Zhou Xuan 周璇

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Zhou Xuan

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In 1918, a girl was born into a rural family near Guangzhou. Her parents were impoverished peasants, and to get rid of an extra mouth to feed, they decided to sell their daughter. Thus, in 1919, the future star of Chinese pop music and cinema was sold to a kindergarten attached to a Shanghai brothel (such places existed). 

The girl was destined to grow up, receive the appropriate training and become a prostitute, but a stroke of luck saved her from such a fate. In 1921, a childless but quite wealthy couple named Zhou, seeing the children out for a walk, were charmed by a lively, clear-voiced three-year-old little girl. They bought her and adopted her.

Noticing her vocal abilities, her adoptive parents sent her to a music school. In 1931, Zhou was accepted as a singer into Li Jinhui's theater troupe. Curiously, the future stars of Chinese cinema Li Lili and Wang Renmei also danced in this same troupe.

At the premiere of a play staged by Li Jinhui's troupe, Zhou sang the song «Glory of the Nation», whose refrain went «They fight the enemy on the battlefield». Amid Japan's aggression against China in Manchuria, this song became so popular that Li Jinhui came up with a stage name for Zhou, which stuck with her ever after: Zhou Xuan (Xuan meaning «they fight»).

In 1933, at a Shanghai radio singing competition, Zhou Xuan took second place. But at the gala concerts of the competition's winners, the young and beautiful singer outshone everyone. The era of «Zhou Xuan mania» began in China. The press called her the «golden voice».

From 1935, Zhou Xuan began to be invited to act in films. In 1937, she starred in the leading role in Street Angel. Thanks to this film, she also became a movie star. Her name on the posters guaranteed success. The Guohua film company signed a contract with her. She also gave many successful concerts and recorded records. Her most famous hits in those years were «Night Shanghai», «The Songstress at the Edge of the World», «The Fisherman's Daughter», «The Four Seasons» and many others.

In 1993, the film «The Joy Luck Club» was released in the USA. In the scene where a girl and her friend enter a club, the song «The Four Seasons» performed by Zhou Xuan plays in the background. The choice was no accident. Zhou Xuan's voice was the image of China in the late 1930s.

In 1943, after 8 years of marriage, the couple — composer Yan Hua and Zhou Xuan — divorced. After World War II, Zhou Xuan left for Hong Kong, where she continued to sing and act in films. She married a Hong Kong businessman, Zhu Huaide.

After several years of marriage, Zhou Xuan became pregnant. The pregnancy was difficult: a constant threat of miscarriage. The doctors forbade her to work and even to walk the streets without a cane. But, as it turned out, her husband was more interested in his wife's fees. And there were none, because of the difficult pregnancy. So he abandoned his wife, robbing her to the bone in the process.

Because of what she had been through, Zhou Xuan suffered a nervous breakdown. She left Hong Kong for China. She appeared in several films. In 1950, she was hospitalized. She was given a terrible diagnosis: meningitis complicated by nervous exhaustion. Zhou Xuan fell into a coma, from time to time regaining consciousness; her memory would fade and then return, but she could no longer sing. In 1957, Zhou Xuan died at the age of 39.