Zhang Nuanxin

Zhang Nuanxin (, 27 October 1940 – 28 May 1995) was a Chinese film director, and a leading figure of the Fourth Generation of Chinese directors.

Her most famous film The Drive to Win won the 2nd Golden Rooster special awards. Nuanxin Zhang is also best known for her films Sacrifice of Youth, A Yunnan Story.

Chinese film theorist, the doctoral supervisor of Peking university Jinhua Dai, argues that she is not only a film director but also a film theorist. Her journal article The Film Language' s Modernization which she co-authored with her husband Li Tuo, is being considered as the manifesto of new era Chinese cinema. Another film theorist, Zhenqin Zhang, argues that she is the pioneer of Chinese film realistic aesthetics and Chinese women cinema.

Early life and education

Nuanxin Zhang was born in Inner Mongolia, China. Her parents were doctors, and her family was from Tieling, Liaoning, China. In 1943, Nuanxin Zhang moved with her parents to Beijing, China. She was raised in Beijing. Because of the success of the film The Drive to Win, Zhang wrote the book which is The Drive to Win— from script to film and this book published by China Film Press in December 1983. In 1984, Zhang starts to planning the film Sacrifice of Youth (1985), this film is adapted from the novel A beautiful place which wrote by Manling Zhang, and it finished in 1985. In 1987, Zhang Nuanxin with French director Jacques Dorfmann co-directed the film Le Palanquin des Larmes (1987). In 1988, Nuanxin Zhang plans to adapted famous Chinese author Wang Shuo's novel Playing for Thrills and finished the film script. Eventually, she didn't finish it.

Filmography

Film Year English title Chinese title Notes 1979 Li Siguang 李四光 Scriptwriter 1981 The Drive to Win 沙鸥 Director, Scriptwriter 1985 Sacrifice of Youth 青春祭 Director, Scriptwriter 1987 Le Palanquin des Larmes 花轿泪 Co-director 1990 Good Morning, Beijing 北京你早 Director 1993 A Yunnan Story 云南故事 Director 1994 1994:South China 南中国1994 Director