The famous tenor Li Guangxi commented on Yu Shuzhen, a friend he had befriended for more than sixty years before his death:
"Be honest and honest, and take the profession seriously."
Just like this, an old artist with both virtue and art, the pension can not be spent, and the friends are also at the top of the survival chain of the singing world, but in his old age, he lived in a nursing home with his wife.
They all say you look at me small and raise you old.
Yu Shuzhen performed in other places for many years before retiring, became a national first-class actor, earned a strong "background" for a pair of children, and her wife was willing to be unknown in the unit in order to take care of her two children.
Such parents can't say full marks, how can there be ninety points.
And her son and daughter are running through their own lives, unable to take care of their parents, throwing them into a nursing home and making them miserable at night?
01
In 1936, in a rural area in Dongguang County, Hebei Province, Yu Shuzhen was born, she was the eldest of the family, although the society was not peaceful at that time, but as the eldest daughter of the family, Yu Shuzhen was still very happy.
But the good times were not long, in the era of no family planning, Yu Shuzhen's parents gave birth to 8 younger siblings for her, and she suddenly changed from "the eldest princess" to "the eldest sister is like a mother".
At a young age, she began to lead her younger siblings to dig wild vegetables in the mountains and catch small fish and shrimp in the river.
At the age of 8, her overworked mother died.
Seeing the 9 children waiting to be fed, Yu Father made a mistake, and he had to farm to support his family and take care of his children, and he couldn't take care of a person with ten pairs of hands.
Therefore, he found a stepmother for Yu Shuzhen.
The stepmother was very good, not only pulling Yu Shuzhen's sisters and brothers up, but also teaching them to read and hyphenate.
In 1949, Yu Shuzhen's family moved to Tianjin.
The family's economic conditions were not good, Yu Shuzhen only went to school for one year to enter the factory to do odd jobs, and later she was hired by Tianjin Zhongda Chemical Instrument Factory, where she learned to make chemical instruments.
Yu Shuzhen liked to sing, and at that time, it could not be said that she was a dream, but could only be said to cultivate a hobby to pass her spare time.
Therefore, she works during the day, goes to night school at night, and when she has time, she goes to the singing class of the Tianjin Cultural Center to learn to sing.
In 1955, Tianjin held a literary and artistic performance for employees, and Yu Shuzhen, who had studied vocal music for a while, was eager to try it. Ben wanted to focus on participation, but she actually won the first place.
Aside from the excitement of a few days after winning the award, first place didn't make much of a difference in her life.
However, whenever there is a performance in the factory, she will come out and sing a few songs.
Once, the Tianjin Art Museum gave a demonstration performance to the peasants, and the leaders of the Tianjin Opera House also came to watch the performance, but unexpectedly, as soon as Yu Shuzhen opened her voice, she was taken in by the leaders who came to see the performance.
Until a year later, a young man surnamed Yan came to her with a transfer order and told her:
"Comrade Yu Shuzhen, you have been admitted to the Tianjin Song and Dance Theater, you pack up your things and report with me."
In this way, Yu Shuzhen, who is only 20 years old, achieved the first gorgeous turn in her life.
After arriving at the song and dance troupe, she first sang with the team, and slowly, her voice and singing skills were appreciated by the leaders, and soon began to lead the singing, solo singing.
There is a group of people in the song and dance troupe, as soon as they see single boys and girls, they will find out the bottom of their three generations of grandchildren, and then, according to the situation of these men and women, these people are commonly known as "matchmakers".
They fell in love with Yu Shuzhen, so they adopted the method of collective research, and fatigue bombing introduced her to the object.
It was predestined that they were actually introducing the same person, and that person had already begun to pursue Shuzhen.
02
The pursuit of Yu Shuzhen was a young man surnamed Yan who sent her a transfer order, and he often gave Yu Shuzhen the meals he had packed in the canteen, and occasionally picked a few flowers from the side of the road to give to her.
But Yu Shuzhen's mind was all on singing, and she was not moved by Comrade Yan's pursuit.
It just so happened that the big sisters of the matchmakers introduced her to the object, and the introduction was comrade Yan. Yu Shuzhen thought to herself: I think Comrade Yan should be quite good, or not so many people have introduced her.
Therefore, she began to get along with Comrade Yan, and it did not take long to get along, Yu Shuzhen felt the integrity and reality of her husband, and the two soon and really got married.
