Sun Yu (director) facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sun Yu
Born	(1900-03-21)March 21, 1900 Chongqing, China
Died	July 11, 1990(1990-07-11) (aged 90) Shanghai
Occupation	Film director
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	孫瑜
Simplified Chinese	孙瑜
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Sūn Yú

Sun Yu (born March 21, 1900 – died July 11, 1990) was a very important film director in Shanghai during the 1930s. He was known for making movies that focused on social issues. Sun Yu was a key director at the Lianhua Film Company. He became famous for his thoughtful films in the early to mid-1930s.

When Japan invaded China in 1937, Sun Yu moved inland. There, he continued to make films that supported China's fight against Japan.

After the Communist Party won in 1949, his career faced challenges. His big movie, The Life of Wu Xun, was about an educator from the Qing Dynasty. This film was criticized by Mao Zedong himself. Even though Sun Yu's career was affected, he is now seen as one of the best filmmakers from the golden age of Chinese cinema.

Besides directing films, Sun Yu was also a poet and translator. He translated poems by Li Bai into English. Some of his translations appeared in Poetry magazine in 1926. He also published a whole book of Li Bai's poems with his translations in 1982.

You can watch some of Sun Yu's films with English subtitles on YouTube. These include Playthings (also called Little Toys) (1933), Daybreak (1933), Sports Queen (1934), and The Great Road (also called The Big Road) (1934).

Sun Yu's Early Life and Education

Sun Yu was born in the city of Chongqing, China. He first studied at Tsinghua University in Beijing. Later, he went to the University of Wisconsin–Madison in the United States to study drama.

After finishing his degree in 1925, Sun Yu joined the New York Institute of Photography. There, he learned about cinematography (how to film movies) and film editing. He also took evening classes at Columbia University to learn about writing movie scripts. During this time, he also attended lectures by David Belasco, a famous theater writer, which greatly influenced him.

Start of His Film Career

Sun Yu returned to China in the summer of 1926. He directed his first film, A Romantic Swordsman, for the Minxin Film Company. In the 1930s, Sun Yu began working with Lianhua, a film studio known for its focus on social issues. He became one of the main directors there, alongside Cai Chusheng and Fei Mu.

While at Lianhua, Sun Yu made some of his most famous movies. These include Wild Rose (1932), Loving Blood of the Volcano (1932), Daybreak (1933), Little Toys (1933), and The Big Road (1934).

Filming During Wartime

When the war with Japan fully began in 1937, Sun Yu and many other filmmakers moved to Chongqing. This city was the wartime capital for the Chinese government. There, Sun Yu directed several films that supported the war effort. These films were a type of propaganda to encourage people to fight against the Japanese.

The Wu Xun Controversy

After the war ended, Sun Yu started working on his most important film. It was a biographical epic about Wu Xun, an educator from the Qing Dynasty. Wu Xun was known for helping common people learn to read and write. Sun Yu's last major work was The Life of Wu Xun. It was made with the Kunlun Film Company and starred Zhao Dan, a top actor of that time.

However, shortly after its release, The Life of Wu Xun was strongly criticized by Mao Zedong. Mao Zedong wrote in the People's Daily newspaper that Wu Xun was a liberal. He argued that Wu Xun's literacy programs suggested that a revolution was not needed. This criticism from Mao Zedong caused a huge wave of negative comments against the film. It was the first big political campaign after the 1949 revolution.

Because of this, Sun Yu's reputation was badly damaged, and his career almost stopped. He directed only a few more films over the next twenty years. In 1985, 35 years after the film's release, Chinese officials finally admitted that Mao's criticism of the film was wrong.

Sun Yu passed away in Shanghai in 1990.

Selected Films Directed by Sun Yu