Who is Li Zuyong?

Lee Cho-yong

Lee Cho-yong (December 20, 1903 - December 23, 1959) was a Hong Kong film producer. Graduated from Nankai University and later went to the United States to study at Amherst University. Representative works include "Eternal Oath", "Rage", "Tears of Mountains and Rivers", "Life and Death", and "Spring Wind and Autumn Rain".

Chinese name: Li Zuyong

Alias: Azu

Nationality: Chinese

Ethnicity: Han

Blood type ：o

Height: 177cm

Weight: 55 kg

Birthplace: Ningbo, Zhejiang

Date of birth: December 1903 20th

Date of death: December 23, 1959

Occupation: Producer

Graduation school: Nankai University, Amherst, USA University

Representative works: "Eternal Oath", "Rage", "Tears of Mountains and Rivers", "Life and Death", "Spring Wind and Autumn Rain"

Main achievements: "Cremation"

Personal life

Li Zuyong (1903-1959) was the eldest son of Li Meitang's seventh son, Li Zuqing.

Li Zuqing was a twin, and the other one died shortly after giving birth. In the late years of Guangxu's reign, Li Zuqing opened Tongyu Bank in Shanghai. After the Revolution of 1911, he successively served as vice president of the Bank of China in Nanjing and Tianjin, director of the Shanghai and North Labor and Donation Bureau, and supervisor of the Tianjin Mint.

Li Zuqing was very ambitious in his youth and once thought of investing and developing in Nanyang. In the late 1920s, he opened two factories in Shanghai: Dayuan Woolen Mill and Daye Printing Factory. Li Zuanqing's nephews Li Zuen, Li Zuji, Li Zuhan, Li Zuxian, and Li Zufan all had professional knowledge and were very important in the financial world. They assisted greatly to make the business of Daye Printing Factory develop smoothly and became an authority in Shanghai's printing industry at that time.

Li Zuyong’s career also started in the printing industry.

The printing company is famous

Li Zuyong graduated from Amherst College in the United States. After returning from studying abroad, he first taught at Shanghai Guanghua University and later served as the director of Daye Printing Factory founded by his father Li Zuqing. In the early days of Daye, it was responsible for printing aviation lottery tickets. The factory's German printing machines had good performance and it had skilled technicians. It used embossing technology to make colorful prints very attractive.

Li Zuqing’s third son-in-law and Li Zuyong’s third brother-in-law, Shao Xinhu, had studied printing in Japan and were experts in printing. He participated in the management of Daye Company and the business continued to develop. Furthermore, Shao Xinhu was related to Guo Jingfeng, general manager of the Farmers Bank, so Daye Company took over the task of printing banknotes for the Farmers Bank, and its business further expanded. The Central Bank was also satisfied with Daye's printing and hired the factory to print banknotes for the Central Bank.

The business of Daye Company is getting more and more prosperous, and even a certain American consortium wants to buy the company at a high price and expresses its intention to retain the original team with Li Zuyong as the general manager. Li Zuqing is proud that Chinese people have their own industries and is unwilling to sell the company. Li Zuyong also founded Lunxin Real Estate Company in Shanghai and purchased a large amount of real estate. He invested and built the Yongye Building on Huaihai Middle Road, and the real estate in the New World area on Nanjing Road was also his investment scope.

After the Anti-Japanese War, the Central Bank moved inland and hoped that relevant cooperative enterprises would move inland. However, relocation was a very difficult and expensive matter. Li Zuyong risked his life to complete the relocation of the factory's machinery, parts, paper, and ink under the indiscriminate bombings of the Japanese invaders.

Li Zuyong first opened a Daye branch in Yangon, Myanmar, with his eldest brother-in-law Zhang Xinglian as the manager. The machines and technicians were all from Shanghai. But not long after, Japan launched the Pearl Harbor incident in 1941, the Pacific War broke out, and Japanese troops occupied Hong Kong and invaded Myanmar. Zhang Xinglian braved the flames of war and first evacuated the machines and technicians north along the Burma Highway. By the time they retreated, artillery fire had already hit them.

