Chen Xiaoxu
There is a classic poem in "Dream of the Red Chamber": "The air is opposite, and the mountains are crystal clear snow." Never forget, the lonely forest of the immortals. And this extraterrestrial immortal refers to Lin Daiyu, and "loneliness" is an overview of her life's cold and lonely destiny.
Lin Daiyu is red-faced and short-lived, and Chen Xiaoxu, who plays Daiyu, is also the same, who died of breast cancer at a young age.
At Chen Xiaoxu's memorial service, someone delivered a speech saying: "Who is the most like Cao Weng's characters?" I did not hesitate to say that it was Chen Xiaoxu. ”
People say that Chen Xiaoxu is the most evocative and suitable lin daiyu actor, perhaps because Chen Xiaoxu and Lin Daiyu have very similar personalities, both have a poetic beauty, fragility and indifference and wandering for this world.
Chen Xiaoxu's childhood
Chen Xiaoxu was born in 1965 in a family with a strong artistic atmosphere, his parents were engaged in artistic work, his father was the director of the Anshan Peking Opera Troupe, and his mother was a teacher in the Peking Opera Troupe's student class.
Chen Xiaoxu has been bathed in a strong Peking Opera atmosphere since she was a child, and his father also intends to train her to learn Peking Opera.
But Chen Xiaoxu has her own ideas, she accidentally watched a ballet tour, she fell in love with this art from the West, she begged her parents to send her to study ballet, and her parents followed her wishes.
Chen Xiaoxu began to study ballet at the age of 10, she is diligent and hardworking, hoping to grow up to study at the best local ballet school and become an excellent ballet dancer in the future.
After Chen Xiaoxu studied ballet for two years, her parents took her to a local ballet company for an interview to see if she could enter a professional ballet training school, but the teacher carefully examined Chen Xiaoxu's physical condition and shook her head in disappointment.
It turns out that ballet has extremely high requirements for physical conditions, requiring ballet dancers to have a small head, a long neck, slender limbs, and a large enough body softness.
Chen Xiaoxu was a teenager
Chen Xiaoxu's body proportions did not meet the requirements, and the teacher euphemistically said that it was difficult for her physical condition to achieve good results in the future.
Chen Xiaoxu helplessly gave up her ballet dream and returned home, perhaps because the setback encountered in her first dream chasing made her a little frustrated, and she began to immerse herself in reading literary works to comfort her soul.
She became a fan of the book, and whenever she had time, she must have gone to her father's study, and in less than three months, the books on his bookshelf had been read by her.
When her mother saw that she loved to read so much, she specially issued a reading permit for her, so that she could borrow books from the library.
Chen Xiaoxu read a wide range of books, she likes both the light and beautiful Tang poems and Song Ci, but also likes the Famous Western novels, such as "Notre Dame de Paris", "Les Misérables", such tomes, other children look sleepy, but she is immersed in it.
She has a slender and sensitive perception and a strong ability to empathize, such as when she reads the tragic experience of Esmeralda in "Notre Dame de Paris", she can't help but shed tears.
Her favorite novel is Cao Xueqin's "Dream of the Red Chamber", and her favorite character is Lin Daiyu in the Dream of the Red Chamber.
When she read that Dai Yu went to bury the flowers, she read the "Funeral Flower Yin" written by Dai Yu: Flowers and flowers are flying all over the sky, and who has pity for the red incense?
Looking at the flowers of a pot of Junzi orchid on the windowsill that had withered, she couldn't help but mourn from it, close the book, and sigh to herself.
She would copy the verses in "Dream of the Red Chamber" neatly in a notebook, read them aloud from time to time, and even began to write poems in her diary.
At the age of 14, she wrote a small poem "I am a willow": "I am a willow, grew up in the beautiful spring, because my parents abandoned me prematurely, I became a confidant with the wind." The poem was also published in a local magazine.
Later, Chen Xiaoxu entered the Anshan Acrobatic Troupe as a announcer, and soon after, she transferred to the Anshan Repertory Theatre to study acting in the Repertory Theatre.
The crew of "Dream of the Red Chamber" began to prepare for casting in 1983, and the director and producer decided to select the actors who fit the most suitable characters among ordinary people.
At that time, Chen Xiaoxu was only a drama actor in the Anshan Repertory Theatre, not famous, and she did not think of the opportunity to play Lin Daiyu at all.
