Huang Zuolin

Huang Zuolin
Born	黄作霖 October 24, 1906 Tianjing
Died	June 1, 1994
Occupation	Director

Huang Zuolin (original name: Chinese: 黄作霖) (October 24, 1906 – June 1, 1994) was a Chinese film director.

Huang Zuolin whose ancestral home was at Panyu of Guangdong Province, South China was born in Tianjin. He graduated from Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College in 1925. During the period of 1925 to 1929, he studied business in University of Birmingham and lived in Linxi College located in the suburbs. At the party organized by the students of this college, Huang Zuolin performed the one-act play, East and West, which was written and directed by himself. Then Huang Zuolin sent this play to George Bernard Shaw to express the worship of him and Henrik Ibsen and got a reply:

"Ibsen, is a disciple, not a master;

George Bernard Shaw, is a follower, not a master;

Ibsen does not belong to ibsenist, he is Ibsen;

I do not belong to Bernard shawnist, I am Bernard shaw;

If you want to have some achievements, you should not be a disciple; You must be creative."

From that point on, George Bernard Shaw became Huang Zuolin's first teacher who introduced art to him and was revered by him all his life.

In 1929, Huang Zuolin returned to China and served as honorary president of Tientsin Anglo-Chinese College. In 1935, he, together with his wife Jin Yunzhi (Danny), once again traveled to Britain to study Shakespeare in King’s College at Cambridge University and learn dramatic direction from the famous French director Michel Saint-Denis in London Drama Academy. He earned his M.A. degree from Cambridge University in 1937.

He returned to China after the breakout of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937. Before Huang’s departure, Shaw sent him the following words:

"Rise up, China!

You are the future of the eastern world.

If you have courage and determination to hold it,

the future stage will be for Chinese drama.

Don't follow my plays, you can create your own."

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