After marriage, they had a son and a daughter.
When her daughter was four months old, just in time for her to have several operas to perform, she took her daughter to the scene.
The winter in the north is bitterly cold, and she is afraid that her daughter will be frozen, so she puts her daughter in her arms when she sleeps at night, and the next day, her arms are numb and cannot move.
Seeing his wife working so hard, Comrade Yan was very distressed.
At that time, although the color inside the female protagonist and outside the male protagonist was more serious, Yu Shuzhen was the backbone of the regiment, and her career development was better than her husband.
Therefore, Comrade Yan ignored the gossip outside and retired to the office as an ordinary officer, and also contracted most of the household chores.
Once her daughter had scarlet fever, Yu Shuzhen performed in other places, in order not to affect her performance, her husband was stunned that he did not tell her daughter was sick, and every time he called, he also reported good news and did not report worry.
The husband, like a mother, stays by his daughter's side until the child is healed.
His wife has a higher status in the unit than him and earns more than him, but the responsibility for supporting the family is all on him.
Because Yu Shuzhen has 8 younger siblings to help, she spends most of the money she earns on the expenses of her younger siblings, and Comrade Yan has no complaints about this.
Her husband was a nobleman of her life, and with his full support, Yu Shuzhen's career began to peak, and when she went to Japan to perform, she met another nobleman, which made her famous and well-known.
03
In 1976, the Tianjin Song and Dance Troupe went to Japan to perform, and Yu Shuzhen was also among the performers.
In that turbulent era, performances were subject to censorship, let alone performing abroad. Therefore, before going, the actors came to Beijing to report on the performance, and the well-known musician Lu Yuan was responsible for the review.
Lü Yuan composed the well-known songs "The Song of Karamay" and "Walking on this High Xing'an Ridge", and also created more than 100 operas, which is the elder of the new Chinese music industry.
At that time, it was difficult to go abroad, first by train to Hong Kong, and then from Hong Kong to Japan.
Before leaving, Lü Yuan went to the train station to send Guo Lanying and Wang Kun, and just happened to see Yu Shuzhen by accident, and he went forward to greet Yu Shuzhen:
"Less than, I watched your performance, I am very impressed with you, there is a chance for us to cooperate."
To get Lu Yuan's appreciation, Yu Shuzhen was inexplicably excited, and only said simply: "Good, good", but her heart was already magnificent: "Is this to write a song for me?" ”
Yu Shuzhen ran to her own great future with excitement.
During the tense performance in Japan, Yu Shuzhen quickly forgot about this incident, and her mood did not fluctuate so much, and she quickly returned to a normal life.
In 1979, Xie Tian, a well-known actor who had performed in "Thunderstorm", "Taiping Heavenly Kingdom" and "Lin Jia Puzi", wanted to shoot his first favorite film since his career, "Sweet Career", which had a love song in the movie, and the singer was still undecided.
Therefore, he consulted with his friend Lü Yuan, and Lü Yuan immediately thought of Yu Shuzhen:
"We found Yu Shuzhen, I have seen her performance, her voice is very sweet."
At this time, Yu Shuzhen, who was practicing her voice, was called by the telephone operator, saying that it was a theater call to find her, and after she answered the phone, she heard the other end of the phone say:
"The Beijing Film Studio wants to make a movie, and there's a song in it that you want to sing, can you audition?"
Yu Shuzhen promised to be very cheerful, and it did not take long for Xie Tian to take Yu Shuzhen from Tianjin to Beijing.
The song "Our Life Is Full of Sunshine" was born.
Our lives are full of sunshine and sunshine
And the flowers are competing to bloom
Birds with wings spread their wings and fly
Face the wind and rain of the battle on the Long March
Contribute youth and strength to the motherland
The uplifting lyrics, beautiful melody, and sweet voice made this song catch fire before the movie.
Before the movie was released, the movie theater had already begun to play the song, and before other movies were played, the audience would listen to the song first.
This song made Yu Shuzhen famous, and Yu Shuzhen also made this song and was selected to be included in unesco music textbooks.
After this cooperation, Lu Yuan often sought out Yu Shuzhen to save the scene and record songs.
At that time, Tianjin to Beijing was a long-distance trip, there was no high-speed rail or even a fast train, and when there were fewer cars, they also needed to take a taxi back and forth.
