May 17, 1922–November 2, 2023

　　Wei Wei

Wei Wei, leading actress in the great Chinese film Spring in a Small Town passed away in Hong Kong, China, at the age of 101.

Her original name was Miao Mengyin. Back then, actresses adopted repeated-character stage names. She decided the name Wei Wei when she saw rickshaw drivers asking pedestrians to give way by saying “Wei, wei” (meaning “hey, hey”). The stage name signified that everyone else had to get out of the way the moment she appeared on stage.

In 1942, Wei Wei auditioned Fei Mu and Huang Zuolin’s troupe and became a theater actress. She was very energetic, unlike Zhou Yuwen she played in the Spring in a Small Town.

She made her film debut playing a small character in the classic ensemble film Nightclub in 1947 after the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression was over. She played the leading role in the Spring in a Small Town for the first time. Fei Mu kept honing her acting, and ensured that she delivered completely different performance.

　　Selection of the 7th BJIFF Beijing Film Panorama

　　Poster of the Spring in a Small Town

She moved to Hong Kong, China, in 1950s, and starred in many films produced by left-wing film companies, such as the Sons of the Earth by Zhu Shilin that took over the project from Fei Mu, who died suddenly. Wei Wei gradually retired from the filmmaking community after she got married in the 1960s. It was until the 1990s when the Spring in a Small Town was rediscovered for its value in the film history that the filmmaking community realized that its leading actress Wei Wei was still alive. Many films started inviting her to make guest appearance. She kept doing so as of 2011.