Shen Xiling

Shen Xiling ( Chinese  沈 西 苓 ; * 1904 in Hangzhou , Zhejiang , † December 19, 1940 in Chongqing ) was a Chinese film director and screenwriter.

Shen Xiling studied textile dyeing before turning to the arts. He first completed an internship as a set designer at a Japanese theater. In 1928 he returned to China and was involved in left-wing theater groups, taught at two art schools and also worked as a window dresser.

In 1931 he accepted an offer to work as a production designer for the Tianyi film company . Shen wrote his first screenplay, The Protest of Women , but his request to direct the film was rejected by the studio. Shen then went to the Mingxing film company , where he was able to film his screenplay in 1933. His second film Twenty-Four Hours in Shanghai (1933) had problems with the censorship and was only released after cuts. Shen Xiling refused to release the mangled version, but the studio insisted on it for economic reasons. Despite his dissatisfaction, he stayed with Mingxing until 1937. He was involved in the production of the financially successful films Zi mei hua ( Twin Sisters , 1934) by Zheng Zhengqiu and The Trouble with Daughters (1934) by Zhang Shichuan , and directed the Chinese classics of the 1930s: Homesick , Boatman's Daughter (both 1935) and especially Shizi jietou ( Crossroads , 1937) with Zhao Dan and Bai Yang .

Shen then moved to Lianhua , where he was promised to direct The True Story of Ah Q , an adaptation of a well-known short story by Lu Xun . Because of the beginning of the Sino-Japanese war , the project did not come about. After the Japanese captured Shanghai in 1938, Shen went to Chongqing , where he directed Children of China (1939) for Nationalist Central Film Studio .

Shen Xiling died of typhus in 1940.

Web links

• Shen Xiling in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• to the film Crossroads