Li Qiankuan 李前宽 and Xiao Guiyun 肖桂云

Li Qiankuan was born in Dalian in 1941. He graduated from Beijing Film Academy (Beijing dianying xueyuan 北京电影学院) where he had met his later wife and co-director Xiao Guiyun. He had not studied directing, though, but artwork and decoration. After graduation in 1964, he was employed by the Changchun Film Studios, but during the first phase of the Cultural Revolution, film production was stopped. Only after the Cultural Revolution, Li became active as a director for the first time. His movie “Bear’s prints” (熊迹) was released in 1977. Some years later he started to direct movies with historical topics and since 1981 co-directed a great number of movies together with his wife Xiao Guiyun.

Xiao Guiyun, born in Harbin in 1941, graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1965, where she had studied directing. She was immediately employed by the Changchun Film Studios. However, since she graduated only shortly before the outbreak of the Cultural Revolution, she did not have a chance to complete any movie project until after the end of the Cultural Revolution in 1976. She first co-directed “Their Hope” (Xiwang 希望) together with Yu Yanfu 于彦夫. After successful completion, she was allowed to direct the movie “Bao Gong pei qing 包公赔情” (“Bao Zheng Apologizes”) on her own in 1978. It took three more years, 1981, until she began to co-direct with her husband Li Qiankuan. Their first professional product was “Peijian Jiangjun 佩剑将军” (“Generals with Sword” [sic!]). Since then their careers sky-rocketed. Nearly every year a new movie directed by the couple came out. After winning their first “Golden Rooster Award”, they went on producing movies on major incidents in Chinese history. Their films were awarded very often with national film prizes.
The couple’s works further include:

• “Sweet Girl” (Tian nü 甜女), 1983
• “At the Bank of Yellow River” [sic!] (Huanghe zhi bin 黄河之滨), 1986
• “The Escaped Prisoner” (Tao fan 逃犯), 1986
• “Green Fields Again” (Tianye youshi qing sha zhang 田野又是青纱帐), 1986
• “Guixian Valley” (Guixian gou 鬼仙沟), 1988
• “The Birth of New China” (Kaiguo Dadian 开国大典), 1989
• “After the Final Battle” (Juezhan zhi hou 决战之后), 1991
• “Chongqing Negotiations” (Chongqing tanpan 重庆谈判), 1993
• “The Lu Gou Qiao Incident” (Qi qi shibian 七七事变), 1995
• “The Red Veil” (Hong gai tou 红盖头), 1996
• “Century Dream” (Shiji zhi meng 世纪之梦), 1998
• “The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom” (Taiping tianguo 太平天国), a TV series, 1999
• “The Korean War” (Kang mei yuan chao 抗美援朝), 2001 (an internationally co-produced TV series).

Li and Xiao have received the most prestigious official awards for their films and have been called by the press the “movie couple shop”. Five times they won the nation-wide “Golden Rooster Award” (jin ji jiang 金鸡奖) by a jury of experts, four times the “Five One Project Award” (Wu ge yi gong cheng 五个一工程奖) by the Propaganda Department, three times the “Hundred Flowers Award” (Bai hua jiang 百花奖) organised by the journal “Popular Cinema” (Dazhong dianying 大众电影) and based on viewers’ votes, and several times they won the highest official award by the Ministry of Culture, the “Stele Award” (Hua biao jiang 华表奖). They also won awards at local films festivals. At the Changchun Film Festival, they won the “Golden Deer Award” (jin lu bei jiang 金鹿杯奖), in Jilin province the “Golden Tiger Award” (jin hu bei jiang 金虎杯奖), and at the Harbin Ice Festival the “Golden Swan Award” (jin tian’e jiang 金天鹅奖). They also twice won the “Shanghai Yongle Award” (永乐杯奖).