Zhuangzi Tests His Wife

Zhuangzi Tests His Wife (Chinese: 莊子試妻; pinyin: Zhuangzi shi qi) is a 1913 Hong Kong drama film directed by Li Minwei. It is the earliest feature film of Hong Kong cinema. It was the only film made by the Huamei (Chinese-American) Studio, which was co-founded by Benjamin Brosky, who had sold his Asia Film Company in Shanghai, and Li Minwei. The film was, however, never screened in Hong Kong. Brosky brought the film to the United States,[1] and it became the first Chinese film to be shown abroad, when it was exhibited in the Chinese communities of Los Angeles and San Francisco. It is based on the zidishu play "The Butterfly Dream" written by Chunshuzhai.[2]

Zhuangzi Tests His Wife
Directed byLi Beihai
Produced byLi Beihai
Written byLi Minwei
Distributed byHuamei
Release date
1913
CountryHong Kong
LanguageSilent

Cast

Li Minwei stars as the wife of Zhuangzi, while Li Minwei's wife Yan Shanshan plays a servant girl, thus making her the first ever Chinese film actress.

Background

Zhuangzi was one of the two defining figures of Chinese Taoism, based his philosophy that all things change and that the perception of truth depends on the context under which it exists. Throughout history, his teachings have been particularly favored by Chinese scholars and artists, many of whom have been inspired by Zhuangzi's philosophy.

In other media

Zhuangzi Tests His Wife has been performed by the Peking Opera, and other local stage performances.

Zhuangzi

Most of the operatic versions of the story ends with Zhuangzi burying his wife after she commits suicide for being disloyal to her husband. But this version tackles the story from a different angle. While Tian Shi still commits suicide in the end, Zhuangzi turns her and himself into butterflies and then, eventually, into dust.

See also

References
  1. Fonoroff, Paul (1988). "A Brief History of Hong Kong Cinema" (PDF). Chinese University of Hong Kong. p. 294.
  2. Idema, Wilt (2014). The Resurrected Skeleton : from Zhuangzi to Lu Xun. New York. pp. 195–196. ISBN 9780231536516. OCLC 881805404.
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