born and grew up in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, where her father Wang Zhengquan (王正权) was a mathematics teacher at the Changsha No. 1 Normal School. Born Wang Shuxi (王庶熙), she was the youngest of seven children. One of her father's students was Mao Zedong, a fellow Hunan native who would become China's top leader. As a young man, Mao lived in Wang's house and saw the child Renmei on a daily basis. Later Mao was director of the school that Wang Renmei attended.

When Wang Renmei was seven, her mother died of a stroke. In 1926, Wang entered the Changsha No. 1 Normal School. However, her father died that year after a wasp sting developed into a fatal infection. Without financial support from their father, the Wang children left their hometown to seek a living elsewhere. They first went to Wuhan, but after the fall of Wang Jingwei's government in 1927, they fled east to Wuxi near Shanghai.

In early 1928, Wang Renmei's second oldest brother Wang Renlu brought Renmei and her third oldest brother Renyi to Shanghai. Renlu's former colleague Li Jinhui, another Hunan native who is now considered the "Father of Chinese pop music", had founded the Meimei School in Shanghai. Meimei was a special school for singing and dancing which became the famous China Song and Dance Troupe, later renamed Bright Moon Song and Dance Troupe. Renmei and Renyi both enrolled at the school, with Renmei focusing on singing and dancing, while her brother studied mandolin. Wang Renmei proved to be a talented singer and became one of the "Four Divas" of the troupe, along with Li Lili, Xue Lingxian (薛玲仙), and Hu Jia (胡笳). Starting in May 1928, the troupe spent ten months touring southeastern Asian cities including Bangkok, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, and Jakarta. They also toured and performed in Beijing, Tianjin, and Manchuria.

...
Wikipedia