The deceased | Qin Yi: There is a kind of beauty that resists the erosion of time

On the morning of May 9, Qin Yi, a witness, strivers and "People's Artist" of Chinese cinema, passed away at the age of 100 in Huadong Hospital in Shanghai.

In 2019, this newspaper published a series of special articles "My Motherland and Me, 70 People in 70 Years" series of special articles "Qin Yi: There is a kind of beauty, against the erosion of time". This article is reproduced in memory of this artist, who has been respected and loved by generations.

Qin Yi loves beauty and has been beautiful all her life. But when asked her, "Do you think you're beautiful when you look in the mirror?", and she replied, "Zhao Jing, I think she's beautiful." "It may not be a fork in the ear, but it is more like a wise fool, four or two strokes of a thousand pounds."

Qin Yi loves movies and has lived with movies for 80 years. The ones I can go over and over again are old movies, Ingrid Bergman's "Casablanca" and Vivien Leigh's "Gone with the Wind", she said, "Why can the classics be passed on for so long, because there is the truest love and life in it."

On the fourth day of the Chinese New Year, the old artist ushered in her 97th birthday, and this year is also the 80th anniversary of her art. If we compare her 97 years of life to a long river of history, the treasures that have been deposited on the riverbed over the years can teach us many things. For example, she broadened people's understanding of Chinese films with her roles that can enter the temple of Chinese film art again and again; for example, she fought hard again and again in the undercurrent of time, illuminating people's desire for truth, goodness and beauty in the world.

Through the rough film, her voice may be able to restore the background of the times; revisiting her role may be to read the album of history books. Through the mist of the years, the corridor of Chinese film streamers records her unique fanghua. Along with the new Chinese film along the way, Qin Yi under the mercury lamp has become an indispensable existence in Shanghai cinema and Chinese culture. Listening to the heartfelt words of the century old man, she said: "Some of the things I said may not be correct. But these personal experiences I'm talking about should be something that can be listened to. Because, I've lived for more than 90 years. ”

On and off the screen, she uses a kind of truth, goodness and beauty to fight against the erosion of time.

【Profile】

Qin Yi, born in Shanghai in 1922, is a famous film performance artist. She has won many awards such as the Best Actress Award of the Chinese Film Century Award, the title of "National Artist with Outstanding Contribution" to commemorate the centenary of the birth of Chinese cinema, the 7th National Top Ten Female Masters, and the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Shanghai Literature and Art Award.

She began her stage career in 1938 and went to the big screen in 1947, where she participated in the filming of the films "The House of Loyalty", "Mother", "Anonymous" and other films. "Distant Love", written and directed by Chen Liting, became her famous work. After the founding of New China, she insisted that literature and art serve socialism, adhered to the people-centered creative orientation, and created many deeply rooted roles on the screen. She has played an important role in films such as "Farmhouse", "Two Springs", "Moya Dai", "North Country Jiangnan", "Women's Basketball No. 5", "Railway Guerrilla", "Lin Zexu", "Song of Youth", "Overseas Naked Son", "Thunderstorm" and so on.

In the 1980s, Qin Yi turned to the screen and starred in a series of well-known TV drama works, such as "Under the Roof of Shanghai", based on Xia Yan's works, with which Qin Yi won the Outstanding Actress Award at the First Golden Eagle Awards for Popular Television. The "Qinghai Lakeside" released in 2017 is more known as a highlight of Qin Yi's artistic career, she self-directed and self-performed at the age of 93, and personally went to the plateau, reflecting the high cleanliness of an artist with virtue and art.

▲ Qin Yi uses truth, goodness and beauty to fight against the erosion of time

"My heart is full of the word 'movie'"

She spent 80 years to clarify the true meaning of art

When she was in good health, Qin Yi lived in an old-fashioned apartment in Xuhui District, and she and the nanny were two people every day. But the days are not idle at all, the family comes and goes, Shanghai movies, Chinese films, Chinese literature and art, national treasure artists are needed too many occasions. As long as his body allowed, Qin Yi always gladly agreed. Hospitality is one of them, and more importantly, work is her life. "Occasionally I want to gamble and shut myself up, and no one will see me, but if I really stop, it will be uncomfortable." I'm a guy who has to work. For so many years, my heart has been the word 'movie'. ”

She once said, "I have played a lot of roles in a vacuum", relying on the most simple "stupid way" - learning and hard work.

