Li was born
Qian Zhenzhen () in
Beijing, 1915. Her father,
Qian Zhuangfei, was a famed
secret agent and member of the
Chinese Communist Party. After troupe was merged into the
Lianhua Film Company in 1931, Li became an actress. She starred in
Sun Yu's 1932
Loving Blood of the Volcano, set in the
South Seas with plenty of dancing, which allowed Li to play to her strengths. She and Wang Renmei then acted together in
Poetry Written on the Banana Leaf. Magazines characterized her as being interested in music and books. From 1935 to 1937, she starred in eight more films with the Lianhua Film Company. Li Lili, together with Wang Renmei and
Xu Lai, her former colleagues at the Bright Moon Troupe, were the earliest stars to portray the energetic, wholesome, and sexy "country girl" prototype, which became one of the most popular figures in
Chinese cinema, and later inherited by the
cinema of Hong Kong. After
war with Japan broke out in 1937, she joined the China Film Studio in
Chongqing, China's wartime capital. There she met and married Luo Jingyu, a section head, who became head of the studio. In 1939, she filmed
Cai Chusheng's
Orphan Island Paradise in
Hong Kong; it was another hit. Back in Chongqing, she starred in another hit film
Storm on the Border, for which she was highly praised. During the
Cultural Revolution, Li and her husband, Luo Jingyu, were denounced and tortured on the orders of Mao's wife
Jiang Qing. Li had acted with her, and outshone her, in films such as
Blood on Wolf Mountain. Li later told her family that she refused to denounce anyone. In 1991, she was given the "Special Honour Award" by the Chinese Academy of Motion Picture Arts. By the end of her life, Li Lili was the last living Chinese movie star from the
silent era. She died of a heart attack in Xuanwu Hospital, Beijing on August 7, 2005, aged 90. ==Filmography==