<div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>When </span><em><span>Blood on Wolf Mountain</span></em><span> was released in Chinese cinemas on November 1, 1936, it wasn't seen as the sort of movie to have a lasting impact.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The film told the story about a village surrounded by bloodthirsty wolves. Ostensibly it was a simple horror film, but was a thinly-veiled allegory for the Japanese invasion of Manchuria.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But it was the opportunity for a star-making turn for one of the actresses involved.</span></div></div><div><div id="adspot-mobile-medium"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-february-11-what-happened-on-this-day/480a64c6-3aa8-4a2d-bdf6-05264c3c3b34" rel="" target="" title="Thirty million people die after ill-fated war on sparrows"><strong><span>Thirty million people die after ill-fated war on sparrows</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That actress was Li Lili, who outshone the rest of the cast and became one of China's best-loved actresses.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>It was bad news for Lan Pang, a co-star who took Li's success personally.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She left Shanghai the following year, changed her name to Jiang Qing and became a diehard communist.</span></div></div><div><div class="OUTBRAIN" data-reactroot="" data-src="//www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-november-1-what-happened-on-this-day/24c396e0-d9d3-41ed-a651-d431d5f7746f" data-widget-id="AR_5"></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She met and married party leader Mao Zedong, though he was already married.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Though initially prohibited from wielding any political power, Jiang rose to become a powerful figure within the Communist Party.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>There she became, in her own words, the attack dog for her husband.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>During the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s, she organised the arrest, torture and even murder of party officials and their family members.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But her wrath was not limited to present rivals.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>On Jiang's orders, Li Lili and her husband were denounced and tortured.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Li's head was shaved by the revolutionary Red Guards.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Meanwhile, her husband died under torture. His body was never returned to his family, only his glasses.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>But despite Jiang's powerful role in state politics, she was not well-liked among the people of China.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><strong><span>READ MORE: </span></strong><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/world/today-in-history-july-16-what-happened-on-this-day/1fffce90-6c84-4add-999b-07998db24490" rel="" target="" title="The river swim that signalled the start of a purge of millions of people"><strong><span>The river swim that signalled the start of a purge of millions of people</span></strong></a><strong></strong></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Less than a month after Chairman Mao's death, she was arrested.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>After a contentious six-week televised trial, Jiang was sentenced to death.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>Her sentence would be commuted but she spent the majority of the rest of her life in prison.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>She died by suicide in 1991. No funeral was held.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>That year Li was given a lifetime achievement award from the Chinese Academy of the Motion Picture Arts.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><span>The last living movie star of Chinese film's silent era, Li died of a heart attack in 2005, aged 90.</span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/today-in-history" target="" title="For more from our Today in History archive, click here."><strong><span>For more from our Today in History archive, click here</span></strong></a><span></span></div></div><div class="block-content"><div class="styles__Container-sc-1ylecsg-0 goULFa"><a href="https://www.9news.com.au/national/how-to-follow-9news-digital/29855bb1-ad3d-4c38-bc25-3cb52af1216f" target="_blank"><strong><em><span>DOWNLOAD THE 9NEWS APP</span></em></strong></a><strong><em><span>: Stay across all the latest in breaking news, sport, politics and the weather via our news app and get notifications sent straight to your smartphone. 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