Xia Meng
Born	Yang Meng (1933-02-16)16 February 1933 Shanghai, Republic of China
Died	30 October 2016(2016-10-30) (aged 83) Hong Kong
Spouse	Lin Baocheng
Awards	Golden Phoenix Awards 1993 Special Contribution Award Hong Kong Film Awards – Best Film 1983 Boat People
Chinese name
Traditional Chinese	夏夢
Simplified Chinese	夏梦
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Xià Mèng Wade–Giles Hsia4 Meng4 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping haa6 mung6
Yang Meng
Traditional Chinese	楊濛
Simplified Chinese	杨蒙
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Yáng Méng Wade–Giles Yang2 Meng2 Yue: Cantonese Jyutping joeng4 mung4

Xia Meng 16 February 1933 – 30 October 2016), a.k.a. Hsia Moon and Miranda Yang, born Yang Meng, was a Hong Kong actress and film producer.^[1] She was a key figure of Hong Kong's Left Wing film scene.

Xia Meng's younger sister, Yang Jie, played on the China women's national basketball team from 1954 to 1957.^[2]

Debut on stage

Xia Meng was first exposed to drama and stage play at McTyeire School, an elite girls' school established by Methodist missionaries in Shanghai. In 1947, she moved with her family to Hong Kong, where she attended Maryknoll Convent School. In 1949, In conjunction with an event at her school, She was chosen to play the leading role in McTyeire School's English-language production of Saint Joan.

Film career

In 1950, Yang Meng (birthname) and her friends visited a film set of the Great Wall Movie Enterprises Ltd. This was where she was first spotted by the crews, as well as studio manager Yuan Yang'an. Through the help of Yuan's daughter, Mao Mei (an actress and ballerina), Yang Meng accepted his invitation and joined the studio at the age of 17. Inspired by Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, the new actress decided to rename herself as Xia Meng (literally "summer dream").

The Great Wall Crown Princess

Xia Meng shaking hands with Mao Zedong in Beijing in 1957. Smiling behind Mao is Deng Xiaoping.

She was given her first role as the title character in Li Pingqian's A Night-Time Wife (1951). The comedy was a hit and rocketed Hsia Moon to stardom.^[3] Many other hits followed. There was the tragic demimondaine of Cao Yu's classic adaptation Sunrise, at her best as the virtuous widow of A Widow's Tears both in 1956. She was the scapegoat of the feudal moral value in the critically acclaimed Hong Kong classic^[4] The Eternal Love (1960), the deprived bourgeoisie in HKFA Archival Gem's Romance of The Boudoir (1960),^[5] and played a man masquerading as a woman in The Bride Hunter (1960).

Xia Meng 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. The Mainland media nowadays have been frequently quoting her as the Chinese answer to Audrey Hepburn.^[6]

Cultural Revolution

In the summer of 1967, she 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 Chinese Communist Party, and Great Wall's movies would no longer have the same cachet as before. Feeling insecure and threatened - as well as being pregnant at the time - she excused herself from involvement in the political movement. Soon after she finished the screen performance in Oh, The Spring Is Here (1967), she resigned from the studio in September, and quietly left for Canada before the film was released.

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—16 November 1979, which is considered to be her first public appearance after her final screen performance in 1967. Under the encouragement of Liao, she decided returned to movie industry as a producer after an absence of 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 Zuyi. She had no involvement in any film production after that.

Other

Filmography

References