In Mary Jane’s Mishap (1903), the kitchen maid Mary Jane (played by Laura Bayley) is launched out of a chimney by an explosion. In our reading material, Feminist Catastrophe Against Disaster Patriarchy: Curating Cinema’s First Nasty Women, the author describes this scene and expresses the hope that “the films in this collection will help raise your own nasty feminist ghosts, with all their catastrophic, irresponsible, rebellious powers.”

My deep connection to "nasty women" began at that moment, partly because of my own background. I am an only child, born and raised in a remote town in China, becoming a first-generation college student, and supporting myself all the way to Tisch to study film. I have had a taste, albeit limited, of the rebellion and loneliness that come with being a "nasty woman" —a feminist ghost stirring within me.The nasty women of silent cinema, we argue, flip “disaster patriarchy” on its head by weaponizing catastrophe against endemic misogyny to make way for something better: collectivity, joy, defiance, solidarity, hopeful rupture, and social uprising. These struggles, born a century ago, live on not just in history but within those of us who carry their spirit today, urging us toward independence, rebellion, and meaningful change.

At the same time, I wonder, did early Chinese cinema have its own “nasty women”?

The Women Film Pioneers Project is a powerful work. This film collection showcases some of the most disruptive, rebellious, chaotic, and persistent female figures on screen—at least those who survived the catastrophic loss of archives. I discovered that it includes eight Chinese women: Yang Naimei, Xie Caizhen, Cai Mingzhu, Helen Wang, Hu Ping, Yan Shanshan, Fan Xuepeng, and a Chinese-American director, Esther Eng. In pre-liberation Chinese cinema, only about 400 films have been preserved. This reality raises a crucial question: could there be more female filmmakers whose names have been lost to history?

China’s earliest film, Dingjun Mountain, no longer has any surviving footage. However, Labour’s Love, filmed in 1922, has been preserved, making it one of the earliest Chinese films we can still watch today. Based on this, my research starts with a fundamental question: Did the female protagonist in this film leave behind her name?

According to currently available information, Ms. Yu Ying has only three film works, of which King of Comedy Visits China and The Daughter of A Wealthy Family have lost their copies. These films were all produced by Mingxing Film Company. For the company, 1922 marked a potential turning point, leading to two factions led by Zheng Zhengqiu and Zhang Shichuan. Zheng Zhengqiu focused on making "long dramatic films" to educate society, while Zhang Shichuan advocated for entertainment.  Labour’s Love blends both approaches, full of civic humor and aimed at the box office, yet retaining intellectual depth. Reflecting the social context of the time, the liberated ideas from the May Fourth Movement are also present in the film. As Zhang Zhen states in An Amorous History of the Silver Screen: "The story is in fact a satirical commentary on the question of social mobility, implicitly mocking the feudal and patriarchal codes regulating marriage and family.”

In my research, I aim to understand the female protagonist of this film, Ms. Yu Ying, and whether she genuinely embraced the film’s social mission. I also want to explore if she embodied the spirit of a “nasty woman” both on and off the screen.

As a preliminary thematic study, I researched 5 primary sources and 2 secondary sources. The following list outlines each source and my research process:

I began by attempting to narrow my search on Lantern using the film title Labour’s Love and the name Ying Yu. This keyword search yielded 48 results, but none were directly related to the film itself. Next, I searched through the AFI Catalog, newspapers.com, USC Moving Image Research Collections, the recently launched LOC Motion Picture Copyright Descriptions Collection, and other similar resources. None of these databases or sources provided relevant information about the film.This lack of results left me feeling frustrated, so I shifted my focus to Chinese academic journals.

First, I checked the China Film Archive website. The film records mentioned the name of the female lead, but provided little detail. I then searched the Shen Bao database. While a large advertisement for the screening of "Chinese Comedy Films" at the Olympic Theatre (Xialing peike 夏令配克) appeared on the front page of Shen Bao on October 5, 1922, Yu Ying's name was not mentioned. It is already known that in the writing of film history, the two comedies featuring Yu Ying have made a significant impact. For example, in 1927, Xu Chi-Hen wrote A Panorama of Chinese Cinema, tracing the origins of early Chinese films, and he specifically commemorated the three foundational works of the Mingxing Film Company, two of which are Labour’s Love and King of Comedy Visits China.

