Beauty and Sorrow: A Real Butterfly

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Publish Date: 2006-01-01
Features: Some people regard Butterfly's life as a "myth," and there's some truth to that. But upon closer reflection, one might argue that it's more like a "dream." In the past, Zhuangzi dreamed he was a butterfly, "Don't I know that perhaps I was the butterfly dreaming that I was Zhuangzi, or that Zhuangzi was dreaming that he was a butterfly?" Butterfly's life "was just an actor," but even she couldn't be sure—was it "the butterfly who made the actor," or "the actor who made the butterfly"? Was it "the play is life," or "life is a play"? It seemed that in her dream, Butterfly had already reached the peak of her life; in her dream, she had achieved a "dream-like legend" in the history of Chinese cinema.
Her face was as round as a silver plate, her eyes bright and her teeth white, her skin smooth and her features well-proportioned—gentle, kind, and compassionate. Her appearance perfectly matched the traditional Chinese standards of beauty. The dimples on her cheeks were her trademark, for with her, women with dimples in that era were all considered "beautiful." She was sweet in appearance, graceful in figure, composed in demeanor, elegant in temperament, diligent in study, and clever and nimble. The writer Zhang Henshui described her as "charming and outgoing, with a deep and perceptive personality, as well as being quick-witted and decisive." She was seen as half like Baochai, a third like Xiren, and a twelfth like Qingwen. She was the "first 'Empress of Cinema' in Chinese history," regarded as "the greatest actress of the 1930s and 1940s in China."
"Beauty! Beauty! She could charm a city and even a nation with her beauty. Her natural charm and heart-stirring grace won hearts," she was seen as an "eternal crowd favorite"—her beauty was endless.
Her path to success was filled with hardships. She endured the struggles of her childhood and youth, faced the storm of public opinion over her first love, and even unexpectedly bore the immense social pressure of the "Crime of Beauty and" (a fabricated accusation of dancing with Zhang Xueliang on the night of Northeastern China's fall). During the War of Resistance, she was held captive by Dai Li for three years, forced to smile through tears in her unwillingness to give up and her longing for her husband. This was "a deeply hidden regret in her life."
In her later years, living in a foreign land, she often recalled the words she had spoken when her close friend Ruan Lingyu took her own life—"Life is but a dream." She suddenly suffered a stroke while reminiscing about her past glory and left this world in her "final encore," "transforming into a butterfly" as she went.
Her sorrow was endless.
Over half a century of her cinematic career, she starred in over a hundred films, portraying various images of women in old China, creating a unique chapter in Chinese cinema.
The birth of cinema is less than a century old, and it was introduced to China in the late 19th century, where it was then called "Western shadow play." In the 1930s, the renowned film critic Ling He said, "The achievements of Chinese cinema in nearly two decades have only created one Butterfly. While this may sound a bit exaggerated, it holds some truth. In fact, it is so. Butterfly has become an idol for the audience—regardless of age or gender, when it comes to cinema, they immediately think of her. It’s almost as if there is no cinema without her."
Butterfly! Butterfly! No one can rival her, unmatched in the cinema!
Butterfly! Butterfly! She cannot be matched by Sari, nor by Jeanne—she is the rival of beauties both at home and abroad!
Butterfly! Butterfly! Her art is unmatched, and her beauty even more so. May the butterfly always remain unmatched!
—Excerpted from Wen Qin's Butterfly Obsession (1931).
Researchers or enthusiasts of Chinese film history, Chinese art history, Chinese women's life history, proponents or opponents of the "Butterfly myth," as well as students at all levels.