Qiu Shuzhen's beauty, Maggie Cheung's beauty, Li Jiaxin's beauty, close your eyes, your mind is a piece of beautiful spring light formed by Miss Hong Kong's eyes and legs, and your heart is relaxed.
This beautiful beginning began in 1946. At that time, Hong Kong had just re-entered the hands of the British, and after the war, the people urgently needed a kind of entertainment that could be participated by the whole people to inspire the people. The Miss Hong Kong beauty pageant can unite people's hearts and minds through charity, and the novelty form of swimsuit campaigning belongs to a category of bold innovation, which is simply beneficial and harmless, so the time and place are favorable, and naturally occur.
Group photo of the candidates for the inaugural Miss Hong Kong campaign
On June 23 of that year, the Miss Hong Kong election was held for the first time, and the initiator was Li Jufa, a Hong Kong journalist from Shanghai, known as "Hong Kong Du Yuesheng", and the beauty pageant was held at his North Point Retiro Garden Nightclub. That night, Li Lan, a 23-year-old girl with mediocre qualifications, won the crown. Li Lan's ordinary also played a good role in throwing bricks and jade, and made a good start for the enthusiastic participation of the girls in the next few sessions. This box is busy with the whole people repairing and cheering, spending a good full moon, in fact, there is no idle over there.
The first "Miss Hong Kong" champion Li Lan filmed the turtle cream advertisement
On June 26, three days after the inaugural election of Miss Hong Kong, Chiang Kai-shek tore up the armistice and besieged the Liberated Areas of the Central Plains with 300,000 troops, and a full-scale civil war broke out.
The north is in full swing, and at about the same time, Shanghai is brewing a "Miss Shanghai" beauty pageant. Also swimwear to compete, but also to boudoir celebrities, but also to charity as a card, pomp and circumstance can not be inferior to Hong Kong over there.
The idea was conceived by Du Yuesheng, the "big man of the Green Gang", in order to relieve the refugees who fled from the floods in northern Jiangsu. At that time, he did not know that there would be a bigger and more barbaric flood in the Jianghuai Plain a year later, nor did he know that the end would eventually be after the outbreak of the civil war, and he did not know that this year was the sixth to last year of his life.
Du Yuesheng
Ah wrong, it should be this one:
What Du Yuesheng could see at that time was that after the summer rain was incessant, the water suddenly arrived, and the Yellow River Old Road in Xuzhou City rushed wildly, and the horizontal line was five meters above the ground in the city. The flood washed away the embankment, merged with Huaihuang and Huaihuang, and affected the area around Xuhai and Huaiyang. By August, many parts of the Jianghuai Plain had been able to sail flat. Three million victims in northern Jiangsu were displaced and fled, hundreds of thousands of them pouring into Shanghai.
Disaster relief is imminent. Disaster relief requires money.
There is nothing more convenient than getting the masses to flock to it and willingly pay for good.
So one day, a number of newspapers and periodicals in Shanghai have published propaganda, the first "Miss Shanghai" in the form of free registration, the official election is scheduled to be held on August 15, the new Xianlin Ballroom, the election vote of 5,000 yuan, will be used for relief of disaster victims in northern Jiangsu (do you also think the bridge section is a bit familiar?). Let the Bullets Fly? I haven't seen it... What kind of movie is that? ）
The "Miss Shanghai" election was publicized in the "Declaration"
At that time, Shanghai, there was already an annual Qinglou women's circle "Flower Country Presidential Election" and the 1929 celebrity "Women's Beauty Contest" (due to the vote cheating scandal and was not held again), the public to deal with the psychological activities of the beauty pageant basically formed a cute appreciation, this time to hear the beauty pageant welcome the daughter of a clean white family to register, and the groundbreaking use of swimsuit style campaign, really frightened.
But after all, the pageant was still grand and lively.
Rub hot advertising A
Rub hot ad B
Rub hot ad C
At that time, nineteen-year-old Xie Jiahua probably had a vague premonition that she would eventually become one of the bright lights and mercury. She probably also understands that a little fireworks will eventually go out.
But isn't it such a short period of time that life can be bet on?
The optional form has been held in the hand, designed by the "Relief association for the Relief of Refugees in Northern Jiangsu", the content that needs to be filled in includes name, age, place of origin, service office, communication office and telephone, length, weight, specialty, all pen or brush filled in, as long as the latest four and a half inches of photo is attached, send it.
Xie Jiahua's ancestral home is Meixian County, Guangdong Province, and his father Xie Xiaochu was the general manager of Nanyang Commercial Bank, born beautiful, well-off, easy to communicate, and able to afford the word "famous lady". She also went to the name of "Miss Shanghai".
Xie Jiahua ran for "Miss Shanghai" for an interview
In August, the election of the New Xianlin Metropolitan Ballroom was divided into five groups, the celebrity group elected "Miss Shanghai"; the dance star group chose a "dance star queen"; the singer group selected a "singer queen"; the movie star group selected "movie star queen" one; and the flat crew chose a "ping opera queen". They are all dazzling names, but "Miss Shanghai" is naturally the most eye-catching of the five. Everyone loves to see the moment when the daughter of another family stands in the middle of the dance floor in a swimsuit and wants to cover her thighs and barely have to laugh, it is a subtle erotic feeling, which makes people can't help but be happy, and it is the sense of acquisition of "little lotus only shows its sharp corners".
Perhaps because of this, there were not many people who should be selected for Miss Shanghai at first, and Du Yuesheng made a mobilization, and then the number gradually increased. The Declaration produced the "Miss Shanghai Contest Special Issue", and the editor's note was an article called "Dedicated to the Brave".
