There’s a great film series going on at Asia Society right now called Goddess: Chinese Women on Screen. I went yesterday to see a silent film from the 1930s starring the iconic Ruan Lingyu. One of the most prolific actresses of Republican China, Ruan ended her life at the height of her career, only twenty-five years old.
There’s something wistful about watching her on screen, lilting from frame to frame with the exuberance of the times. Shanghai in its twentieth-century heyday, decadent, lush, unstable. Sigh!
She’s quite striking, something about her in the black-and-white poses, makes you stare at each picture quietly and wonder what she was thinking in that moment that she was making that particular expression. As for her end, it’s stories like hers that remind to do something with your life that’s worth it. Thanks for sharing this, Mike 🙂