Based on this, I hoped to find some reviews of Ms. Yu Ying's performance. In the November 19, 1922, edition of Ta Kung Pao (Tianjin), I found a film review titled "Observations on Chinese Comedy Films." The author praised King of Comedy Visits China, describing it as the ideal version of "Chaplin touring Shanghai." The film met the public's expectations for a comedy as if Chaplin himself had come to China to film it. The reviewer highlighted Yu Ying's performance as natural and unpretentious, with expressive facial expressions and a talent for making people laugh.

I continued my search in the National Digital Library of China, under the Documents from the Republic of China, specifically in the Journal of the Republic of China. There, I finally found a photo of Ms. Yu Ying along with a written piece. The first sente nce highlighted her recognition at the time: “Anyo ne who pays attention to Chinese cinema nowadays must be familiar with Miss Yu Ying.” The article provided details about the 31-year-old Yu Ying, describing her as "ambitious and expressive." She graduated from Yu’s Women’s School and was the daughter of renowned Cantonese opera performer Yu Rongxiu. In 1922, when Mingxing Film Company was established and advertised for actors, Yu Ying went for the audition along with her fiancé Hao Jinsheng and friend Yu Yuan. Despite attempts by some to dissuade her from becoming an actress, Yu Ying remained steadfast in her decision to pursue acting. The article's purpose was to promote her “upcoming performance for Mingxing Company on the silver screen” (likely referring to the 1926 release of The Daughter of A Wealthy Family ).

The most touching part was Yu Ying’s response to the obstacles she faced in joining the industry: “Film is the art of life, and actors are artists. We should not look down on ourselves, nor miss the opportunity for self-fulfillment... Having the fortune of a bit of education, we believe it’s enough to protect ourselves. How can we not pave a path of independence for many other women?”

What also caught my attention was a photo of Ms. Yu Ying published in Red Magazine by the Shanghai World Book Company. Below the photo, it mentioned that a Western newspaper referred to Ms. Yu Ying as the “琵琵但尼儿 of China.” Based on the phonetic transcription, it likely refers to Bebe Daniels, an American actress who rose to fame in the 1920s, known for her roles in many comedies and romantic films. The comparison by Western media suggests high praise for Yu Ying, implying that her status and performance style in Chinese cinema were similar to that of this international star.I attempted to find the source of this Western review in Lantern by searching with the keywords “Bebe Daniels from China” and the year 1922 (considering that both of Yu Ying’s films were released in 1922 and Red Magazine was also published that year, the Western review likely came out during this time). Unfortunately, I could not find any results.

The works of Ms. Yu Ying have only three surviving films to date, all of which were produced by the Mingxing Film Company. However, she did not exclusively collaborate with Mingxing Film Company. This is confirmed by a report published on July 28, 1924, in the  Shanghai "Shishi Xinbao." In the "Film Industry News" section, it mentions that Dalu Film Company planned to start filming a new production soon and had invited Ms. Yu Ying to act in the film while also appointing her as a staff member in the female actors' department. This suggests that Yu Ying's role extended beyond acting, likely involving casting, training, and managing other actresses, highlighting her extensive experience and status in the industry, as well as the company's recognition of her talent. However, there is no recorded information about this new film.

Additionally, while reviewing supplementary materials related to Yu Ying's major works, I accidentally came across a screenshot of an advertisement for The Daughter of A Wealthy Family in the photo album of the movie's Douban page. The image originates from a 1926 issue of Shanghai Pictorial and was discovered by a user on Kongfz.com before being uploaded to the album.In this advertisement, Yu Ying’s name is not mentioned among the actors. As the lead actress in the first two productions of Mingxing Film Company, Yu Ying, after joining Dalu Film Company in 1924, although she participated in the 1926 release of The Daughter of a Wealthy Family, she had already disappeared from Mingxing Film Company’s promotional materials. This led me to speculate that Dalu Film Company and Mingxing Film Company, both active in the Chinese film industry during the same period and based in the same city, may have had a competitive relationship. This competition could have been reflected in their strategies regarding the recruitment and promotion of female actors.

The advertisement did not mention Yu Ying‘s name