After arriving in Chongqing, the place was frequently bombed, and the Central Bank had printing tasks from time to time. They often have just fled to a safe place, but the war changes again, and they have to run for their lives again. Zhang Xinglian and hundreds of employees went through many hardships and setbacks, and finally set up the factory in Leshan and established a branch factory. They moved one place after another and preserved the factory.

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Daye Printing Factory moved back to Shanghai and still worked at full capacity. Due to the deterioration of the economic situation at that time and the issuance of gold yuan coupons by the Kuomintang government, Daye's business was in depression, and Li Zuyong had no choice but to decide to close the company.

Nevertheless, the achievements of Li Zuyong and his Daye Printing House cannot be denied. He risked his life and invested the wealth accumulated by his ancestors over several generations in the cause of the Anti-Japanese War, and made a great contribution amidst the hail of bullets.

Determined to make movies

After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Li Zuyong moved to Hong Kong and lived in Deep Water Bay. When he was studying in the United States, he had a special liking for Hollywood movies. From a young age, he dreamed of establishing a Chinese film industry on the scale of Hollywood. When he accumulated enough funds, he established "Yonghua Film Company" in Hong Kong in 1947, using "Nine-Level Pagoda" as its trademark, claiming to have 1 million Hong Kong dollars in funds, and imported a full set of first-class equipment at the time. Including photography, printing, recording and lighting equipment, with a self-built studio.

Since 1948, Yonghua Film Company has produced several historical films with a patriotic spirit, such as the 1948 film written by Wu Zuguang and directed by Bu Wancang, which records the famous minister Wen Tianxiang in the late Song Dynasty. "The Soul of the Country". Wen Tianxiang's poem "No one has died since ancient times, and his loyalty will shine through history". He is famous for generations and is an upright figure in Chinese history. The film stars Liu Qiong.

In the same year, the feature film "The Secret History of the Qing Palace" about the reform and reform in the late Qing Dynasty was filmed, starring famous actors such as Shu Shu, Zhou Xuan and Tang Ruoqing.

Due to some reasons, "The Soul of the Country" was only screened for one day in mainland China, and "The Secret History of the Qing Palace" was only screened for a few days before being discontinued. After that, Yonghua Company shot some progressive films: "Cremation", "Flowers Falling in the Spring City", "Eternal Oath", "Tears of Mountains and Rivers" and "Spring Wind and Autumn Rain", etc. These films were produced by first-class directors such as Chen Xihe, Zhang Junxiang, Ke Ling, and Cheng Bugao, and featured first-class actors such as Bai Yang, Tao Jin, Shu Xiuwen, and Wang Wei.

Most members of the Li family invest in industry, and it is a bold move for Li Zuyong to get involved in the film industry. He was completely unprepared for the complexity of this industry, relying entirely on his personal interests and putting a lot of effort into it. He is not only interested in making films, but also likes to write scripts himself. Surprisingly, he often writes a paragraph and lets the director and actors shoot a paragraph. After several shots were shot, the crew hurried to Li's mansion to get the scripts for the next few shots and continue filming.

"Yonghua" spends a lot of money, and it will inevitably come to nothing over time. Several managers under him came up with the idea of ??renting out the studio to make up for the lack of funding. Li Zuyong was furious at this idea: "Are you deliberately trying to bring down my stage? I have such a good brand-new equipment, but I don't film by myself. Instead, it is used by others."

Li Zuyong sold part of his property and invested in "Yonghua". He spent a lot of money, but often he could not even recover the cost after the film was released. In particular, he disdains making martial arts films, romantic films, and entertainment films. If he doesn't accumulate funds, his losses will naturally increase. Some people advised him to stop, but he refused and decided to enter the color century, preparing to shoot a large number of color films to enter the international market in exchange for foreign exchange. To this end, he sent factory director Zhong Qiwen to study at Kodak Company in the United States. Unexpectedly, before Director Zhong completed his studies and returned to China, "Yonghua" was at the end of his days, and his family was flooded with creditors every day, and his days were like years. But Li Zuyong insisted on going his own way, gritting his teeth and persisting. The last film of "Yonghua" was "Chang'e", which was barely completed under the situation of extreme poverty and financial constraints.