However, her boyfriend at the time, Bi Yanjun, felt that she was very suitable for playing Lin Daiyu, so Bi Yanjun encouraged Chen Xiaoxu to sign up for the audition.
Chen Xiaoxu shook her head in resistance at first, she said: "There may be thousands of people who sign up, where will people choose me?" ”
Bi Yanjun constantly encouraged her, he said: "You have the same talent and melancholy temperament as Lin Daiyu, and you also know Dai Yu the best, why don't you try it?" ”
With the encouragement of her boyfriend, Chen Xiaoxu wrote a self-recommendation letter to the director group, in which he introduced his general situation, expressed his understanding of Lin Daiyu, and attached several life photos and the small poem "I am a willow flower".
The public casting of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was an explosive news at the time, and the number of people who signed up to play Lin Daiyu across the country was innumerable.
Director Wang Fulin has a thick stack of cover letters on his desk, and Chen Xiaoxu's personal conditions are not prominent among these people.
Wang Fulin
Later, Wang Fulin recalled: "At first glance at Chen Xiaoxu, I felt that she was not the most beautiful, and her acting experience was not the most abundant, but the faint sadness that she carried between her eyebrows was most easily reminiscent of Lin Daiyu." ”
Wang Fulin carefully studied the photos sent by Chen Xiaoxu, the woman in the photo slightly frowned, with a little inexplicable pity in her eyes, long black braids combed to the side, and the snow-white clothes contrasted with a classical beauty, with a weak body and slender bones.
Wang Fulin can't help but think of the description of Lin Daiyu's appearance in "Dream of the Red Chamber": two bent eyebrows that seem to be crouched, and a pair of eyes that seem to be happy or not happy.
Wang Fulin then read the small poem written by Chen Xiaoxu, and then thought of the "Tang Duoling" that Lin Daiyu had written with the theme of Liu Shu: Marrying Dongfeng Chun no matter: Rely on Er to go, endure drowning.
Although the two poems are ancient and the other is modern, the poignant and lonely mood revealed in the poems is similar.
Director Wang Fulin felt that Chen Xiaoxu and Lin Daiyu had similarities in both form and god, which was so rare, and he immediately wrote back to Chen Xiaoxu and invited her to Beijing to participate in the re-examination.
Chen Xiaoxu, who received the reply, was also very pleased, she packed her bags and immediately set off for Beijing.
On the day I met director Wang Fulin in Beijing, Dai Yu just happened to be wearing a green skirt, it was raining at the time, and on a hazy rainy day, Chen Xiaoxu, who was wearing long hair and a green dress, seemed to have a little more of Daiyu's cool temperament.
Wang Fulin was still satisfied with Chen Xiaoxu, but it was not immediately finalized, and it turned out that the drama side felt that Chen Xiaoxu was still not beautiful enough, and was worried that she could not support Lin Daiyu.
Wang Fulin and Chen Xiaoxu
At that time, the casting of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was very strict, and the crew summoned the people who passed the primary selection to Beijing, and the actors who played the same character were divided into a group, and then from each group, after many comparisons, the final actor was selected.
Chen Xiaoxu joined the Dai Yu group, which is the most competitive, after all, many people hope to get the opportunity to play Lin Daiyu. Among them are Zhang Lei, who is absolutely beautiful in appearance, and Zhang Jinglin, who is both talented and beautiful.
Zhang Lei looks amazing, has a graceful posture, and has been engaged in acting for many years, with excellent acting skills, and many people in the crew feel that Zhang Lei is very suitable to play Lin Daiyu, the first heroine of the Red Chamber.
But Wang Fulin considered that Zhang Lei's appearance was more than gorgeous, the cold was insufficient, and there was a little less sorrow for the spring and autumn, and Zhang Lei was already 26 years old at the time, and Lin Daiyu entered the fashion of Jia Province and was a fourteen or fifteen-year-old girl.
Wang Fulin felt that Zhang Lei exuded the style and beauty of a young woman, rather than the loneliness and indifference of a talented girl. So in the end, Wang Fulin asked Zhang Lei to play Qin Keqing.
Zhang Jinglin learned Peking Opera from an early age, her body is flexible, and she was born into a calligraphy family, learned calligraphy from an early age, immersed in a strong cultural atmosphere, beautiful and talented.
