What is a "celebrity"?
In the 1930s, the term generally referred to women from well-known backgrounds who frequented fashionable social establishments.
Now, the term refers to a wider range of people, including famous or wealthy people in the fashion industry, celebrities, as well as returned rich people or returned children, and of course, women who earn a certain status by their own efforts.
In layman's terms, the so-called "celebrities" actually refer to those women who live in high society!
Among the "famous ladies" in the old days, the most typical is the "Three Sisters of the Song Family", all of whom have the talent of Wang Zuo.
In addition, there are the famous female writer Zhang Ailing, the pioneer of women's education Lu Bicheng, the modern Chinese architect Lin Huiyin, and of course, the protagonist of our article, Yan Renmei, the "last famous lady on the beach".
In each of them, there is a charm that cannot be ignored.
In this article, let's talk about the legend of Yan Renmei!
Born into a prominent family
Yan Renmei was born in Shanghai in 1915. He is now 106 years old, but he still lives an elegant and natural life.
To say that Yan Renmei is a famous woman is not an exaggeration, because her ancestors are indeed aristocratic and wealthy merchants in modern China.
Yan Renmei's great-grandfather 'Yan Xinhou' was an aide to Li Hongzhang, a famous minister in the late Qing Dynasty, who was appointed by Li Hongzhang to serve as the governor of Changlu Salt, and in only 10 years, he gathered a lot of wealth.
After that, Yan Xinhou successively founded "Yuanfengrun Ticket Number", "Tongjiuyuan Spinning and Weaving Layout", "Cixi Match Factory" and other industries.
In 1897, Yan Xinhou also initiated the creation of China's first national capital bank, the China Commerce and Commerce Bank, with him as the general manager.
For decades, Yan Xinhou has successfully transformed the Ningbo Shanggang from a traditional Shanggang to a modern entrepreneurial group by establishing a series of industries, and because of this, Yan Xinhou is also known as the "founding father" of the Ningbo Gang.
In addition to Yan Xinhou, Yan Renmei's grandfather , Yan Zijun ' , was also a remarkable figure.
Yan Zijun is the only son of Yan Xinhou! After Yan Xinhou's death, Yan Zijunzi inherited his father's business, continued to do business, and successively opened two money houses in Shanghai, Yuanji and Deyuan, and also undertook the "Yuantong Customs Official Bank", which was called "multi-talented and good, quite fatherly." ”
In the first year of Xuan reunification, Yan Zijun was elected as the fifth associate of the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce, and soon after he served as the assistant of Shanghai Longzhang Machine and Paper Company and the director of the Shanghai Mainland Waterworks Company.
It is worth mentioning that due to Yan Zijun's outstanding merits, he was also named a member of the "Ministry of Agriculture, Industry and Commerce" by the Qing government.
In this way, the Yan family has become a veritable "official and business household"!
Yan Renmei's father, 'Yan Zhiduo', was the eldest grandson of Yan's parents, and his wife was Liu Chengyi, the granddaughter of Liu Yong, the head of Nanxun's "Four Elephants".
Here we explain that in Nanxun, there is a saying of "four elephants, eight cattle and seventy-two pier dogs". These words are used as a metaphor for the wealthy merchant. Among them, "elephant" refers to wealthy merchants with assets of more than one million.
The "four elephants" refer to the four families with assets of more than one million at that time, namely, the Liu family headed by Liu Yong, the Zhang family headed by Zhang Songxian, the Pang family headed by Pang Yunjun, and the Gu family headed by Gu Fuchang.
In the 1930s, there was still a folk song circulating in the Nanxun area: "The silver of the Liu family, the talent of the Zhang family, the face of the Pang family, and the house of the Gu family." ”
As the head of the "Four Elephants", Liu Yong was not an ordinary person, he was a famous industrialist in the late Qing Dynasty. In the early years, he worked as an apprentice in Mian silk village, and after he came out to do it alone, he successively worked in silk, docks, real estate, reclamation and other industries.
It is said that Liu Yong's assets amounted to more than 20 million taels of silver. Because of its huge assets, it is also known as the "silver of the Liu family" in the "four elephants".
Yan Renmei's grandfather was Liu Yong's third son and a wealthy Shanghai real estate merchant 'Liu Tiqing'.
So you see, the combination of Yan Zhiduo and Liu Yong's granddaughter Liu Chengyi is undoubtedly a real "strong combination". After Yan Zhiduo married Liu Chengyi, the first child he gave birth to was Yan Renmei.
Although Yan Renmei came from a prominent family, her fate was not very good!
Fate is uncertain
Yan Renmei was a "premature baby" whose mother gave birth to her only eight months pregnant. Strangely, when Yan Renmei was born, she did not have hair on her head.
Normally, newborns have hair and are very soft and delicate, but she was born without hair, which upset her mother.
