Hu Tieh West. Butterfly Wu Hu Tieh (1907-), was an actress. As Butterfly Wu, she achieved international recognition as the star of Chinese films of the 1920s and early 1930s. She abandoned her career after her marriage to P'an Yu-sheng (Eugene Penn) in 1936 but returned to the screen after his death in 1958. Little is known about Hu Tieh's childhood. She was the only child of Hu Li-chen, a Cantonese who had migrated to north China as a youth and who had been employed by the railways until he moved to Shanghai. His daughter began her stage career in the small tea-house theaters of Shanghai, where her beauty and stage presence attracted the attention of promoters looking for potential film actresses. She assumed the name Hu Tieh, a pun on the homophonous word for "butterfly." In 1924 she studied at the Chung Hua film company's training school for nine months. She made her screen debut in Ch'iu-shan yüan [a deserted wife's hatred], made by the Yu-lien film company. Then she joined the T'ien-i company and appeared in several films, including Fu-ch'i chih pi-mi [a husband and wife's secret], Tien-ying nü-ming-hsing [a woman film star], and Paishe chuan [the story of the white snake]. All of these were produced in 1926. Hu Tieh then joined the Hsing-p'ien kung-ssu (Star jMotion Picture Company), which had been founded in 1922. Under the management of Chang Shihch'uan it grew so rapidly that in 1928 it absorbed five other companies. Hu Tieh was an important factor in the rising fortunes of the company. At the height of her fame, Hu received China S500 a month, a considerable salary for those days, particularly for a woman. When the company studios were equipped for sound in 1931, Hu was given the leading role in a film called Ko-nü hung-mu-tan [singing peony], which had its premiere at the Strand Theatre in Shanghai on 15 March 1931. The story was by Hung Shen (q.v.), then the chief script-writer for the company, and it concerned the domestic tribulations of a singer. This film shared the distinction of being a pioneer Chinese sound film with a picture called YU-kuo Vien-ch'ing [clear sky after rain], made by the T'ien-i company. Yü-kuo Vien-ch'ing was severely criticized by one Peiping reviewer who, among other technical deficiencies, found fault with Hu Tieh's pronunciation of Mandarin. Few of the film stars of the time were natives of north China, and most of the film companies employed teachers to improve their accents, and passages of dialogue were rehearsed on the sets between "takes." Hu Tieh, who originally had a Shanghai accent, was no exception to the rule, but she conquered the northern accent sufficiently to win the critics' praise for the majority of her films. During this period, Hu acquired the English stage names Butterfly Wu and Miss Butterfly.

Altogether, Hu Tieh played in more than 20 films for the Star Motion Picture Company. Her most famous role was in the picture Mei-mei hua [two sisters], which brought her a citation as the Movie Queen of China. Its two-month run in a Shanghai cinema in 1935 marked the first time that a Chinese film exceeded the records of foreign films for long runs. Mei-mei hua was essentially an expose of the Chinese family system, although it was scarcely original in theme or constructive in its message. The action centered around two sisters who had been separated in childhood and who were brought together again in later life, unrecognized by each other. One had become the concubine of a wealthy warlord, the other, her servant. The latter was caught stealing from her sister employer and was sent to jail. Hu Tieh played the double role of a rich and poor sister in this film. Although such films were leftist in sentiment to some extent, they made no attempt to portray the dignity of labor but rather submerged their themes in an overwhelming atmosphere of melodramatic tragedy. In February 1935 Hu Tieh sailed for Russia as a member of a cultural group led by W. W. Yen (Yen Hui-ch'ing, q.v.), the Chinese ambassador to Moscow. The actor Mei Lan-fang and his troupe were also in this group. The visit was arranged under the auspices of VOK.S, the Soviet Society for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries. The Chinese party traveled by sea to avoid passing through Japanese-occupied territory in northern China. Hu Tieh's visit to Moscow was arranged to coincide with an international film congress being held there, and the group arrived in the Russian capital on 12 March. After an official banquet given by the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs in the government mansion Spiridonovika, Hu Tieh entertained the assembled company with a concert of Chinese folk songs sung in the Cantonese, Shanghai, and Szechwan dialects. Mei Lan-fang and Hu Tieh left Russia for Warsaw on 20 April 1935 and then visited Germany, France, Italy, and England. In London, Hu Tieh visited English film studios and, in particular, spent time on the sets with the London stars Jessie Matthews and Sonnie Hale. She then returned to China. In 1936 she married P'an Yu-sheng (Eugene Penn), a Shanghai businessman who r^n his own manufacturing firm. His company later specialized in the making of enamelware with the trademark "Butterfly." After the Sino-Japanese war began in 1937, Hu Tieh and her husband went to Hong Kong. They were living there when the Japanese occupied the British colony in 1942. Mei Lan-fang was also a refugee in Hong Kong at this time. The Japanese approached both artists on a number of occasions, requesting Hu Tieh to make films under their sponsorship and Mei to return to the stage. Both artists declined the Japanese proposals; Mei grew a luxuriant mustache, which effectively debarred him from playing his usual roles. In August 1943 Hu Tieh and her husband escaped from Hong Kong aboard a junk and made their way to Chungking, where they remained for the rest of the war. During this time Hu Tieh appeared in one film, Chien-kuo chih lu [the way of a nation], made in the autumn of 1944. In Chungking, she also gave a song recital to aid the war effort. After the war, Hu Tieh and her husband returned to Shanghai, only to leave again in 1948 for Hong Kong. In 1958 her husband died, and in the following year rumors which had circulated for some time were confirmed when Hu Tieh signed a film contract with the Shaw Brother Studios. Her first picture was called Hou-men [back door], a story about the love of a middle-aged couple for an adopted child. The setting was the nostalgic no-man's land created in the minds of the Shanghai exiles in Hong Kong. Hu Tieh was awarded the best actress award at the Asian Film Festival of 1960. Hu Tieh became a symbol of an era. Through the new medium of the film she rose to social prominence and professional independence in the face of deep-rooted public prejudice against women in the world of entertainment. Her achievements marked a new stage in the emancipation of Chinese women. Even though most of the films she made have been forgotten, her attainments encouraged other women to embark on careers in the arts. Hu Tieh had one son, P'an Chia-mo, and a daughter, P'an Chia-li, who studied in Edinburgh.