However, Wang Fulin considered that Zhang Jinglin's skeleton was large, his body was high, and his personality was also very refreshing and spicy, while Lin Daiyu's image was "weak willow supporting the wind" and "Jiao Hua Zhaoshui" tears, panting, and sick like Xizi.
Obviously, Zhang Jinglin's form and god are not in line with Lin Daiyu, and finally Wang Fulin asked Zhang Jinglin to play a strong, optimistic, and outspoken Qingwen.
Chen Xiaoxu became a seed player in the Daiyu group, but Wang Fulin told her that she would first participate in several years of talent and etiquette training, and if the training was not qualified, she would still change people in the middle.
Of course, Chen Xiaoxu cherished the opportunity to play Lin Daiyu, but the training process was very long and hard, and the crew had limited funds at that time, and could not provide food and accommodation for so many candidates, so at that time, the actors were required to take care of themselves during the training period, and they did not reimburse the fare if they failed.
Lin Daiyu played by Chen Xiaoxu
So at that time, the actors were afraid that they would fail to train themselves, in order to increase the probability of staying in the crew, the actors declared other roles themselves, and if this role failed, they would change one.
For example, deng jie, the actor who played Wang Xifeng, once played You Sanjie, if You Sanjie and Feng Jie could not act, she could also play Feng Jie's ya gui Ping'er, these roles have similar characteristics.
But only Chen Xiaoxu single-mindedly identified the role of Lin Daiyu, when Wang Fulin asked Chen Xiaoxu: "If you can't play Lin Daiyu, who do you plan to play?" ”
Chen Xiaoxu said firmly: "I only want to play Lin Daiyu, if you let me play another role, the audience will say that you let Lin Daiyu play someone else." ”
The firmness and persistence in Chen Xiaoxu's eyes greatly moved Wang Fulin, and she felt that the girl in front of her really had a bit of Lin Daiyu's arrogance.
The reason why Chen Xiaoxu is so obsessed with Lin Daiyu is also because during the training, she re-read "Dream of the Red Chamber" several times, and she feels that she understands Lin Daiyu better.
Chen Xiaoxu can understand Lin Daiyu's sadness of losing her mother at an early age and leaving home alone, her caution in the family of Nuoda, and her worries and sentimentalities.
Because she understood, she loved, loved the role, and even felt that playing this role had become a mission of her own.
In the end, Chen Xiaoxu successfully became the actor of Lin Daiyu, and although her acting experience was not rich enough, she directly regarded herself as Lin Daiyu to experience everything Lin Daiyu experienced.
For example, in the play, Lin Daiyu has been weak and sickly since childhood, and her body is thin, chen Xiaoxu deliberately controls her diet in order to convey Lin Daiyu's kind of pathology and weakness, and her weight has been controlled at 80 pounds.
Lin Daiyu, played by Chen Xiaoxu
In the play, Lin Daiyu wept and shed tears, and the legend says that Lin Daiyu was originally the heavenly daisy immortal grass, and the divine attendant watered to survive, so she came down to repay the favor, and when her tears ran out, it was also the day when the retribution ended.
Every time she filmed the scene of Lin Daiyu crying, Chen Xiaoxu always brewed a good time, and when she could fully appreciate Daiyu's state of mind at that time, every tear she fell appeared real.
When filming the scene of Daiyu's funeral flowers, it was in Suzhou in March, the crew bought many flowers floating on the lake, the weather was cold, the flowers soon withered, Chen Xiaoxu wore a gauze coat and was frozen pale.
Halfway through the filming, the sudden prop failure, Chen Xiaoxu suddenly lost control of his emotions at this time, cried loudly, sobbed and rippled, his shoulders trembled unceasingly, while the photographer on the side quickly turned on the camera to record this moment, and the final effect was also very moving.
Perhaps at the moment when Chen Xiaoxu burst into tears, she had already become one with Lin Daiyu.
As soon as the filming of "Dream of the Red Chamber" was completed, it caused a sensation, thousands of people were empty, and the main actors of the Dream of the Red Chamber also became famous overnight, and the fire spread all over the country.
Chen Xiaoxu's image of "Sister Lin" is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people, but this also invisibly restricts her future drama path, and she later plays Cousin Mei in "Family Spring and Autumn", which is also a tragic character, still with the shadow of Lin Daiyu.
Chen Xiaoxu (right)
Perhaps people have identified her as Sister Lin, and her other roles cannot resonate with people, so her interpretation road has not been new.
