In 1922, Zhang and his old partner Zheng Zhengqiu, together with Zhou Jianyun (周剑云), Zheng Zhegu (郑鹧鸪), and Ren Jinping (任矜萍), founded the Mingxing (Star) Film Company [REF].
In the early 1930s, Japan's invasion of Manchuria and attack of Shanghai produced a sense of national crisis in China.