Shirley Temple brought out the kid in all of us

Shirley Temple. File photo.

That name was all over the Shanghai newspapers in 1934. The Chinese ads for Little Miss Marker and Now and Forever are on display in the new Shanghai Film Museum, a treasure trove of film memorabilia from that golden era of Chinese cinema.

Temple was so popular she spawned the surest form of flattery. China's own film industry, then based in Shanghai, produced its imitators: One of them, Hu Rongrong, imitated her look and tap dance moves to a tee. Ironically, Hu quickly outgrew her image as China's Shirley Temple and became a professional ballerina, with such achievements as dancing China's first Nutcracker and choreographing part of the revolutionary piece White-Haired Girl.

For the younger generation, Temple's movies, along with other (limited) imports, served to open eyes to the outside world. Shen Xiaotai, a staff member of the Shanghai Film Group, got her first exposure to tap dancing through the US child star's movies.

The second wave of Temple fever had other beneficiaries: Liu Chunyan became a minor celebrity after she dubbed many of her movies and won the title of "Best Dubbing Actress of the Year" in 1989 for her work in Poor Little Rich Girl.

Nowadays, film lovers in China have the option to watch Temple's work either in dubbed versions or the English original. (Her singing was never dubbed, though..

The funniest thing is a clip of her in Stowaway, set in Shanghai, where she blurts out a few words in Chinese and even plays erhu, the Chinese string instrument. It never fails to bring a chuckle to whoever happens to catch it.

In a Sina.com poll, Curly Top, The Little Colonel and The Little Princess came out as the top three Temple movies with the Chinese audience. But for many who did not watch her movies in the original sequence, it may be difficult to name a favorite. It is Temple's image-and the innocence, precociousness and vivacity she exudes in all her roles-that melts our hearts, and simply transcends time and national boundaries.