Old Shanghai was a city of contrasts. It was a place where anything was possible, a place of opportunity—where a homeless hoodlum could run a city, and an orphan girl could become a starlet—but also a city of brutal urban depravity. Much like Big-Eared Du, singer and actress Zhou Xuan knew both of these worlds.

Zhou Xuan—singer, actress, and China’s first true gramophone celebrity—was the “Golden Voice” (金嗓子jīn sǎngzi) of Old Shanghai. Her legendary beauty and on-screen charisma delivered starring roles in 43 films, and her breathy, sensuous, yet girly singing can be heard in over 200 songs. She was the Chinese Marilyn Monroe. But, like so many celebrities, her off-screen life—out of the public gaze—was far less glamorous.

Zhou was born Su Pu in 1918, and orphaned at the tender age of three. Life on the streets was rough, so she found a home in a brothel, where she was groomed to enter a life of prostitution. But before that happened, a family found her, was charmed—as the rest of China soon would be—and adopted her away from the cruel life it could have been.

Even as a child, she sang beautifully, entering competitions and quickly winning acclaim. But her old persona had to be shed; at the age of 13, in line with the exploding patriotic verve that was taking over the nation, Su reinvented herself with a name cribbed from the popular resistance anthem, “zhou xuan yu sha chang zhi shang” (fighting the enemy on the battlefield). Su Pu was reborn as Zhou Xuan, “fight the enemy.”

Her pop songs were a hit, and played on radios across Shanghai. Listening to them today, like “Wandering Singer” (天涯歌女 Tiānyá Gēnǚ), “When Will You Come Back” (何日君再来 Hérì Jūn Zài Lái) or “Shanghai at Night” (夜上海 Yè Shànghǎi), it’s hard not to envision wooden birdcages, giggling girls in qipaos, and slick gangsters in long black scarves. When Zhou tried her hand at acting, it turned out she was good at that too; audiences loved her. Singing her own songs in the lead role of the 1937 film Street Angel, she became a superstar.

But it wasn’t all roses for the Golden Voice. Zhou was emotionally troubled, and prone to bouts of depression. She married twice, to a composer and a businessman, but both fell apart. She miscarried once, and raised the businessman’s son on her own. This all took its toll on her mental health, which tumbled.

By her 30s, Zhou was an idol, a diva, and a complete emotional wreck. She lived in and out of psychiatric institutions, and never fully recovered. After suffering one especially brutal nervous breakdown, she passed away in Shanghai in 1957. She was just 39 years old.