Boston University alumna Luo Yan will screen her film, “Pavilion of Women,” at 6:30 at the General Cinema Fenway 13 Theater tonight. Yan, a producer and actress, graduated from the School for the Arts in 1990 and is acclaimed for her work in her native China.
Yan stars opposite Willem Dafoe in the film, which is based on the 1946 Pearl S. Buck novel of the same name, not published in China until 1994. The film premiered in May 2001 and has been shown in China and the United States. Following the screening, Yan will take questions.
At the screening, Yan plans to present a scholarship to the College of Fine Arts, which will each year assist one or two students of Asian ancestry to study theater performance or management. Yan’s husband, Hugo Shong, a College of Communication graduate, will announce another gift to the present scholarship in his name. Shong’s scholarship benefits students of Asian descent who are studying journalism, film, television or mass communication.
Yan grew up in Shanghai, China. According to Szeman Tse, spokeswoman for Yan and a 2001 College of Arts and Sciences graduate, Yan was raised by her grandparents, and her grandfather died when she was in her early teens, leaving her to care for her sick grandmother. The government sent her to work in a textile factory at the age of 16.
Yan first joined a local theater group and then the Shanghai Drama Institute. She soon became a well-known film and stage actress and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress in China’s Hundred Flower Awards for her 1985 role in “The Girl in Red.”
Tse said Yan came to America to continue her schooling in drama. She arrived in 1986 and was accepted to SFA’s graduate program in the theater arts division, receiving a dean’s scholarship.
Tse said the film connects Yan to her native country.
“She grew up during the Cultural Revolution, and she wanted to do something that related to her roots in China. This story is about an upper-class Chinese woman during that time,” Tse said.
The film, which was shot in China and co-produced by Hollywood and Chinese Studios, follows Madame Wu, played by Yan, as she attempts to take control of her life in a feudal society. Dafoe plays Father André, the American missionary doctor with whom Madame Wu falls in love.
The film marks Yan’s acting debut in an English-language film, as well as her first stint as a film producer and screenwriter. She currently owns Moonstone International, a Los Angeles merchandising company, as well as two film distribution companies.
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