Hu Die, known by her English name Butterfly Wu, was a Chinese actress during the 1920s and 1930s.
35 Facts About Hu Die
2.
Hu Die was born Hu Ruihua in Shanghai in 1907 or 1908, and moved to Guangzhou when she was nine.
3.
Hu Die adopted the professional name "Hu Die", meaning "butterfly", and Butterfly Wu in English.
4.
Hu Die played her first role in the film Success, as a supporting actress.
5.
Hu Die played her first major role in the film Autumn Stirs Resentments, and fell in love with her co-star Lin Xuehuai.
6.
In 1926, Hu Die had her big break when she was signed by Tianyi Film Company, one of the major studios of Shanghai, headed by Runje Shaw.
7.
Hu Die starred in 15 films within the two years she worked for Tianyi.
8.
In 1928, Hu Die declined to renew her contract with Tianyi, and signed with the rival Mingxing Film Company, led by the businessman and director Zhang Shichuan, and the writer Zheng Zhengqiu.
9.
Hu Die had a salary of $1,000 a month, a large sum at the time.
10.
Hu Die befriended her co-star Ruan Lingyu; the two women would become China's biggest film stars of the 1930s.
11.
Hu Die appeared in more sound films and was able to sing in The Flower of Freedom, a real sound film of much higher quality.
12.
On 18 September 1931, Hu Die arrived in Tianjin en route to Beijing, where Mingxing was planning to shoot the film Marriage of Tears and Laughter, an adaptation of the novel by Zhang Henshui.
13.
Hu Die had to purchase space on Shen Bao, Shanghai's biggest newspaper, to dispel the rumour, which she believed was started by the Japanese media in order to discredit Zhang Xueliang.
14.
Hu Die's account was corroborated by other Mingxing actors and employees.
15.
Hu Die was the runaway winner with 21,334 votes, more than twice as many as the first runner-up Chen Yumei, and almost three times the votes her friend Ruan Lingyu received.
16.
In February 1935, Hu Die was invited to join a Chinese delegation to participate in the Moscow International Film Festival in the Soviet Union.
17.
Hu Die was the only film star in the delegation, which mainly comprised influential men of the industry.
18.
Hu Die arrived too late for the festival, but received a warm welcome, and her films Twin Sisters and Orchid in a Remote Valley were shown in Moscow and Leningrad.
19.
Hu Die took many notes and photographs, and published a travelogue after returning to China.
20.
Hu Die was careful about her personal life and their relationship progressed slowly until autumn 1935, when they announced their impending marriage.
21.
Hu Die was ready to retire from the film industry, as was customary at the time after an actress' marriage, but with her husband's support, she signed a contract with Mingxing to make one film per year.
22.
Hu Die only made one more film under the new contract, before the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out, and the hard-fought Battle of Shanghai completely destroyed Mingxing and other Shanghai studios in 1937.
23.
Hu Die gave birth to a daughter and a boy during this time.
24.
The Japanese pressured her to make a documentary film entitled Hu Die Touring Tokyo for their war propaganda, but Hu Die refused to become a collaborator, and secretly planned her escape to Chongqing, the war-time capital of the Republic of China resistance.
25.
Hu Die entrusted her belongings to the underground, and casually walked out of her Hong Kong home one day.
26.
Hu Die stayed in Shaoguan for a year and a half before leaving for Guilin in Guangxi, and did not reach Chongqing until the end of 1943.
27.
Hu Die had been previously introduced to Dai Li in Shanghai by her colleague Xu Lai, who was married to a close friend of Dai Li's.
28.
Hu Die returned to Shanghai after the surrender of Japan in 1945.
29.
Hu Die made several films for Shaw Brothers Studio, a successor company of Tianyi, and her performance in Li Han-hsiang's Rear Door won her the Best Actress Award at the Seventh Asian Film Festival held in Tokyo in 1960.
30.
Hu Die retired in 1966, after a career spanning more than four decades.
31.
Hu Die emigrated to Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada in 1975 to join her son.
32.
Hu Die lived a low-key life and avoided attention by using the name Pan Baojuan.
33.
Hu Die died on 23 April 1989, after suffering a stroke.
34.
Hu Die had an illegitimate daughter named Hu Ruomei, later renamed to Hu Yousong, who was born in 1939.
35.
Hu Die was raised by a foster mother and stayed in mainland China while Hu Die moved to Hong Kong.