Biography

Shui Hua (November 23, 1916 – December 16, 1995), born Zhang Yufan, was a Chinese film director who gained prominence in the 1950s in the early years of the People's Republic of China. Born in Nanjing in 1916, Shui Hua studied to be an attorney at Fudan University in Shanghai. During the Second Sino-Japanese War, Shui made his way to the Yan'an where he became a member of the Chinese Communist Party. After the war, Shui became involved in theater while teaching eventually moving into filmmaking with his 1950 debut film, The White Haired Girl. Later in the decade, he directed the critically acclaimed The Lin Family Shop, based on a short story by the author Mao Dun. With the turmoil of the 1960s and 1970s, Shui's filmmaking days seemed behind him. However, upon China's re-emergence from the Cultural Revolution, Shui again began to direct films, including Regret for the Past (1981), based on a story by Lu Xun, and Blue Flowers (1984).