[6][7] When Wuhan also fell to the Japanese, she fled to the war-time capital Chongqing in 1938, and received actor training at the China Movie Studio.

[6] She joined several theatre groups, and acted in dozens of plays, including The Good Earth Huichun, Imperial Minister, and La Traviata.

[8] In 1943, the influential playwright Xia Yan first named her with Shu Xiuwen, Zhang Ruifang, and Bai Yang as China's "four great drama actresses" (四大名旦).

[10] After the surrender of Japan at the end of the World War II, Qin Yi moved back to Shanghai, and in 1946 acted in The Loyal Family, her first feature film.

[3] The film was shot during the final year of the Chinese Civil War, and was released after the Communists took over Shanghai from the defeated Kuomintang (KMT) in May 1949.

[10] Like other Chinese filmmakers and actors, Qin Yi and Jin Yan had to decide whether to flee to British Hong Kong, join the KMT in its evacuation to Taiwan, or stay in Shanghai and work with the new regime.

[11] After 1949, Qin Yi became an actress of the newly established Shanghai Film Studio, and was appointed deputy head of the Actors' Theatre Troupe.

At a 2002 charity auction in Shanghai, actor Arnold Schwarzenegger purchased one of his paintings for US$25,000, and praised Qin Yi for her devotion to her son.