In the text left by Qin Yi, Zhao Dan called her "sister"...

Qin Yi was gone. This cultivator and witness of China's century-old film history is also the embodiment of a beautiful, strong and autonomous woman on the oriental screen, which has been appreciated and reminisced by generations of audiences for a long time. After a lifetime of electrocution, Teacher Qin Yi also has a hobby of pen cultivation. Here, we present the text she wrote in her commemoration of another film art performance master, Zhao Dan, in the Supplement of Chaohua many years ago, during which the sympathy, common artistic interest and the attitude of daring to tell the truth and be a real person for art are still awe-inspiring.

Adam is dead, and I can't believe it. Adam, such an artist who has always been considered to be young and cheerful, and who is optimistic even in the "cowshed", walked ahead of others, left everyone first, and passed away. How can this be believed? How can it not be regretted?!

At the end of June this year, before I went to Jiangxi to perform, I met Adam in the outpatient room of Huadong Hospital, at that time I only knew that he had a bit of stomach disease, and he himself was full of confidence and hope, telling me that he was going to participate in the film co-produced with Japan after he was discharged from the hospital, I hope that he will recuperate quietly and recover as soon as possible, he said with a smile: "Yes, I think so, so even if I am admitted to the hospital, it is not painful, but for the future work, I must take care of my body." ”

Qin Yi when he was young. Image from Xinhua News Agency

At that time, because I was anxious to leave Shanghai, I only had a few hurried conversations with him. He told me, "I really want to 'talk nonsense,' and it would be painful for me to be able to 'talk nonsense.'" I understood what he meant by "nonsense," which meant how much he wanted to open up and speak in his heart, to express the sullenness that had been accumulating in his chest for a long time. I smiled and said to him, "Then you can say whatever you want, and do whatever you want, so that it is good for people and for yourself." He smiled and jokingly said, "Sister Qin Yi (they used to call me that), now she can really talk." ”

Shortly before his death, I saw his "nonsense" in the newspaper and felt that he had finally spoken out, but I did not expect that he did not know the reflection of our reading of his article, but he had left us. Man will die, and his words will be good. Adam was only sixty-five years old, he still had a lot of work for the people, he had not yet fully fulfilled his lifelong wish, he died too soon! What exactly took his life so quickly, what made this "optimist" no longer move or laugh? That boundless long night, the chaotic years and months, are still vivid in the eyes, and now in this brilliant starry night, he has quietly condensed, silent, is life so cruel?

In 2018, the filmmakers celebrated the birthday of 96-year-old Qin Yi. Photo by Jiang Diwen, a reporter of this newspaper

In 1945, he returned to Chongqing from Xinjiang and co-starred with us in Comrade Mao Dun's play "Before and After the Qingming Dynasty". At that time, the play was banned several times, and Adam directed and acted again, resisting all kinds of difficulties in the sound of banning performances every day, and everyone worked together to finally perform until the scheduled date. Whenever we come up with a clever trick and insist on performing a performance without changing the original line, we feel a kind of victor's incomparable joy.

One night after the play, due to the torrential rain and the depth of the water, we could not walk back to the dormitory, and Adam suggested that we wait at a nearby friend's house. But the wind and rain did not stop all night, just like this, Adam happily ignored fatigue and recounted his desire for future creation, he talked about many famous dramas in the history of the mainland, talked about world famous works, talked about our theatrical movement has only begun, talked about the imminent rise of the film industry, and talked about the bright future.

A group of photos taken by jiang diwen, a reporter of this newspaper, for Qin Yi in 2013

He was only in his early thirthitoes, and I was a naïve young man, and I sat quietly and listened to him talk about Gogol, about Pushkin, about Lermontov, about Shakespeare, about the works of many excellent writers on the mainland. He was enthusiastic and irrepressible, until the tea was exhausted, the smoke dish was full of ash, and the dawn leaked through the window, he jumped up and said: "Let's go, go eat 'tofu brain'!" ”

After the victory of the War of Resistance in 1946, Both Adan and I participated in the filming of the film "Distant Love". The director Comrade Chen Liting is a very demanding and meticulous person, while Adam is an actor with many ideas, endless exploration of characters, good at imagining, good at thinking, and good at expression, he can always design the external actions of many characters, and choose the ones that best meet the needs of the characters.

In the movie "Distant Love", Zhao Dan and Qin Yi are in the same frame. Profile picture

At that time, I was not yet familiar with the performance of movies, and often everything I thought about went to the outside of the screen, and I could not reflect my wishes on the screen. I asked him, "I don't know where to work, and I can't use it for half a day." How do you have so many 'Flower Head Sutras'? "He told me that shaping characters can start from the inside, you can also start from the outside, and sometimes the external actions are accurate, you can drive the inner emotions." The character image is appropriate, the character has half, of course, with the outside, it is inevitable that the inner cannot be lacking... At that time, Adam was already an artist who was diligent in learning, studying, and discussing, as long as he talked about artistic creation, he never tired, and his good at amusing personality often secretly inspired everyone at the moment when people felt lacking confidence, tiredness, and depression.

After the founding of New China, I co-produced "Lin Zexu" with him. Adam's meticulous portrayal of the character of Lin Zexu and the spirit of excellence are rare, and even filmed once and again, he has lived in the role since he began to accept the role, not only read through many history books about Lin Zexu, discussed business with the director Comrade Zheng Junli every day, and immersed in the style and temperament of the characters at every moment. In order to play Lin Zexu, he shaved off half of the hair on the top of his head, ran all over Guangzhou and Shajiao, and sometimes comrades had to joke with him, but his serious attitude towards shaping the character gradually infected everyone, making us all think of him as Lin Zexu.

Comrade Zhao Dan will not come back after leaving us. In this moment of grief, it is impossible to remember the rich and arduous life and work of an artist like Adam. In the decades of working with us, it is difficult to say a few words, and a few things are exhausted. Although Adam is dead, his voice is still there, we will always miss him, and he will always inspire us!

(Published in the Chaohua Supplement of Jiefang Daily on October 21, 1980)