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= Yin Mingzhu = Mingzhu is most famously known for her role as an actress, starring in dozens of productions, but she also was an investor in film studios and a production coordinator, specifically during her time off camera.

Early Life and Education
Mingzhu was born in 1904, in Wujiang County, Jiangsu. Mingzhu came from a distinguished family, her father was a well-known painter, and members of her family, from the past three generations had been members of Hanlin Academy, a prestigious academic and administrative academy.

Mingzhu's father died, when she was a child, leaving her mother a winning lottery ticket, which allowed her mother to move the entire family to Shanghai. In Shanghai, Mingzhu was a top student at, McTyeire School for Girls, a prestigious school, where she learned new ideas and manners.s.

Biography
Before coming to fame in the film industry, Mingzhu was known as "Miss F.F.", which stood for "Miss Foreign Fashion", she was a sensation within the elite society of Shanghai.

Minghzu is thought to be the first woman to play a leading role in any film made in Shanghai, the earliest centre of Chinese filmmaking.

In 1926, Mingzhu married Dan Duyu, a director. When the pair met at a party, Mingzhu was seventeen and married to a Frennchman. While they began to work together, Mingzhu and Duyu fell in love, but Mingzhu kept quiet as she was still married to the Frenchman. Mingzhu vowed to remain loyal, when the Frenchman was redeployed back to his home country, but after he failed to return to Shanghai, Mingzhu married Duyu.

Mingzhu and Duyu's collaboration as a couple, within the film industry, was different from any other film couple. Traditionally, it was the director, or the husband, that made the actress, or the wife, famous. With Mingzhu and Duyu, it was widely recognized, that Mingzhu's fame and beauty is what brought fame and success to Duyu.

The couple, along with their children, relocated to Hong Kong, where Mingzhu passed away in 1989, at the age of 85.

Career
Mingzhu began her career as an actress, during the silent film era, when she met Dan Duyu. Mingzhu joined Duyu's Shanghai Shadow Play Company, in 1921, when she starred in Duyu's Sea Oath. Reviews for Sea Oath, praised Mingzhu for her performance, as a first-time actress. Mingzhu's career was in danger of ending, before it even took off, as her mother forbid her from making any more films, after the publicity Sea Oath caused. In 1925, three years after Mingzhu had left the film industry, her mother gave in and allowed her to star in Duyu's "philosophical film", Some Girl.

Mingzhu starred in many other productions after this, some directed by Duyu, and some by other Chinese directors and filmmakers. Some of Mingzhu's most famous work as an actress, includes, The Spider Cave, A Dream of Red Mansions, Oriental Nights, The Golden Age, and Peach-Blossom Dream.

Aside, from her career as an actress, Mingzhu is also known for her work as an investor. During the three year period, that her mother forbid her from acting, Mingzhu became an investor, by investing in the Shanghai Shadow Play Company. When bankruptcy threatened the future of the production company, in 1927, after the failure of Imperial Concubine of Yang, Mingzhu invested her own personal savings into the company to save it.

In 1932, during the second Sino-Japanese War, the Shanghai Shadow Play Company was destroyed. Both Mingzhu and Duyu were out of work, until Mingzhu invested in, and set up, the Shanghai Talkie Company, in 1934, for her husband.

In addition to her career as an actress and investor, Mingzhu also worked as a production coordinator for films made under both the Shanghai Shadow Play Company and the Shanghai Talkie Company. Her knowledge obtained about the film industry, from her work as an actress and an investor, and with her English skills, helped her in her role as a production coordinator, as she was able to connect with the various groups and individuals on and off the film set.

Filmography
Filmography from