"Declaration" published the "Joint Declaration on miss Shanghai candidates"
The "Declaration" also deliberately published a large "Joint Declaration on Miss Shanghai's Candidates" in a prominent position, which wrote: "Human beings should love each other and help each other, because they are human beings, they have the right to survive." The tragic refugees, the people have the obligation to save them... Our aim is disaster relief. We hope that people in the community will donate more money to help the refugees in northern Jiangsu, and as for who will be elected, this is not what we aspire to... The strength of our very few people knows that it is very small, and for this disaster relief work, we hope that the sisters who are enthusiastic about charity in Shanghai will come together to do good deeds."
Before the election, a total of thirty-six people participated in the "Miss Shanghai" campaign, according to newspaper reports, among which Miss Xie Jiahua "had the most powerful activities", and as of the eve of the election, 25 million yuan had been raised through votes.
That night finally arrived.
New Xianlin Ballroom
Writer Wang Anyi's novel "Long Hate Song" set in "Miss Shanghai" describes it this way: "On this night, even the stars in the sky have become carnations, and they are also spreading their customs to the world." The lights in front of the new Xianlin gate are foggy, and the carnations in the hall are also foggy, and they come out, gathering a layer of clouds, and the flash of the news reporter is the thunder and lightning in the clouds, and in an instant, it causes a storm. This prosperity is the afterglow of forty years, forty years of dreams."
The results were somewhat unexpected. Miss Xie Jiahua, who originally had the highest voice, finally won the second place, and the champion was won by the second aunt of the Sichuan warlord Fan Shaozeng, Wang Yunmei. Judging from the newspaper, Wang Yunmei's appearance is not good, so it is understandable that people ridicule "'Miss Shanghai' finally elected 'Shanghai Wife'".
Winner of the first "Miss Shanghai" 1st, 2nd and 3rd places
Although the champion was not won, the beautiful girl Xie Jiahua, who was the runner-up of "Miss Shanghai", also earned enough exposure, and just a few months later, the news of her flash marriage with the wealthy businessman Rong Meixin broke.
The year 1946 was a turning point in Miss Xie's fate. She transformed from a comfortable social girl to a modern woman who attracted the attention of the public, and quickly married into a rich family in order to seek perpetuity. But at the same time, she also found that once the door of the golden wire cage was closed, it was difficult to find freedom.
The next year's gossip was lively enough, and the big and small gossip newspapers and periodicals quickly published various anecdotes about Xie Jiahua, who was abused, grounded, expected to get married, reconciled, and earned enough eyeballs. This year, Xie Jiahua gave birth to a child and flew quietly to Hong Kong.
Xie Jiahua starred in the movie poster of "Full of Wind and Rain"
In Hong Kong, Xie Jiahua finally got his wish into the film industry, first filmed "Full of Storms", the actress was Li Lan, if you remember this name, Li Lan was the first Miss Hong Kong champion.
After that, Xie Jiahua made some films and works intermittently, all of which were well received. And her marriage contradictions and entanglements with Rong Meixin have repeatedly become the favorite topic of newspapers and magazines, and all kinds of suspicion and gossip continued until 1972, when Xie Jiahua died in the hotel, still feeding the media for a long time with his sudden death. That year, Xie Jiahua was only forty-five years old.
The runner-up of the first "Miss Shanghai" and the winner of the first "Miss Hong Kong" are in the show
Xie Jiahua's story is just a nameless moment in the torrent of history, a small droplet accidentally picked up by the little fingertip of history, all of which are silent and nameless things. After 1946, Shanghai did not launch the election of "Miss Shanghai". Because many events have occurred one after another, people have no chance to rest and breathe.
A year later, the northern Jiangsu region again heavy rain, the length of the rain period, the amount of rain, the history is rare, the broken earth dam blocked the flood into the sea to go, the authorities indulged in the war, no time to take care of the demolition of dams and bridges, and finally 17 counties and cities in northern Jiangsu were submerged in water. Two more years later, the civil war ended. Du Yuesheng went to Hong Kong that year, and Li Zhifa, who had a deep relationship with him, had been waiting there for a long time. Two years later, Du Yuesheng died of illness in Hong Kong at the age of 63.
A poster, meaningless, don't think about it
The rest of the story, you all already know.
When you read some idle autobiographies of the older generation, you may vaguely read these big things, or read only a few words to remember the small things of Miss Shanghai, all fragmented, discontinuous, and speculative. Only seventy years have passed, And Sister Hong Kong is still choosing every year, while Miss Shanghai's flower has only opened once.
Take a walk and see
Shanghai New Xianlin Ballroom: The venue of the first "Miss Shanghai" campaign, now Jiangning Road is near Nanjing West Road. Today, two large shopping malls stand opposite each other: Meron Town and CITIC Pacific, and the two most famous dance halls on both sides of the road at that time were: New Xianlin and Metropolis. At that time, The New Xianlin, Metropolis, Paramount and Ciros were collectively known as the four major dance halls in Shanghai.
Hong Kong Retiro Garden Nightclub: The first "Miss Hong Kong" contest venue (923 King's Road), which was called the three major nightclubs in Hong Kong along with Hong Kong's "Guangzhou Restaurant" and "Paramount" in Central. Part of the original site has been converted into The Retiro Garden Building and The Golden Boat Building, and the original appearance is no longer visible.
Recommended novel: Wang Anyi's "Long Hate Song"
Recommended movie: "Long Hate Song" directed by Guan Jinpeng
Come all come, why not take another look? Stay tuned to the WeChat public account downtownstory