Li Lihua: Beauty and the Barber

"Li Li Hua is a Chinese movie star who is dressed, made up and coiffured with as much care and attention as any Hollywood star ever receives."

China Doll (1958) was not the first time that Li Lihua was introduced to the American public. Ten years earlier, stories about Li and her record-breaking Shanghai film The Barber Takes a Wife (aka Fake Phoenix) were featured in both Time and Life magazines. The stunning photograph above accompanied the following article in the October 27, 1947 issue of Life.

CHINESE MOVIE
Comedy about an amorous barber is breaking records in Shanghai

The smiling beauty in the picture above is Miss Li Li Hua, Chinese film actress and leading lady of a new movie called The Barber Takes a Wife. Partly because of Miss Li Li Hua's following and partly because it is a good comedy, The Barber is now smashing Shanghai box-office records and may end up the biggest movie hit ever shown in China.

The Barber Takes a Wife is a romantic comedy with a plot like a Hollywood B-picture. Miss Li Li Hua plays a young girl who advertises in a newspaper for a husband, saying she is rich. Mr. Sheh Huei plays the barber who answers the ad, saying he is also rich. Each learns that the other is lying and they quarrel, but love conquers all in Chinese movies, too. At first Shanghai barbers objected to the film, claiming their profession was libeled by the hero, who touched lady customers and attempted suicide with a razor. A few changes mollified them, however, and now The Barber has a sure-fire audience: 50,000 barbers in Shanghai alone.

BARBER IS URGED to answer a marriage advertisement from a rich girl. His adviser is a wealthy customer who would answer himself except that he is married. The two conspirators agree to split profits right after the wedding.

COURTING BEGINS the same day when the barber pays a call on the girl. He wears dressy clothes lent him by his customer but forgets to change his white barber's shoe, explains its presence by saying he has athlete's foot.

HIS PROPOSAL REFUSED by the coquettish girl, the barber pretends to slash his own throat with a razor. SELF-STRANGULATION with tie replaced the scene at left when Shanghai barbers objected to use of a razor.

COURTSHIP CONTINUES when the barber takes the girl to a swanky restaurant. In a forgetful moment he whips the napkin around her neck as if she were a customer. Then he proposes again, is accepted and gives her a large ring.

RING IS RETURNED when the girl finds out it is made of glass. The barber, slicked up in rented morning clothes and ready to be married at once, is crushed. Later on he learns by accident that the girl is just as poor as he is.

ANOTHER SUITOR, ancient but this time authentically wealthy, also proposes and anxiously proffers a box of money to seal the bargain. The ending is pure Dorothy Dix: the oldster's gold is virtuously refused and Hua gets Huei.