Xia Meng

Xia Meng
Xia Meng (1964)
Chinese name	夏夢 (Traditional)
Chinese name	夏梦 (Simplified)
Birth name	Yang Meng 楊濛
Born	16 February 1932 (1932-02-16) (age 79) Shanghai, Republic of China
Spouse(s)	Lin Bao Cheng 林葆誠
Awards Hong Kong Film Awards Best Film 1983 Boat People Other Awards Golden Phoenix Awards 1993 Special Contribution Award

Xia Meng (Chinese: 夏梦; a.k.a Hsia Moon or Miranda Yang; born Yang Meng (杨濛) on 16 February 1932 in Shanghai, China) is a Hong Kong actress and film producer. She was the key figure of Hong Kong's Left Wing Mandarin movie scene.

Debut on stage

In 1947, Miranda Yang Meng moved with her family to Hong Kong, where she attended Maryknoll Convent School. In 1949, In conjunction with school's event, She was chosen to play the leading role in school's English language production of Saint Joan.

First-time acting and being worried, Yang Meng was thinking to withdraw but the headmaster insisted that she must go on. The play was well received at last. This was where the star-to-be developed an interest in acting.

Film career

How Xia Meng stepped into movie industry was in fact an unintentional one. In 1950,curiosity has driven Yang Meng and her friends to visit the film set of Great Wall Movie Enterprises Ltd, and this was where she was first spotted by the crews, as well as Studio manager Yuan Yang An.

Through the help of his daughter Mao Mei (later a movie star and Hong Kong Ballerina), Yang Meng accepted Yuan's invitation and joined the studio in the age of 17. Inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the new actress now renamed Xia Meng (literally means Summer dream) by Yuan, which Yuan metaphorically wished her dream come true as she joined the studio in summer.

The Great Wall Crown Princess

Xia Meng was given her first role as the title character in Li Ping Qian's A Night-Time Wife (1951), rocketed to stardom in her debut. The comedy was a hit and decades later stands out as a genuine classic of Hong Kong cinema. Many other hits followed. There was the tragic demimondaine of Sunrise, at her best as the virtuous widow of A Widow’s Tears (both 1956), and perhaps most remarkably, her gender-bending turn as a man masquerading as a woman in the all-female Shaoxing opera comedy The Bride Hunter (1960).

Xia Meng's grace, talent and beauty has made her the prima donna of Hong Kong left wing mandarin movie scene, and also one of the Chinese language cinema brightest movie stars in 1950s-1960s. In 1959, Xia Meng emerged as the most actress in the Hong Kong Top Ten Mandarin Movie Star Election, organized by The Great Wall Pictorial. No doubt she is dubbed as the 'Crown Princess' of Great Wall. (The 'second princess' is Shi Hui (Shek Hwei), while the 'third princess' is Chen Sisi (Chan Sze Sze), three leading ladies were as Great Wall's Three Princesses)

A rare actress who embodied the beauties of a modern woman and those of a historical maiden, Xia Meng was often described as "the God's Masterpiece", and she was one of the few Hong Kong movie stars whose films were released in the People's Republic of China before the Cultural Revolution, she exuded glamour in a manner that was then no longer permitted among her mainland counterparts.

It has been widely reported that Jin Yong has deep affection towards Xia Meng, apparently Jin Yong joined the studio as a scriptwriter to be near her. She was Cha's muse, inspiring him to model the ethereal Xiaolongnü character in his novel The Return of the Condor Heroes on her. Although his devotion to her was unrequited as Xia Meng was already happily married to a businessman in 1954, But he remained infatuated even after Xia Meng left showbiz in 1967. To Jin Yong, her leaving Hong Kong for good was a big newsworthy event. For days, he splashed the news with front-page headlines in the newspaper he founded, Ming Pao Daily News.

Cultural Revolution

1967 summer, Xia Meng visited Guangzhou and witnessed the chaotic situation where the Cultural Revolution had just started. The dire effect was soon to be felt on Hong Kong's Studios which were influenced by Communist Party of China, and Great Wall's movies would no longer had the same cachet as before. Xia Meng realized the facts and she did not agree with that, as well as the Cultural Revolution after the visit.