In 1954, "Yonghua" suffered two blows. First, dozens of film copies made over the years were destroyed by fire overnight. It was summer, and the air-conditioning equipment in the film warehouse was broken. It was not repaired in time. The temperature in the warehouse rose so much that most of the old copies melted in the flames. Only two plays, "The Soul of the Country" and "Secret History of the Qing Palace", have been screened in France and then reprinted after being withdrawn, becoming the two masterpieces of "Yonghua" through the ages. Li Zuyong could only sigh when he saw his years of hard work go up in flames. The second fatal blow was that it owed a huge debt to the Singaporean "Cathay" organization and could not repay it. In the end, Yonghua Film Factory was taken over and the property rights changed hands.

In 1959, Li Zuyong died in Hong Kong. People evaluate his life: In order to fight for the glory of domestic films, he insisted on going his own way, even at the expense of all his fortune. This evaluation is very pertinent. His insistent character led to his failure. As the boss of a film company, Li Zuyong was probably the only one who ordered the burning of products that he did not want to see. The title of the film he burned was "The Man in Disgrace."

Historical status cannot be forgotten

According to the understanding of his relatives, after the founding of New China, the People's Government vigorously strived for "Yonghua". Important leaders of the Communist Party of China in Hong Kong, such as Pan Hannian and Xia Yan, all have contacts with him. Who would have expected that the situation would change suddenly in the future.

In the early days of the "Cultural Revolution", "The Secret History of the Qing Palace" was criticized as a traitorous film. The so-called authority on public opinion at that time, Qi Benyu, published an article titled "Is it Patriotism or Traitorism?" This article was the opening salvo of the "Cultural Revolution" and targeted Liu Shaoqi. , saying that praising Guangxu is traitorous. In fact, Guangxu supported the Reform Movement of 1898, which was progressive at the time, while Cixi was conservative. At that time, "The Secret History of the Qing Palace" was screened again and criticized across the country. The article named Yonghua Film Company as "reactionary" and Li Zuyong as a "reactionary capitalist." This article can also be said to have opened the prelude to the "Cultural Revolution" and opened the way for the "Cultural Revolution".

After the "Cultural Revolution", Li Zuyong was rehabilitated.

Although Yonghua Film Company and its products have long been submerged in the dust of history, its status in the history of Chinese films should not be erased.

Personal works

Started production in August 1947, and his entrepreneurial work was "The Soul of the Country". By August 1949, *** had produced 11 seriously produced Mandarin films. These include "Cremation", which won the award at the Panama International Film Festival, "Secret History of the Qing Dynasty" which was selected and well received at the Locarno International Film Festival, and "Eternal Oath", "Tides of Fury", "Tears of Mountains and Rivers", "Life and Death", "Spring Wind and Autumn Rain" etc. "Secret History of the Qing Palace" has been released in more than 10 countries and regions in Europe, America and the Middle East, and "Cremation" has also been released in France.

After the second half of 1948, many of Yonghua's main forces left one after another, losing its talent advantage. In addition, the past production costs were too high and waste was serious, resulting in losses. Production was suspended from 1950 to 1951 for rectification. From the second half of 1951 to 1953, Yonghua produced 9 more films under the leadership of Li Zuyong, but only "Cui Cui" adapted from Shen Congwen's novel "Border Town" and the satirical comedy "The Money Worshiper" were more successful. After 1954, Yonghua failed to recover. By 1956, Yonghua was actually taken over by Cathay Pictures. In 1957, Li Zuyong tried his best to prepare and shoot Yonghua's last film "Flying Tiger General", and then had to leave the film industry. Three years later, Li Zuyong suddenly suffered a stroke and died.