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OPEN CLASSIC CINEMA · 613

Sports Queen

193485 minChina

Video edition: YouTube
Original language: No spoken dialogue. Intertitles: Chinese.
This copy runs: 85:25
Subtitles: Subtitles embedded in the picture

Languages and subtitles

Subtitles embedded in the picture

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Synopsis

A naturally talented runner enters a women’s sports school in Shanghai. Success attracts attention, admiration and distractions she has never faced before. As competitive ambition begins to shape her relationships, she must decide what athletic achievement is for and whether winning alone can provide an answer.

Cast

Li Lili

Zhang Yi

Bai Lu

Han Langen

DirectorsSun Yu

Historical context

The athletic heroine reflects contemporary arguments about physical education and national strength. Sun Yu builds the film around training, movement and Li Lili’s performance rather than presenting sport only as a decorative backdrop.

Sources and availability

General references identify the work and its copy. A reference beside an editorial section is linked to the claims checked in that section.

Virtual Shanghai · CNRS Chinese Film Classics Wikimedia Commons · copyright reference China · Copyright Law, Article 23 US Copyright Office · foreign works Internet Archive · film copy Wikimedia Commons · film copy

Work catalogued as public domain in the United States.

The reference concerns the original work. Restorations, colorization, translations and other territories may have different conditions. This site uses the player enabled by the channel.

Availability checked on September 11, 2026.

Photograph credit

Photographs cropped, resized and optimized as WebP, displayed in monochrome.

Li Lili — Unknown photographer, 1930s; source Sina, via Wikimedia Commons. Commons source was already denoised and sharpened. · Public domain — PD-China and PD-1996

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