Qin Yi, who has died aged 100, was the last survivor of the quartet known as China’s “four great actresses”. She weathered the ups and downs of 20th-century Chinese history, and thrived under different political realities – becoming famous before the communists took over in 1949 and exhibiting an ability to connect with different generations of Chinese cinema-goers over an eight-decade career in the spotlight. Her remarkable onscreen life spanned the Chinese Republican regime and right through to the modern commercial blockbuster period.
She embodied the development of the Chinese cinema industry. And the tribulations of her personal life, as a widow caring for a chronically ill child, won her much sympathy from the public in later years. To Beijing, Qin’s professional achievement as well as personal perseverance epitomised the core values of Chinese socialism. As a figure symbolising Chinese national cinema, created and promoted by the state, she was the only actor to be awarded both national titles of “People’s Artist” and “Most Beautiful Fighter”.
