He Xiangning

He Xiangning was born in Hong Kong on 27 June 1878. She was born He Jian (何諫, also He Ruijian 何瑞諫), into a wealthy family of merchants. Her father, He Binghuan ( 何炳桓 ), originally from Nanhai, Guangdong Province, started a successful business trading tea and investing in real estate. ¹ She persuaded her father to allow her to be educated together with her brothers, and was a diligent student from a young age. ¹ A determined feminist since she was young, He Xiangning fiercely resisted her father's order to have her feet bound per traditional Chinese custom. Because of her "big feet", in October 1897 she was arranged to marry Liao Zhongkai, an American-born Chinese who did not want a wife with bound feet. ¹ Although it was an arranged marriage, He and Liao had much in common, sharing a love for knowledge and art, and a passion for China's salvation. ¹ In 1902, she sold her dowries to support her husband to study in Japan. She soon enrolled in the Japan Women’s University and became one of the first Chinese women to take up studies in Japan. She and her husband soon met the Chinese revolutionary Sun Yat-sen, considered the “father of modern China”, and were some of the first to join the Tongmenghui, an anti-imperialist revolutionary movement founded in August 1905. While she had been keenly interested in art since her teenage years, it was the start of her political career that truly prompted her artistic activity. She understood the need to participate in the creation of revolutionary emblems and flags and, to this end, joined the Hongo Women’s School of Fine Arts in Tokyo in 1909. There, she studied the art of wildlife painting under the famous Japanese painter Tanaka Raishō, who specialised in the traditional nihonga style. Upon returning to China in 1916, the couple settled in Shanghai, intending to promote the revolutionary cause. H. Xiangning was appointed Minister of Women’s Rights in S. Yat-sen’s nationalist government and organised the first International Women’s Day in China on 8 March 1924. From then on, H. Xiangning’s pictorial style became influenced by the Lingnan School, one of China’s modern painting movements, founded by renowned artists such as Chen Shuren and Gao Jianfu, from whom she took classes. While she remained deeply attached to Chinese culture through her use of delicate colours, she also adopted the meticulous brushstrokes typical of Japanese painting. The resulting works were a subtle combination of Western techniques and traditional ink brushwork, a testament to her commitment to a deeply innovative form of art. Despite the prevalence of flowers ( Chrysanthemums, 1913), animals, and landscapes ( Landscape, 1929) in H. Xiangning’s works, these cannot be defined as solely decorative. The motif of plum blossoms, a recurring theme in her iconography ( Red Plum Blossoms, 1953), symbolises courage, purity, and integrity in Chinese culture. Similarly, when she chose to depict a tiger or a lion – sometimes in action ( Tiger, 1910; and Tiger, 1935), sometimes in contemplation ( Lion, 1914) – the figure of the animal embodies first and foremost the artist’s patriotism and, to a greater extent, that of Chinese revolutionaries. ³ After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937, He moved to Hong Kong and then to Chongqing, where she continued to make films that supported the resistance against Japanese invasion. She also collaborated with other filmmakers, such as Shi Dongshan, Cai Chusheng, and Sun Yu, who were among the most prominent film directors and screenwriters in pre-Communist China. She also wrote books on film theory and drama criticism. She was a pioneer in film art and culture, and a master of social commentary and human drama. ¹ After the establishment of the People's Republic of China in 1949, He continued to work in the film industry, serving as the vice president of the China Film Association and the director of the Beijing Film Studio. She also led delegations to international film festivals and made significant efforts in film education and popularization. She directed several films in the 1950s and 1960s, such as Waves on the South China Sea (1963), which won the Best Feature Film Award at the 3rd Hundred Flowers Awards. ¹ He died of a heart attack on 1 September 1972 in Beijing, at the age of 94. ¹ She was one of the most influential and innovative filmmakers and playwrights in Chinese cinema and drama history. She created milestone films and plays that reflected the conflicts of human nature and destiny, demonstrating a profound artistic vision and cultural awareness. Her works have been widely praised and studied by critics and scholars, and have inspired generations of filmmakers and audiences. She was also a patriot who championed the resistance against Japanese invasion and the liberation of China. She was posthumously rehabilitated in 1978, and received several honors and awards for her contributions to Chinese film and drama art. ²