Hung Shen (1893-29 August 1955), plav-wright, director, and drama critic. He used Western techniques in his stage productions and played an important part in the development of sound films in China. After 1949 he was prominent in cultural administration at Peking, and he served as vice chairman of the Chinese Stage Artists.

A native of Wuchin, Kiangsu, Hung Shen was born into a gentry family. His father was a supporter of Yuan Shih-k'ai and a minor figure in the Ch'ou-an hui, which supported Yuan's monarchical aims in 1915. After graduation from Tsinghua College, Hung went to the United States in 1916 and studied ceramics at Ohio State University until 1919. He then went to Harvard, where he received an M.A. degree in 1922.

After returning to China, Hung taught dramatic arts and Western literature in Shanghai at Ta-hsia, Chinan, and Futan universities. In the autumn of 1923, on the recommendation of Ou-yang Yü-ch'ien (q.v.), he was invited to join the Shanghai hsi-chü hsieh-she [Shanghai dramatic society], which had been founded in the winter of 1 922. He soon became its principal director. The society presented Ou-yang Yüch'ien's P'o-fu [the screw] and Hu Shih's Chung-shen ta-shih [a major event in one's life]. It departed from traditional stage practice by using both men and women in its productions. Hung Shen also directed the Futan University Dramatic Club and acted the title role in Chao-jen-ivang [Chao, the king of Hades], which he wrote in the winter of 1922. The central character was a soldier, a victim of the conflict between Chinese warlords. Hung Shen's next successes were productions in 1924 of his translations of Oscar Wilde's Lady Windermere^s Fan and J. M. Barrie's Dear Brutus. Hung soon became interested in T'ien Han (q.v.) and his Nan-kuo-she, which he joined in 1928. T'ien Han's Death of a Famous Actor, in which Hung Shen played the leading role, was acclaimed by critics and audiences.

During this period, Hung Shen's political sympathies gradually moved toward the left. His plays Wu-k'uei-ch' iao [Wu-k'uei bridge] and Hsiang-tao-mi, published in 1933, portrayed the conflict between landlord and peasant in Chinese society and revealed Hung Shen's sympathy for the peasants. In 1930 Hung Shen was the central figure in an incident which took place at the Grand Theatre in the International Settlement in Shanghai. During the showing of a Harold Lloyd film which portrayed the Chinese as sinister figures. Hung stood up and made a violent protest, an act which required considerable courage.

In 1930 Hung Shen went to work for the celebrated Hsing-p'ien kung-ssu (Star Motion Picture Company) and produced one of the first Chinese sound films. This was Ko-nü hung-mu-tan [singing peony], starring Hu Tieh (q.v.), which was shown in Shanghai and Peking in 1931. In 1932 the company sent Hung Shen to Hollywood to study technique and methods. After his return, restraining censorship on anti-Japanese films was abolished, and Chinese films imbued with vigor and national consciousness began to be produced. Hung produced Chieh-hou fao-hua [peach blossoms after the storm], an anti- Japanese film which enj5yed great success. Hung Shen was one of the leading members of the Tso-i hsi-chü-chia lien-meng [left-wing dramatists league], which sprang out of the League of Left-Wing Writers. His response to the slogan "National Defense Drama" was the publication of a volume of plays entitled Tsoussu [smuggling], which contained Hsien-yü chü-i [salt fish doctrine], To-nien ti hsi-fu [many years a daughter-in-law], and the title piece. After the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war in 1937, Hung Shen directed touring dramatic troupes which performed patriotic plays in the interior. When the National Government established the third department of the ministry of political training in 1939, Hung Shen was appointed director of its dramatic branch. He taught at Sun Yat-sen University, the College of Dramatic Art in Kiangsu, the Social Education Institute at Pishan, and the refugee campus of Futan University at Peip'ei in Szechwan. When the war ended, he returned to Shanghai with Futan University and became chairman of the motion picture department of the Shanghai Experimental School of Dramatic Arts. He left Shanghai to teach at Amoy University, and in 1948 he went to Hong Kong. Hung Shen went to Peking in 1949. After the Central People's Government was established, he played a prominent part in official cultural administration, serving as director of the ministry of culture's liaison department for cultural relations with foreign countries and as one of three vice presidents of the Chinese People's Association for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. He was active in the national theater movement and served as vice chairman of the Chinese Stage Artists. He died at Peking on 29 August 1955.

Hung Shen was a careful craftsman with a sound sense of construction; he was a methodical writer rather than one who wrote in the heat of inspiration. His American training had a deep influence on his later work. He had a talent for handling large casts in his productions, and he successfully experimented on the stage with the use of dialects, notably that of Szechwan. Hung also published a number of technical books on film and drama, as well as critical essays. At one time, he edited the drama and motion picture weekly published by the Ta Kung Pao in Shanghai.

Hung Shen married a daughter of T'ao Lan-ch'uan, a former governor of the Bank of China, but the union ended in divorce.