Once, Lu Yuan wanted to record a song, and without even thinking about it, he called Yu Shuzhen:
"Less than, you come soon, you have to record in the afternoon."
As a result, in the afternoon, Lü Yuan really saw less than in Beijing, and after Yu Shuzhen recorded the song, she did not even say hello to Lü Yuan and left, let alone mention the remuneration and travel expenses.
Lu Yuan was busy, and when he began to review the day's work, he suddenly remembered that he had not paid Yu Shuzhen and reimbursed the fare.
He immediately gave Yu Shuzhen a "long distance", at this time Yu Shuzhen had already gone to her home in Tianjin to make breakfast for the next day.
Lu Yuan apologized to her, and she always said: "It doesn't matter."
Lü Yuan's impoliteness has nothing to do with Yu Shuzhen's, so that the relationship between the two is very good.
With Lü Yuan's support, Yu Shuzhen's life should have improved, however, it did not.
04
At that time, the actor was just a profession rather than a star, earning even less than ordinary workers.
The song and dance troupe often arranged for Yu Shuzhen to perform in other places, and with her was Guan Mucun, who was about twenty years younger than her.
Once, the two went to Guangzhou to perform, and the group gave a subsidized meal fee of 3 yuan, which was only enough to buy two pieces of meat, and the green vegetables they bought were too old to chew.
Guan Mucun is only in her 20s, and she has to sing more than a dozen songs at a time, and her physical exertion is very large, so she can't eat enough every time, and the vegetable heart is often digested in her mouth, and it is still dripping outside.
Guan Mucun was hungry and crying several times, and Yu Shuzhen, as the elder sister, took Guan Mucun to find the leader:
"Can you let us go to the factory next door to catch up, the food here is really bad."
In this way, their food barely rose to five dollars, but at most they were not hungry.
It wasn't until 1984 that her life improved.
This year, she was invited to participate in the second CCTV Spring Festival Gala, and she sang four songs in a row on the stage.
By the time she retired in 1998, her retirement salary was enough to sustain a decent life in her old age.
Surprisingly, she made a decision, but she was caught in the unkindness of her children.
05
Yu Shuzhen's children are one in Tianjin and one in Beijing, and if the two of them have a minor illness or a disaster, the children have to leave their work to take care of them.
The old couple of distressed children ran back and forth, and the two of them went to live in a nursing home.
After hearing the news, the children rushed to the house and you did the parental work without a word:
"As your children, now that you are retired and going to a nursing home, what does this make relatives and friends think?" No, can't live".
Yu Shuzhen knows that the children are filial piety, but her decision cannot be changed:
"What do others say we can't control, we are old, we also want our own space, living in a nursing home is just to make time for you to live your own life, kill two birds with one stone, why not enjoy it?" 」
The two sons and daughters could not persuade their parents, so they acquiesced to their thoughts.
After living in a nursing home, Yu Shuzhen finally had time to make up for the regrets of her youth. When she was a child, because of her poor family conditions, she was not allowed to go to college, although she had a successful career later, but she was busy with performances and did not have time, so the regret of not going to college has always been hidden in her heart.
Now retired, with money and leisure, she applied for the university of the elderly.
In college, she studied calligraphy for a few years and Chinese painting of flowers and birds for a few years. And her study is not a shallow taste, there are many friends to ask for her paintings.
The director of the nursing home knew that she was a well-known singer and wanted to ask her to go out of the mountain to teach others to sing, but Yu Shuzhen refused, believing that singing and teaching others to sing were two different things.
And she knew very well that taking the apprentice was responsible, and she didn't think she had the ability to take the apprentice out and take on the responsibility.
Yu Shuzhen followed a group of peers without generation gap, living in a nursing home with a colorful, tasteful and comfortable life, children occasionally came to see them, and they were also happy to take some time to enjoy the next day.
epilogue
Teacher Li Guangxi once said: "You look at Yu Shuzhen's eyes, more than eighty years old, clear as a baby." This is inseparable from her cultivation and character. ”
Yes, Yu Shuzhen has walked the music scene for more than sixty years, establishing her immortal status in the music industry, but she is still a low-key and introverted person.
And she taught these qualities to her two children.
She is not afraid of people's words, living in a nursing home does not mean desolation, let alone filial piety to her children;
She knows how to advance and retreat, knows to leave space for herself and her children, and does not disturb each other, which is the most beautiful and appropriate distance between parents and children.