Tribute exhibition to legendary Chinese filmmaker

Zhang Wei, Shanghai Library researcher and adjunct professor of the Media and Design College at Shanghai Jiao Tong University, continued the recent tribute to iconic Chinese filmmaker Fei Mu (1906-1951) and his art path at Suzhou Art Museum.

Zhang gave two lectures for the “Film Poet – Fei Mu’s Documentation Exhibition.” The exhibit features nearly 188 items on loan from Fei’s family and friends, varying from magazines and photos to films and daily objects related to the Chinese film giant. 

Born in 1906 in Suzhou, Fei directed 13 films, 13 dramas and wrote eight film scripts. Known for his artistic style and costume dramas, he made his first film, “Night in the City,” in 1933 at the age of 27, which was met with both critical and popular acclaim. 

Throughout the 1930s, Fei became a major talent in the film industry, with movies like “Blood on Wolf Mountain” in 1936, which is often seen as an allegory of China’s war with Japan, and “Song of China” in 1935, one of the few films that had a limited release in the United States. 

But it was “Spring in a Small Town,” a film released in 1948, that was considered to be highlight of his film career. In 2005, the movie was declared the greatest Chinese film ever made, by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society. In 1995, Fei was honored with the China Film Century Award for Film Directing by the government. Today the original negative of “Spring in a Small Town” is still kept at the China Film Archive.