She was considered one of the most talented and versatile actresses in China, and was named one of the 100 best actors of the 100 years of Chinese cinema in 2005.

[1] Born Wei Junluo, she fled to Shanghai when her hometown Jiangyin was attacked by the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.

After the Communist victory in mainland China in 1949, her career was set back when her husband was embroiled in the anti-capitalist Five-anti Campaign, but she later portrayed a wide variety of characters in many films.

[2][3] Wei Junluo (Chinese: 韋均犖) was born in 1920 in the town of Changjing (长泾) in Jiangyin, Jiangsu, Republic of China.

[4][5] After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the invading Japanese army attacked Jiangyin in November 1937, killing one of Wei's sisters in a bombing raid.

[4][5] In Shanghai Wei found work at a photo studio owned by He Zuomin, a photographer for the Mingxing Film Company.

[2] In 1942 Shangguan joined the Tianfeng Drama Society, where she met the playwright Yao Ke (姚克).

[4] In the post-war period, Shangguan Yunzhu played her first lead roles in Dream in Paradise directed by Tang Xiaodan and Long Live the Missus!

[2][3] After Mao Zedong's communists won the Chinese Civil War and established the People's Republic of China in 1949, Shangguan Yunzhu continued her acting career under the new government.

Two films Shangguan had appeared in, Early Spring in February and Two Stage Sisters, had been denounced as "huge poisonous weeds".