Background
Wu Yin was born in Tianjin in 1909, to a family from Wu County, Jiangsu province. She was adopted as a little child by her father"s blood brother, and her name was changed to Yang Ying (杨瑛).
吴茵
Wu Yin was born in Tianjin in 1909, to a family from Wu County, Jiangsu province. She was adopted as a little child by her father"s blood brother, and her name was changed to Yang Ying (杨瑛).
She studied painting at the Chengdong Girls" School in Shanghai, where she was influenced by the surge of modern drama.
She appeared in 45 films and 48 plays, most notably in the classics,, and Famous for playing roles of older women, she was dubbed the "First Old Lady" of Chinese cinema. In 2005 she was chosen as one of the 100 best actors of the 100 years of Chinese cinema.
In 1929 she made her theatre debut in Tian Han"s play Night Talk in Suzhou, directed by Ying Yunwei (应云卫).
At that time she was already married, but her family was adamantly opposed to her acting. In 1935 Wu Yin made her film debut in Cai Chusheng"s classic New Women starring Ruan Lingyu.
Introduced by Ying Yunwei, in 1936 she joined the Mingxing Film Company, and appeared in more than ten films including Crossroads. When the Japanese invaded China in 1937, Wu Yin fled Shanghai for the wartime capital Chungking, where she acted in many plays and at least three films.
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, she returned to Shanghai and joined the Kunlun Film Company.
She appeared in many films including Eight Thousand Li of Cloud and Moon (director Shi Dongshan) and Far Away Love (director Chen Liting), but her most famous roles were those of the old mothers in The Spring River Flows East (dirs Zheng Junli and Cai Chusheng) and Myriad of Lights (director Shen Fu), and Mistress Xiao in Crows and Sparrows (director Zheng Junli). After the establishment of the People"s Republic of China in 1949, Wu Yin acted in several films including The Life of Wu Xun, Song Jingshi and lieutenant"s My Day Office, before being labelled a "rightist" in 1957 during the Anti-Rightist Movement.
After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Wu Yin was politically rehabilitated on 11 December 1978, and joined the Communist Party of China in 1985.
She appeared in a few more films, and died in 1991.