Runje Shaw Shao Zui-weng (1896 – 17 February 1975), born Shao Renjie and known as 'Shao the Elder', was a native of Zhenhai, Ningbo, Zhejiang, the eldest of the eight Shaw siblings, a film entrepreneur in China and Hong Kong, a banker and a lawyer, and the elder brother of Run Run Shaw. He graduated in law from Shanghai's Shenzhou University in 1914, practised as a lawyer in Shanghai and became manager of a Sino-French bank in 1921. In 1922 he bought a struggling theatre in the French concession, renamed it the 'Xiao Wutai' (Laughing Stage), staged the modern spoken drama of the day and ran his own troupe with a satirical repertoire. In June 1925 he founded the Tianyi Film Company with those actors as his core, serving as general manager and director; its first feature premiered in Shanghai in the autumn of 1925. He went on to make 'folk-tale films' drawn from legends and classical novels, such as 'The Wildcat and the Crown Prince', 'The Five Rats Storm Tokyo' and 'The Seven Heroes and Five Gallants', pioneering Chinese martial-arts and palace drama. In 1933 Tianyi joined the Cantonese opera star Sit Kok-sin to produce the sound Cantonese film 'The White Golden Dragon' in Shanghai, which was a great success; in 1934 he opened a Hong Kong studio at Pak Tai Street, To Kwa Wan. After the outbreak of the Anti-Japanese War, Tianyi ended its Shanghai production, moved its materials to the Hong Kong studio and was renamed the Nanyang Film Company, paving the way for the Shaw brothers' later Hong Kong film business. He had four sons, and the film star Chen Yumei was his second wife. He retired from the film business in 1949 and died in Shanghai on 17 February 1975, aged seventy-nine.
Runje Shaw was a founder of the Shaw film empire; Tianyi Film Company and its 'folk-tale film' approach pioneered the market for Chinese martial-arts films and sound Cantonese pictures. The success of 'The White Golden Dragon' prompted Tianyi to open a studio in Hong Kong, paving the way for the Shaw brothers' later production business there.
Achievements
- 1925 · Founded Tianyi Film Company in Shanghai in 1925; its first feature premiered there that autumn.
- 1933 · Joined Cantonese opera star Sit Kok-sin in 1933 to produce the sound Cantonese film The White Golden Dragon in Shanghai.
- 1934 · Established Tianyi's Hong Kong studio in 1934 at Pak Tai Street, To Kwa Wan.