At that time, Chen Xiaoxu also encountered emotional problems, she and her boyfriend Bi Yanjun were originally married after the filming of "Dream of the Red Chamber", but after three or four years of marriage, the contradictions between the two were highlighted, and finally agreed to divorce.
Soon after the divorce, Chen Xiaoxu met Hao Tong, a student of photography at the Beijing Film Academy, who invited her to work as a model to shoot her graduation work, and the two slowly warmed up their feelings in getting along, and finally came together.
Later, Hao Tong decided to set up an advertising company to invite Chen Xiaoxu to join him, and Chen Xiaoxu also wanted to change the road and change his mood.
At that time, the advertising industry was in the cusp of the storm, coupled with the publicity brought by Chen Xiaoxu's star effect, the advertising company of the two became more and more popular, and Chen Xiaoxu also won the honor of 30 outstanding female advertisers in China.
Chen Xiaoxu can act and do business, which shows how intelligent and sharp she is, but in the later stage, her advertising company has become bigger and bigger, and the media hope to see her stand for the company in Lin Daiyu's costume, which will surely attract more attention.
Chen Xiaoxu and Hao Tong
But Chen Xiaoxu refused, and she even deliberately avoided mentioning Lin Daiyu in the interview later, which of course is not that she does not love the role of Lin Daiyu, but that she does not want to use Lin Daiyu to win attention.
Chen Xiaoxu is also like Lin Daiyu at this point, Bingxue is smart but disdainful of flattering the world, knowing the world but tired of the world.
But I don't know if it was a deliberate trick of fate, Chen Xiaoxu actually embarked on a similar ending to Lin Daiyu, prematurely destroying the jade and leaving the hated sky.
It was 2006, and Chen Xiaoxu, who was at the peak of her career, was diagnosed with breast cancer, when doctors suggested that she immediately undergo surgery for chemotherapy, and maybe there was a possibility of a cure.
But perhaps Because Ms. Chen felt that removing her breasts was too terrible, she refused surgery or chemotherapy, saying she preferred to die.
The family did not understand Chen Xiaoxu's choice, but she was too persistent, perhaps, in her opinion, her life was like a brilliant summer flower, she would rather wither in the sun and retain the beauty until the last moment, rather than exchange a mutilated appearance for the opportunity to survive.
On the sixth day of the Lunar New Year in 2007, Chen Xiaoxu decided to shave her head and become a monk, perhaps because the ups and downs in her life made her feel the nothingness of life, and she could only get her strength from faith.
And her husband, Hao Tong, also decided to follow her out of the family.
Chen Xiaoxu shaved
Chen Xiaoxu was ordained at the Hundred Kingdoms Xinglong Temple, and the legal name is Miaozhen, and this legal number is also reminiscent of Miaoyu in "Dream of the Red Chamber", and Miaoyu's personality is also very similar to Lin Daiyu, which can't help but make people wonder whether fate really has its own arrangement in the underworld.
On May 13 of the same year, Chen Xiaoxu died in Shenzhen at the age of 41 due to his deteriorating condition.
At the burial ceremony of Chen Xiaoxu's ashes, many actors of "Dream of the Red Chamber" attended and deeply mourned Chen Xiaoxu's departure.
Burial ceremony of Chen Xiaoxu's ashes
However, Jia Baoyu's actor Ouyang Fenqiang was unable to come to bid farewell to Chen Xiaoxu because of a temporary emergency, which inevitably reminds people of the end of "Dream of the Red Chamber", and Dai Yu did not see the last side of Bao Yu when he died.
At the burial site, there were many flowers, countless white roses, yellow chrysanthemums, lilies, cornflower geraniums decorated Chen Xiaoxu's tomb into a sea of flowers, in the cluster of flowers, she should not be alone.
Chen Xiaoxu and Lin Daiyu have been integrated, and at the scene, people have made her appearance in "Dream of the Red Chamber" into a marble sculpture, standing in front of her grave, greeting countless fans who have come to mourn her.
Next to the sculpture, there is an inscription by the famous red scholar Feng Qiyong: "The blue sea sinks into a comet, and the long sky crosses the mid-air light; for the Jun," he left the shape and sound, thank you for the love of Daizhu." ”
There is no more Chen Xiaoxu in the world, but the image of Lin Daiyu, played by her, will always remain in people's hearts.
Chen Xiaoxu's grave