Film series: Starburst 20 June – 26 August 2018

In 1930s China, the term mingxing (bright star, 明星) captured the allure of a new public figure: the screen diva. Ever since, Chinese cinema has been graced with strong female leads.

The Starburst film series celebrates the extraordinary talents of four trailblazing Chinese actresses from the early 20th century to today: Ruan Lingyu, Anna May Wong, Maggie Cheung and Zhao Tao. It features the best of Shanghai silent cinema, golden age Hollywood, the Hong Kong New Wave and recent landmarks from mainland China.

Starburst begins by showcasing the career highlights of two 1930s screen icons. Ruan Lingyu (1910–35) was the original screen ‘goddess’. Hailed as China’s Garbo, Shanghai streets flooded with mourners upon her tragic suicide at age 24. Silent cinema lost one of its most mercurial performers. Across the Pacific, LA-born Anna May Wong (1905–61) forged a career as Hollywood’s first Chinese-American superstar. She toured Australia in 1939 and was an outspoken critic of the limited roles available to women of colour. In two different studio systems, both actresses lit up screens with old-world glamour.

Chinese cinema cast later heroines in the afterglow of these early icons. Fifty years on, Maggie Cheung became the global face of the Hong Kong New Wave and reincarnated Ruan Lingyu in Stanley Kwan’s masterful biopic, Center stage. Cheung represented a new kind of transnational stardom which moved between national borders, hybrid genres and richly nuanced roles. This series includes a selection of her finest work with Wong Kar-wai (In the mood for love), Olivier Assayas (Irma Vep) and Zhang Yimou (Hero).

The final icon in this series – Zhao Tao – enjoys international stardom yet does not promise glamorous escape from the everyday. Collaborating with acclaimed husband-director, Jia Zhangke, Zhao’s protagonists perform the complexities of life in modernising China.

Over ten weeks from 20 June to 26 August 2018, Starburst maps shifting patterns of stardom across four brilliant careers.

Films

• 20, 24 June – The goddess (director Wu Yonggang, China, 1934, digital) 

• 27 June, 1 July – Center stage (director Stanley Kwan, Hong Kong, 1991, 35mm) 

• 4, 8 July – Shanghai Express (director Josef von Sternberg, US, 1932, 16mm)  

• 11, 15 July – Piccadilly (director EA Dupont, UK, 1929, 35mm) 

• 18, 22 July – Hero (director Zhang Yimou, China, 2002, 35mm) 

• 25, 29 July – Irma Vep (director Olivier Assayas, France, 1996, 35mm)  

• 1, 5 August – In the mood for love (director Wong Kar-Wai, Hong Kong, 2000, 35mm) 

• 8, 12 August – Still life (director Jia Zhangke, China, 2006, 35mm) 

• 15, 19 August – The world (director Jia Zhangke, China, 2005, 35mm) 

• 22, 26 August – Platform (director Jia Zhangke, China, 2000, 35mm)