Feeling insecure and threaten, Xia Meng who was pregnant at the time excused herself from involved in this grand political movement. hence, soon after she finished the screen performance in Oh, The Spring Is Here (1967) in September, she resigned from studio, and quietly left for Canada even before the film was released. It wasn't until two years later that she returned to Hong Kong, and started the business in garment manufacturing, which she kept a distance from the film industry for about 10 years.

Return as movie producer

After the end of The Cultural Revolution, Xia Meng was invited by Liao Chengzhi, vice chairman of the National People's Congress (NPC) of that time, to attend the 4th National Congress of China Federation of Literary and Art Circles(CFLAC) held in Beijing from 30 October 1979 - 16 November 1979, which considered to be her first public appearance after her final screen performance in 1967. Under the encouragement of Liao, Xia Meng decided to re-embrace the film as movie producer, marked her return to movie industry after she waited for ten years.

In 1980, she formed Bluebird Movie Enterprises Ltd, and produced the debut film Boat People (Ann Hui, 1982), a movie and landmark feature for Hong Kong New Wave, which won several awards including the best picture and best director in the second Hong Kong Film Award. After producing Young Heroes (Mou Dunfei, 1983) and Homecoming (Yim Ho, 1984), Xia Meng sold her film company to Jiang Zu Yi. She does not officially involve in any movie production since then.

Awards

Xia Meng's performance in Peerless Beauty (1953) and A Widow's Tears (1956) won her the Greatest Individual Achievement Award given by the Cultural Ministry of the People's Republic of China. In 1995, Xia Meng was honored the Chinese Film Stars Special Award, in conjunction with 90 anniversary of Chinese Cinema.

Political activities

She was also involved in political activities, being selected as a committee member of the Chinese National Cultural Alliance and the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference. In the meanwhile, she has been the president of South China Film Industry Workers union before.

Tribute to Xia Meng

For her contribution to the motion picture industry, Xia Meng has a star with hand print and autograph by the name of Miranda Yang on the Avenue of Stars in Tsim Sha Tsui Promenade, Hong Kong.

In August 2005, China has honored 128 movie stars in a commemorative stamp collection marking 100 years of Chinese language cinema, Xia Meng was one of the honoree.

References

Law Kar, Hsia Moon : episodes of a summer dream (Hong Kong 1995). ISBN 962-357-773-7

Zhu Shun Ci and etc., An age of idealism : Great Wall & Feng Huang days, (Hong Kong Film Archive 2001). ISBN 962-8050-14-1

Liu Shu, The Peerless Xia Meng- A Wonderful Life of Great Wall Crown Princess，(China Film Press, Beijing, 2007). ISBN 710-6026-37-9

Filmography

As producer:

• Homecoming (1984)
• Young Heroes (1983)
• The Boat People (1982)

As Actress:

• Oh, The Spring Is Here (1967)
• White Collar Beauty (1966)
• The Heroic Romance (1965)
• Garden of Repose (1964)
• My Darling Princess (1964)
• Legend of Dong Xiaowan (1963)
• Between Vengeance and Love (1963)
• We Wanna Marry (1962)
• The Princess Falls in Love (1962)
• The Bride Hunter (1961)
• Ah, It's Spring (1961)
• The Rendezvous (1960)
• Romance in the Boudoir (1960)
• The Eternal Love (1960)
• A Mermaid's Love (1960)
• Hao Men Ye Yan (1959)
• An Unfulfilled Wish (1959)
• Sweet As Honey (1959)
• Husband Hunter (1958)
• The Way of Husband and Wife (1958)
• The Green Swan Club (1958)
• Those Bewitching Eyes (1958)
• Escape into Trap (1957)
• Whither Spring (1957)
• Forever Waiting (1957)
• Three Loves (1956)
• Sunrise (1956)
• A Widow's Tear (1956)
• The Wedding Night (1956)
• Never Leave Me (1955)
• Tales of the City (1954)
• Joyce and Deli (1954)
• Merry Go Around (1954)
• A Torn Lily (1953)
• The Gold-plated Man (1953)
• Day Dream (1953)
• Peerless Beauty (1953)
• Marriage Affair (1952)
• Nyohyah (1952)
• Father Marries Again (1952)
• A Night-Time Wife (1951)

Persondata
Name	Xia, Meng
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	16 February 1932
Place of birth	Shanghai, China
Date of death
Place of death