Born: 30 November 1921, China
Died: 15 October 1968
Country most active: China
Also known as: 孙维世
Sun Weishi was the first female director of modern spoken drama (Huaju) in China. Sun was a rival of Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing, with an enmity between the two that lasted throughout Sun’s life until her ultimate death at Jiang’s hands. During World War II, Sun lived in Moscow, studying theater. After the end of World War II, Sun returned to China and began acting and directing in Chinese theater. In 1950, shortly after the founding of the People’s Republic of China, she was invited to be the director of the China Youth Art Theater. Over the following years Sun staged a number of performances that were critically well-received, some of which became famous across China. In 1956, she became the artistic director and vice-president of the Chinese Experimental Theater, staging many critically acclaimed plays over the next decade.
When the Cultural Revolution happened in 1966, her adoptive father Zhou Enlai (the first premier of the People’s Republic of China) sent Sun and her husband to work in Daqing to protect them from political persecution, but Jiang Qing and Ye Qun (the wife of one of Sun’s exes) conspired to have Sun secretly arrested in 1968 while visiting Zhou Enlai in Beijing. Sun was sentenced without trial, and was tortured in a secret prison for months before dying. After her death, Jiang Qing made arrangements for Sun’s body to be cremated before an autopsy could be performed, and for her ashes to be disposed of before Zhou or Sun’s other relatives could take possession of them. Sun’s husband was not informed of Sun’s death until his 1975 release.