18 Facts About Wang Renmei

Wang Renmei was a famous Chinese actress and singer nicknamed the "Wildcat of Shanghai".

Wang Renmei 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.

Wang Renmei was born and grew up in Changsha, the capital of Hunan province, where her father Wang Zhengquan was a mathematics teacher at the Changsha No 1 Normal School.

When Wang Renmei was seven, her mother died of a stroke.

In 1926, Wang Renmei entered the Changsha No 1 Normal School.

Wang Renmei proved to be a talented singer and became one of the "Four Divas" of the troupe, along with Li Lili, Xue Lingxian, and Hu Jia.

In 1934, Wang Renmei starred in her most famous film Song of the Fishermen, directed by Cai Chusheng.

Wang Renmei acquired the nickname "Wildcat" from her unrestrained performance as the girl named "Little Cat" in the film.

However, Wang Renmei's career started to go downhill after Song of the Fishermen.

On January 1,1934, while still shooting the film, Wang Renmei suddenly announced her marriage with her Wild Rose costar Jin Yan, who was then the "Emperor of Cinema" in China.

Wang Renmei joined the Diantong Film Company in 1935 and acted in more films including the patriotic Sons and Daughters in a Time of Storm, but was not as successful as her husband.

When Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party won the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in 1949, Wang Renmei eagerly returned to Shanghai.

Zhou and Wang Renmei both began to suffer from mental breakdowns, and Zhou died in a mental asylum in 1957.

In 1953, Wang Renmei was introduced to Ye Qianyu, a famous painter and manhua artist, who had drawn a caricature of her in the 1930s.

Wang Renmei was sent down to the countryside in 1973, but was spared persecution, thanks to her family's relationship with Chairman Mao.

Wang Renmei tried to start a new career as a film director but soon suffered from a thrombosis in her brain.

Wang Renmei became half-paralyzed for the rest of her life and died from a cerebral hemorrhage on 12 April 1987 in Beijing, aged 72.

Wang Renmei appeared in a total of 25 films, but she lamented that she became famous too early.