Qin Yi's journey from art can be traced back to the Anti-Japanese War period. At the age of 16, she left her feudal family and went to Chongqing to join the China Drama Art Society. The first role of her acting career was only one sentence, and she repeated it for many days. At that time, the drama club was like her home, and when she did not perform, she could be found on the stage side. Help the actor to hand over a prop, send off the costume, as long as the side of the curtain to hear the light of the stage, her face is written with satisfaction. Later, on the stage of the rear of the Anti-Japanese War, she became the "four famous Dans" with the same name as Bai Yang, Shu Xiuwen and Zhang Ruifang, but she still did not refuse small roles, "In that case, I can see more performances of others, which is very helpful to myself." ”

▲ Fang Lin sister-in-law in the movie "Railway Guerrilla"

In 1998, Qin Yi's autobiographical congyi record was published, and she took the title of the book "Running Dragon Set". Director Huang Zumo solemnly respected after hearing the news: "In 1982, I made the movie "Zhang Heng", in which the role of the old lady was not Qin Yi. But I also worry about whether a big actor like her will be willing to play a supporting role. Unexpectedly, Qin Yi readily agreed. What is even more rare is that the director requires the actors to practice their bodies every day according to the words and deeds of the ancients. There are few shots in total in the role of the old lady, but Qin Yi still practices with everyone, never absent or late.

Similar feelings, director Xie Jin also has. When filming "Women's Basketball No. 5", today's "reform pioneer" was just a small director with no name, and Qin Yi, a big star, has been popular for a long time. "But she respected me so much that every shot had to ask: Does this work?" Xie Jin once said that Qin Yi did not have a little star shelf, she did not pick the size of the role, did not care about the amount of remuneration, and did not care about the treatment of the crew.

Hearing such an evaluation, Qin Yi always waved: "In fact, every filming is learning, which is very precious." Take 1961's "Maya Dai" as an example, she played the Dai doctor Eli Khan. At that time, director Xu Tao asked her to wear a sleeveless skirt like a Dai girl and expose her shoulders. At that time, Qin Yi, who was less than 40 years old, was particularly concerned about the image of the character, "My arms are thick and round, and exposing them will destroy the character image, and the Dai girls are very slender." "The lead actor and the director quarreled, and finally negotiated to wear a shoulder shot, and the effect was not bad." But when Qianfan was over, Xu Tao wrote a letter to Qin Yi with earnest words. He said that as an actor, Qin Yi has many superior conditions, but he is often troubled by himself, one moment afraid of getting fat, and the next afraid of not being lively enough. He felt that Qin Yi should liberate his thoughts from the rules and regulations, don't let the appearance mask the shaping of the character's heart, and don't give up many attempts because of the appearance. Covering up the letter, Qin Yi fell into deep thought: "He reminded me that this is reasonable. When I was young, I did have some rush out, thinking that I was too fat, the conditions were not good enough, and the lady could not act, so I always played the sister-in-law. Xu Tao woke me up, which was very helpful for my later acting. ”

Unexpectedly, when he was young, Qin Yi, who occasionally looked forward and backward, was more able to open up the more he was the older he was. In 2013, she began to write the script for "Qinghai Lakeside". In the fall of 2014, at the age of 93, she went to the filming site at an altitude of 3,800 meters. The days of the plateau are a month. Because the filming location was a six-hour round trip from the place of accommodation, Qin Yi followed the large army and left at five o'clock in the morning and returned at nine o'clock at night to rest. The middle-aged and young actors and directors in the crew have altitude sickness, but Qin Yi is in good spirits, not vomiting or fainting, she quipped: "The climate of Qinghai is very kind to our elderly!" But onlooker Qing, many juniors in the crew said that it was Qin Yi's dedication to his dreams that made life erupt with magical power. Coming down from the plateau, she found a life of reading and reading newspapers and writing every day, "I want to seize the time to study, and I want to continue to create." ”