To this end, Yan Renmei's grandfather Yan Zijun also named him "Renmei", hoping that she would grow up and become more beautiful.
However, before Yan Renmei was two years old, she still had no hair on her head.
To this end, her mother went around seeking medical advice, and even used a lot of "folk remedies", but the effect was not obvious.
When Yan Renmei was two years old, a relative who worked as a pediatrician took her to the Uk for treatment, and after several recuperation treatments, by the time Yan Renmei returned home, she was already hairy.
When Yan Renmei was 6 years old, her mother died of illness, and she lived with her wife. At the age of seven or eight, because her stepmother's aunt served as the principal of The Qixiu Girls' School, she entered the school and later transferred to the "Chinese and Western Girls' High School".
"Chinese and Western Girls' High School" is a famous aristocratic girls' school in modern Shanghai, and the famous "Three Sisters of the Song Family" in the Republic of China period have successively studied in this school.
Yan Renmei's grade has only 90 people in total, and she has met seven young ladies of the rich and prestigious family in the school, including Zhang Shouyong, vice minister of the Ministry of Finance of the Republic of China, Zhang Hanfen of Qianjin, and Huang Chujiu's Qianjin Huang Huibao.
However, Yan Renmei's academic career will be temporarily announced with a "runaway marriage" incident in the family.
At that time, Yan Renmei had just finished the second year of junior high school, and there was a runaway marriage incident in the family, which had a self-evident impact on the famous Yan family.
Through this incident, Yan Renmei's father, Yan Zhiduo, deeply realized that the reason why such a thing occurred was because of letting the girl study, so he did not allow Yan Renmei to go to school again.
At that time, although it was already the Republic of China, many people's thinking was still stuck in the feudal society period, believing that women should be "three from four virtues".
The best way to make women really achieve the so-called "three from four virtues" is to prevent them from receiving education, especially advanced education.
But at this time, Yan Renmei was already shrouded in progressive thoughts, so she did not listen to her father's arrangement and insisted on going to school.
In the end, her father had no choice but to give her a problem, hoping to make her give up her studies. Her father said: "As long as you have scored more than ninety in every subject, you can continue to go to school, and if you can't pass the test, then you must be obedient." ”
In order to continue her studies, Yan Renmei studied very seriously and diligently. In the third year of junior high school graduation examination, she also took the first place in the whole grade.
However, despite this, her father still did not want her to continue her studies, on the grounds that she had grown up and should be allowed to marry someone.
In 1929, at the wedding of Yan Renmei's sixth sister, the Ma family in Suzhou took a fancy to Yan Renmei and intended to marry her as a daughter-in-law.
This Ma family was also a large family at that time, and its family was rich in zhuang, pawnshop, rice shop, etc., and the family was rich and wealthy.
After the Ma family took a fancy to Yan Renmei, they immediately sent someone to come to the door to propose to them, and said that no matter what conditions the Yan family offered, they would agree.
Of course, there are three main reasons why the Ma family wants to marry Yan Renmei:
First, Yan Renmei is indeed very beautiful, although she is only 15 years old at this time, but her figure and appearance are outstanding, and she has received advanced ideological education.
Second, at that time, the wife of the Ma family was seriously ill and urgently needed a happy event to "rush the joy".
Third, the Yan family's status in Shanghai is very high, the reputation is prominent, and it is undoubtedly beneficial and harmless to be able to marry such a rich nobleman. Of course, the Yan family thought the same thing.
Therefore, when the Ma family came to propose to them, Yan Renmei's father did not hesitate to agree.
However, Yan Renmei herself did not agree to the marriage, and she vigorously resisted, even protesting by hunger strike, but not only did not win her father's sympathy, but was locked up at home and not allowed to go to school.
Anger coupled with hunger strike, within a few days, Yan Renmei fell ill, the doctor said that it was lung disease, the situation is not optimistic.
Yan Renmei's grandfather Liu Tiqing had already moved from Shanghai to live in Hangzhou at that time, and after hearing the news, he hurriedly took Yan Renmei to Hangzhou for convalescence, and also built a glass room for her on the roof to bask in the sun for Yan Renmei.
I have to admit that this kind of treatment is really enviable.
An emotional life of ups and downs
After a year in Hangzhou, Yan Renmei's physical condition gradually improved, but at this time, Yan Renmei's father still wanted her to marry the Ma family.
Yan Renmei had no choice but to obey her father's arrangement, but she put forward a condition: it was okay to marry, but she would continue to go to school.
In this way, Yan Renmei, who was only 16 years old, married into the Ma family! After the marriage, Mrs. Ma's illness really improved, and I don't know if it was Because of Chong Xi.
A year later, Yan Renmei became pregnant and could no longer go to school, but this could not stop her from studying, and her husband hired a British teacher for her to learn English and social etiquette at home.
