23 Facts About Huang Zongying

Huang Zongying starred in many black-and-white films such as Rhapsody of Happiness, Crows and Sparrows, Women Side by Side, and The Life of Wu Xun, all co-starring her third husband Zhao Dan.

Huang Zongying began writing film scripts in the mid-1950s, and later became an acclaimed writer of reportage literature.

Huang Zongying had two stepchildren from Zhao's previous marriage, and adopted the two orphaned sons of singer-actress Zhou Xuan.

Huang Zongying's father Huang Cengming was an engineer who studied in Japan, and her mother Chen Cong was a well-educated housewife.

Strongly influenced by her eldest brother, Huang Zongjiang, who would become an accomplished playwright, Huang Zongying developed a passion in arts and literature.

In 1941, Huang Zongying followed her brother Zongjiang to Shanghai where she became a stage actress in Huang Zongying Zuolin's theatre company.

Huang Zongying debuted in Cao Yu's play Metamorphosis and rose to fame in the comedy Sweet Child.

Huang Zongying's performance was said to be "of unprecedented artistic quality, capturing with authenticity, naturalness, and control" both the degeneracy and kindness of the character's complex nature.

Huang Zongying published her first prose collection, Onward Moves the Peace Train, in 1951, followed by two more collections, Stories of Love and A Girl.

Huang Zongying did not play a major role after the 1953 film Bless the Children.

Zhao Dan, among the first to be targeted, was imprisoned for five years, during which Huang Zongying had no idea whether he was still alive.

Huang Zongying remained free, but was frequently targeted by the Red Guards for physical abuse.

Huang Zongying resumed her writing and was elected to the executive committee of the China Writers Association.

Huang Zongying focused on the reportage genre, which she had begun writing in 1963 before being interrupted by the Cultural Revolution.

Huang Zongying often applied scriptwriting techniques, such as switches and flashbacks, to her reportage, and enriched her writing with poetic lyricism.

Huang Zongying married her first husband, the conductor Yi Fang, when she was 18, without knowing he suffered from congenital heart disease.

Huang Zongying died of a heart attack only 18 days after the wedding.

Huang Zongying considered her 32-year marriage to Zhao Dan the most important of her life, and raised Zhao's two children from his previous marriage.

In 1993, when she was 68, Huang Zongying married for the fourth time, to the writer Feng Yidai.

Huang Zongying adopted the two boys and raised them to adulthood.

In November 1986 Zhou Wei sued Huang Zongying for his mother's inheritance worth about 120,000 yuan, which was a huge sum in 1980s China.

The court ordered Huang Zongying to pay Zhou Wei 80,000 yuan.

Huang Zongying died of illness at Huadong Hospital on the morning of 14 December 2020.