At the end of 2017, Chen Kaige's "The Legend of the Demon Cat" was released, and the audience was pleasantly surprised to find that the old artist restored the scene in Tang poetry that "the white-headed palace girl is here, sitting idly and talking about Xuanzong". But what the audience can't see is those "scared and scared" behind the scenes - the old lady is loyal to the noble concubine and has repeatedly stood up for maintenance. On the set, Qin Yi fell to the ground again and again according to the script, and after falling down, the young actors helped her up together. Huang Xuan, who starred together, described that the sense of shock will not decay with the increase in the number of times the old woman falls to the ground, on the contrary, it will increase the weight of the old artist in the hearts of young actors again and again.

Qin Yi liked the line of the female meteorological engineer in "Qinghai Lakeside", "I originally wanted to come for three months, but I stayed for 30 years." She herself is not like this, 80 years from the art road, really is a lifetime!

▲ Qin Yi's early film role

From "for a living" to "for the ideal"

The original intention determines the final pattern of a person

Someone once asked Qin Yi what the movie really meant, making you so obsessed.

She replied, using the past: "I still remember today the words that Premier Zhou woke me up." Everyone knows that Qin Yi is the "22 greatest movie stars in New China" and the "most beautiful actress in New China" in the mouth of Premier Zhou. Qin Yi saw the other side: "It can be said that Premier Zhou is the one who understands the true meaning of acting." She was only 19 years old, and once went to a friend's house for dinner, and there was a guest she didn't know. The man asked Qin Yi if he was working or studying, and Qin Yi, who had just taken the lead, replied: "I am a trainee actor, and sometimes I sing in the choir, which is not very interesting, it is just a jerk." The man then asked what song to sing, and Qin Yi replied, "Of course, it is a song of the War of Resistance." "Unexpectedly, as soon as I said the anti-war song, the other party immediately raised his voice, 'That's still a jerk, you think, how many people, thousands of people have gone to the front line inspired by your singing, how important this work is!'" I listened to it and thought it made sense. When I go home, I think about it, who can say such a thing? I ran to ask my friend, and I learned that it was Comrade Zhou Enlai. ”

Qin Yi's girlhood was the time when Rikou's iron hooves broke through the mountains and rivers. Before meeting Zhou Enlai, the young girl Qin Yi had attended the school's Red Cross Society and longed to do something for the survival of the nation. But those emotions were more like ignorant nature, until she listened to Jun's words, and planted a firm seed in her heart - dry literature and art are not "for making a living", but "for ideals". This ideal requires a strong spiritual force within, and the source of the power lies in the audience. "As an actor, the ideal that you pursue all your life should be all the touching spiritual strength you get from literature and art, and then give it to others through your own performance."

▲ In "Thunderstorm", Lu Ma, played by Qin Yi (right), was praised by Cao Yu as "the best Lu Ma"

In "Song of Youth", Lin Hong, a communist party member, did not play much, but after being broadcast again and again, he ignited the torch of faith of many young intellectuals moving closer to the communist ideal. The original author Yang Mo once commented: "Lin Hong, performed by Comrade Qin Yi, is my favorite. She has almost no physical movements, only relying on lines and looks, but she acts so really and movingly, stirring people's souls. "More than half a century later, Qin Yi told reporters that the most memorable role in her long acting career was Lin Hong." I joined the Party in May 1959, and my first role after joining the Party was Lin Hong. "It was the image of an excellent Communist Party member who had ignited the faith of many young people in those years. When reading the script, Qin Yi repeatedly compared his oath of joining the party with the line before Lin Hong went to the execution ground, "With this layer of connection with life, I immediately touched the heart of the character." I believe from the bottom of my heart that a party member has a lifelong commitment to the cause he has struggled for. As for the original concerns about their own body shape, they have long been left behind. To build up the image of a Communist Party member, we must not rely on appearance, but on temperament and conviction. It was also at that time that she had a deep understanding of what kind of roles were more moving. From leaving home at the age of 16 to go to the anti-Japanese front, to the age of 93 filming "Qinghai Lakeside" to praise Chinese scientists, "I am willing to praise the party, praise the motherland, praise the people, and praise heroes all my life."