Although the Ma family has been in business for many years, it is still an old-fashioned family in essence, and Yan Renmei is a "young man of the new era" who has received progressive ideological education, so after marriage, the couple seems to be out of place in terms of ideological concepts and living habits.
Yan Renmei's husband is handsome and handsome, but he was born into a rich family since childhood, he lacks social experience, so he made some bad friends in the Shili Yangchang and spent all day drinking, causing Yan Renmei's extreme dissatisfaction.
At this time, Yan Renmei had already moved the idea of divorcing her husband, but because of the family relationship, she could not make this decision.
Finally, because she really couldn't stand some of her husband's vices, with the support of her friend Kong Lingyi and others, Yan Renmei resolutely filed for divorce from her husband.
On the eve of the outbreak of the Pacific War in 1941, Yan Renmei's mother, Sheng Guanyi (Sheng Xuanhuai's fifth daughter), left Shanghai, and the house at No. 15 Xinkang Garden where she lived was empty.
Yan Renmei liked it very much, so she asked someone to renovate it and then lived in it.
At that time, the japanese power in the concession was expanding, and some senior Japanese military and political officials ran to high-end residential areas to find houses.
During this time, a Japanese officer named 'Yamamoto' met Yan Renmei by chance when he went to see the house in Shinyasu Garden and fell in love with her at first sight.
In order to gain the hearts of beauties, Yamamoto often runs to harass Yan Renmei on the pretext of renting a house. Despite Yan Renmei's repeated refusals, Yamamoto never gave up.
Later, Yamamoto even sent a traitor to Yan Ren, saying that Yamamoto was a high official and had not yet married, and that he would not suffer a loss by marrying him.
Yan Renmei was frightened by the ugly face of the Japanese, and she hurriedly packed her bags and left the Xinkang Garden and returned to the Yan family.
But did Yamamoto give up? No, wherever Yan Renmei went, Yamamoto's people followed like a dog skin plaster. And it was not only Yan Renmei who was uncomfortable, but also her relatives and friends who were also scared.
Just when Yan Renmei was "hiding" everywhere, Kong Lingyi, who was in Chongqing, brought a letter to Yan Renmei to ask her to go to Chongqing, and had already done all the formalities for her.
After receiving the letter, Yan Renmei was very excited and thought: Now we can finally get rid of this annoying Japanese.
But when it was time to leave, the Ma family did not agree to Yan Renmei taking the child away. She was reluctant to have children, so she had to stay in Shanghai.
But if they stay, the Japanese will come to pester, how can this be good? Just when Yan Renmei hesitated, her father and uncles thought of a way to get married.
The best way to avoid harassment by the Japanese is to find someone to marry again!
Soon, the family introduced Yan Renmei to the 'Li Zumin' of the Li family in Ningbo Xiaogang.
This Li Zumin, the sixth elder of the li family's four rooms, graduated from the economics department of Guanghua University in his early years, his literary quality is polite, his temperament is extraordinary, he is also the owner of a match factory, and more importantly, he has not been married before.
After the two met, they talked very happily, and both sides were very satisfied! In order to prevent accidents, only three months after the two met, they hurriedly held the wedding, a typical "flash marriage".
On the wedding day, in order to avoid japanese people coming to make trouble, Li Zumin also specially arranged more than a dozen bodyguards at the wedding.
Judging from their wedding photos, they did not have groomsmen and bridesmaids when they got married, only about 10 bodyguards, which seemed to have a different meaning.
After the two got married, the Japanese did not come to harass them.
Life after the founding of the Country
For the custody of her children, Yan Renmei had fought several lawsuits with the Ma family before the founding of the People's Republic of China, but all of them ended in failure, and after several operations, she only obtained the right to visit the children.
After the founding of New China, Yan Renmei sued again, and under the just judgment of the people's government, Yan Renmei finally obtained the custody of the child.
During the War to Resist US Aggression and Aid Korea in 1951, Yan Renmei not only took the lead in donating money and materials, but also used his connections to mobilize the families of major industrial and commercial households to donate together.
Because of his excellent work, he was also elected as the first people's representative of Xuhui District in Shanghai.
In the 1980s, they were finally able to go overseas, but Yan Renmei and his wife still did not forget to contact patriotic overseas Chinese and strive for overseas investment for the mainland.
Later, Yan Renmei and his wife also went to Hawaii to visit the young marshals Zhang Xueliang and Zhao Yidi, and went to Washington to visit General Cai Wenzhi.
At the end of the last century, Li Zumin, who had been with Yan Renmei for more than fifty years, died of illness, and a few years later, her youngest daughter also died. At this time, Yan Renmei was already more than 80 years old.
Today's Yan Renmei, although she is 106 years old, her life is still elegant and comfortable. However, at such an advanced age, she has also become a veritable -- "the last famous lady on the beach".