Zheng Junli
郑君里
Chinese director and actor, 1911–1969. He appeared as an actor in The Big Road and Street Angel among others before turning to directing in the 1940s, co-directing The Spring River Flows East with Cai Chusheng and directing Crows and Sparrows.
Career
Zheng acted in Shanghai through the 1930s and translated books on acting and film theory, among them Boleslavsky's Acting: The First Six Lessons. He shot documentaries in the interior during the war and turned to features afterwards, co-directing The Spring River Flows East with Cai Chusheng.
Crows and Sparrows, which he directed alone in 1949, keeps its story inside one Shanghai house, among the landlord and his tenants. He went on to make Song Jingshi, Lin Zexu and Nie Er. He was imprisoned during the Cultural Revolution and died in custody in 1969.
