As a popular movie actress in the 1950s and '60s, Xia Meng has influenced a generation of Chinese, first in Hong Kong, then in the Chinese mainland. She has been compared to famous Hollywood starlets in the West, such as Audrey Hepburn, and is called one of the "Three Princesses of the Great Wall Film Company."

For about two months, the China Film Archive is showing movies done by Xia in a career retrospective exhibition paying tribute to her 80th birthday, which she celebrated on February 16.

"We've played a few of Xia's films in the past," said Sha Dan, schedule programmer at the archive. "This time around, we chose some works that the public rarely thinks of viewing."

The first movie shown as part of the event is The Peerless Beauty, a 110-minute-long film produced in Hong Kong in 1953. The screenplay to that movie was written by Louis Cha, the famous martial arts writer.

The movie takes place in the Warring States era (475BC-221BC) and is about how a woman in the nation of Zhao revenges the deaths of her parents by tricking the king of Wei, ultimately leading to her execution.

Besides The Peerless Beauty, the archive will screen six other movies, one per week, until March. The selected films show Xia's roles from the '50s to the '80s.

Shi Chuan, deputy director of the Shanghai Film Association and a movie critic, said Xia was especially popular among the Chinese mainland audience in the '50s because she represented a class that's more elegant and lady-like.

Xia usually steered clear of modern films, instead starring in traditional movies, such as old Peking operas brought to the screen.

"The fact that she acts in those movies is valuable, because after 1949, the establishment of People's Republic of China, movies in the Chinese mainland were mostly focused on the workers, peasants and soldiers - the oppressed people - and there are only a few about the upper class," he said.

Sha agreed, saying Xia's popularity to some degree is because the types of movies she starred in are considered rarities in China at that time.

"After the '50s, only a few Hong Kong films entered into the Chinese mainland. After the Korean War (1950-53) started, Hollywood films were cleared out of China as well. Therefore, the films made in Hong Kong in some way filled a cultural vacancy. They satisfied the public's imagination about the lives of the bourgeoisie," he said.

Sha said Xia is not as well-known nowadays and her influence is limited to those interested in vintage movies made in Hong Kong. Nowadays, the young people are more interested in what's fashionable and modern, not movies reminiscent of the old days, he said.

That's precisely the reason the archive is showing her films, Sha said.

"It's the job and responsibility of the film archive to recommend and reintroduce the great films in history," he said.

When: 7 pm, every Wednesday until March 27

Where: China Film Archive, No.3 Wenhuiyuan road, Haidian district

Tickets: 10 yuan

Contact: 8229-6228