Zheng Xiaoqiu (22 May 1910 – 13 September 1989) was born in Shanghai as Zheng Hongbin, his family coming from Chaoyang in Guangdong, and was the eldest son of the celebrated writer-director Zheng Zhengqiu, who founded the Mingxing Film Company with Zhang Shichuan and Zhou Jianyun in 1922 and is counted among the pioneers of Chinese cinema. By the age of six or seven Zheng Xiaoqiu was already playing children's parts on the Shanghai stage under the stage name Yaofengzi. In 1923 he starred in Orphan Rescues Grandfather, produced by Mingxing, directed by Zhang Shichuan and written by his father, playing the orphan Yu Pu opposite Wang Hanlun as the wronged daughter-in-law. The film was a great success, rescuing the financially troubled studio, helping to establish the narrative form of the Chinese feature, and making him the earliest child star of Chinese cinema as well as a contract actor of the company. In 1932 he took the male lead Fan Jiashu in Mingxing's sound film Fate in Tears and Laughter, opposite Hu Die and Xia Peizhen, and he went on to appear in Twin Sisters (1933) and in Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms (1933), his range widening from child roles to young leads. In 1948 he directed Sisters' Tribulation and moved behind the camera. After 1949 he became a director at the Shanghai Science and Educational Film Studio in 1953, making more than forty educational shorts such as Caring for Farm Cattle, Model Granaries and Writing Good Brush Characters. His co-directed Soil and Water Conservation (1956) won a citation at the first Venice international festival for scientific and educational films, and Chinese Martial Arts won an honorary award at the Hundred Flowers Awards in 1963. He served on the second to fourth councils of the China Film Association and was a member of the first and second Shanghai consultative conferences. He died in Shanghai on 13 September 1989.
One of the earliest child stars of Chinese cinema, Zheng Xiaoqiu made his name in Orphan Rescues Grandfather and later moved from acting to directing. After 1949 he devoted himself to scientific and educational films, making more than forty of them, with Soil and Water Conservation and Chinese Martial Arts winning international and Hundred Flowers honours.
Achievements
- 1923 · Starred as the orphan Yu Pu in Orphan Rescues Grandfather, becoming an overnight child star
- 1933 · Appeared in Twin Sisters and in Cheng Bugao's Spring Silkworms
- 1956 · Co-directed Soil and Water Conservation, winning a citation at the first Venice festival for scientific and educational films
- 1963 · Chinese Martial Arts won an honorary award at the second Hundred Flowers Awards