Tian Hua: "Listen to your mother's words"

From left to right: Yang Jing, Yu Lan, Tian Hua and the author of this article. (Courtesy of the author)

Author: Wang Haibin

"Listen to your mother." This is what Party member Li Yumei said. Li Yumei is not a real person in life, this is a movie role, from the movie "The Party's Daughter".

"The Daughter of the Party" is a revolutionary historical drama film produced by Changchun Film Studio, based on the novel "Party Fee" by writer Wang Yuanjian, directed by the famous director Lin Nong, starring Tian Hua, and released nationwide in 1958.

This story shows us that after the Red Army went north to resist Japan, The Peach Blossom Township of Xingguo in Jiangxi was in the midst of white terror, the party organization was destroyed by the enemy, and Li Yumei, a party member who escaped from death after being arrested, returned home and was anxious to relay the news of traitors in the party to Ma Jiahui, secretary of the district party committee. However, when she found Ma Jiahui, she was told by Ma Jiahui's wife Gui Ying that Ma Jiahui had actually defected, and when she was in danger, Gui Ying helped Li Yumei escape, but she was killed. Li Yumei went to find the Dongshan guerrillas again, and met Xiuying and Huizhen on the way. Due to the enemy blockade, their operation failed, and they decided to return to their hometown to form a party group and continue the struggle. Soon after, Xiao Cheng, a guerrilla traffic officer, was ordered to find Yumei and relay instructions from her superiors to restore the party organizations in the villages and get some salt for the guerrillas. Li Yumei immediately began to act, but was unexpectedly discovered by Ma Jiahui, who was disguised as a beggar. The next day, when Xiao Cheng came to get pickles as promised, Ma Jiahui led the white bandits to surround the village. In the midst of the crisis, Yumei, as the head of the party group, ordered Xiao Cheng to hide in the attic and not to act rashly, but to take the pickles and their membership fees with them. Her young daughter was frightened by the ferocity of the enemy and cried, and Yumei looked at the place where Xiao Cheng was hiding and said to her daughter:

"Listen to your mother, don't cry."

Xiao Cheng clearly heard this sentence, biting his lip to prevent himself from crying, he knew that this sentence was also said to him, and he knew who "mother" was referring to!

Li Yumei was captured and killed by the angry bandits. Xiao Cheng put Yumei's daughter XiaoYi in a bamboo basket, and carried the pickles at one end and the little chicks up the mountain. After the victory of the revolution, Xiao Yan and her father, Wang Jie, who had become a general, met each other, and she handed over her mother's party card to her father. Wang Jie touched the party card and said:

"Your mother is a good daughter of our party."

"Listen to your mother." This sentence was said by the old actor Tian Hua. Teacher Tian Hua is the actor of Li Yumei in the movie "Daughter of the Party". Since taking over this role, this sentence has been firmly imprinted in Tian Hua's heart.

Tian Hua, formerly known as Liu Tianhua, was born in 1928 in a poor rural family in Tang County, Hebei Province, signed up for the Anti-Enemy Drama Club at the age of 12, became a member of the children's dance team, and began to accept the training of the party and the army. You grow in the struggle, you grow in the struggle..."

At the age of 16, Tian Hua joined the party. In 1950, the movie "White Haired Girl" starring her was released, which immediately resonated with audiences across the country, and Tian Hua became a household name. In 1958, Tian Hua starred in "The Party's Daughter", and even Mao Dun, who rarely wrote film reviews at that time, made an exception to publish a review article on "About the Party's Daughter": "The image of Li Yumei created by Tian Hua is remarkable, without her performance, this film cannot give people such a deep and strong infection." Later, Tian Hua was named one of the "22 Big Movie Stars" in New China.

When she was a teenager, she watched open-air movies in the courtyard of her hometown, and more than once watched the "Daughter of the Party" starring her, and admired her endlessly.

One year, the Movie Channel held a movie-related evening party, invited Teacher Tian Hua to participate, and I went to Teacher Tian Hua's home to pick her up. When we arrived, the old man actually stood at the gate of bayi factory waiting for us, she said that the community is very large, the car will be inconvenient to drive in, so she wandered out by herself, while talking and smiling on our car. That was the first time I came into contact with Teacher Tian Hua, and I really didn't expect her to be so approachable. In the next few years, and the elderly have had many contacts, feel that she does not have a shelf at all, every time to record the program, there will be a lot of enthusiastic audience on the scene to find her group photo, as long as the program recording is not delayed, she will have everything to respond, even if she is eating, she will immediately put down the dishes and chopsticks, get up and cooperate. Later, I also went to Teacher Tian Hua's house, the decoration is simple, old photos can be seen everywhere on the wall, from art to life, the memories of each stage are collected here, and the cabinet also treasures various medals.

After playing Li Yumei, in 1959, Tian Hua was officially transferred to the Bayi Film Studio, although the honor was equal, but he did not pick and choose the role, never divided into heavy plays, the protagonist supporting roles, and successively participated in the filming of "Flower Good Moon", "Bihai Danxin", "Doctor Bethune", "Inside and Outside the Court", "Xu Mao and His Daughters" and other films. In 1990, at the age of 62, Tian Hua bid farewell to his acting career of more than 50 years and officially retired. Although there is not much filming, but the country's important commemorations and celebrations, important festivals, major performances, disaster relief charity performances and other activities, Teacher Tian Hua is obligated to participate, "called to come, can fight", she often said a word is "return art to the people":

"I have not left the times, I have not left life, I have not left the people, so my screw is not completely aged, and I will do my best to emit light and heat."

She also served as a "love ambassador" awarded by the executive committee of the "Mountain Flower Project", and almost every year she would work with young people to cross the mountains and hand over books, stationery and tuition fees to poor students.

Teacher Tian Hua's four family members later fell seriously ill one after another, and the pressure of life made her not easy, but many health product salesmen looked for her to shoot advertisements and were rejected:

"The advertising fee is quite a lot, several million at a time, but I don't take it!" Because I can't make the audience feel like the 'daughter of the party' looks to money! ”

Teacher Tian Hua said that although the filming of "The Daughter of the Party" has been more than 60 years, she has vividly remembered every day and night, every scene, every line, and all the big and small details in the film's creation, especially the three party groups in the film will make a special impression on her: the first time, Li Yumei and two female party members studied the party constitution in a cave, elected the group leader, and resolved to continue the struggle in the case of losing contact with the party organization; the second time, they held a meeting and decided to mobilize the masses to bury the remains of the revolutionary martyrs who died in the village The third time, they decided to raise pickles for the unsalted guerrillas, expressing their deep affection for the organization in the form of this special membership fee. All this made her deeply aware that every party member should always maintain a firm belief and loyalty to the party in this way, no matter what difficult circumstances:

"'Daughter of the Party' gave me honor and gave me an ageless soul. After playing "Daughter of the Party", I want to be the 'daughter of the Party', which is a heartfelt phrase that I have been saying to myself for decades. ”

"Listen to my mother," I kept in mind. At that time, when watching this movie, I still did not understand the teenager, did not understand its meaning, but knew that listening to my mother's words must be right, so despite the rebellion of youth, I have always kept in mind what my mother said, as A yardstick, as I grew older, I gradually understood the deep meaning behind this sentence, and deeply felt that the accuracy of this sentence and the far-reaching conveyance of the theme, not pretentious and undisguised, straightforward but fiery, affectionate and self-disciplined.

I know that it is not only me who remembers this sentence, but also thousands of people like Teacher Tian Hua.

Source: China Youth Daily client