It is said that the original intention may determine a person's pattern. If the image of Qin Yi on the big screen is connected into a line, her original intention as an old party member and people's artist clearly emerges: Ma Lan, a tractor player who can withstand half the sky in "Ma Lan Blossoms", Lin Hong, a generous and righteous Communist Party member in "Song of Youth", Lin Jie, a basketball player who dares to love and hate in "Women's Basketball No. 5", Fang Lin sister-in-law who is circling with the enemy in "Railway Guerrilla", Yingjie Akuan sister-in-law who resists invaders in "Lin Zexu", the mother who finally agreed to her daughter's return to serve the motherland in "Overseas Naked Son", and "Qinghai Lakeside" Female scientists who struggle for the dream of the plateau railway..." I just hope that there is some spirit in the work that can be carried forward and enlightened. ”

For the movie is full of some kind of spiritual power, Qin Yi is convinced. In the 1990s, she fell ill and was hospitalized, and her acting career was almost over. "When I was a little discouraged, it happened that "Jiao Yulu" was playing on TV, and the vivid image of the party members and the real historical picture were restored, and I cried when I looked at it, and I felt that my heart was full of strength." She was inspired by something called spirit, and she was willing to pass on that energy. In 2018, Niu Ben joined the party, and Qin Yi's eldest sister was one of her party introductions.

From "Little Love" to "Big Love"

The "mother" made her suffer for a long time

Dante said: "Man is the cube of misfortune. "When used on Qin Yi, it is a bit cruel, but it is very accurate." Heaven gave Qin Yi a beautiful face, but also gave her a rugged fate and a long suffering.

When filming "Mother", she and Jin Yan's son "little brother" Jin Jie just turned one year old, the same size as the son in the film. Fate seems to predict in this way that "mother" will be the most important role in Qin Yi's life. The "little brother" fell ill at the age of 16. Qin Yi felt ashamed of her son, and in order to make up for her mother's love, she insisted on not sending her child to a mental hospital, and always took care of her by her own hands.

▲ On Children's Day in the 1980s, Qin Yi told the children the story of making movies

Such a test was not enough, as the pillar of the family, she was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 1966, and the doctor asserted: You will not live long. The wind knife frost sword is strict. Since then, Qin Yi has suffered from four serious illnesses, prescribed seven knives, removed thyroid tumors, and removed the gallbladder. Ordinary people unimaginable pain, Qin Yi actually stepped through step by step, ten years and ten years. What kind of strong nerve is pulling her? People say it's maternal love. In order to be "little brother", Qin Yi must live tenaciously, sit in the same boat as her son, and travel through the wind and rain of the world. As the playwright Wu Zuguang wrote in the essay "Qin Niangmei", "Qin Yi has the traditional virtues of Chinese women, never loses heart in the face of adversity, can meet suffering with great resilience, overcome suffering, and always behaves as calm and unhurried." And Qin Yi can be praised by Mr. Cao Yu as "the best Lu Ma", and it is precisely because she injected her unique noble, beautiful and complex life into the performance of the movie "Thunderstorm".

In 2007, the biggest difficulty in Qin Yi's life struck, and his son Jin Jie passed away. She has cared for sick children for 43 years, and the fate of mother and child has long been one. After his son left, Qin Yi was once heartbroken, did not eat or sleep, and also thought about following his son. Until one day, she saw a boy growing up in an orphanage on TV. The child was in the best years of 22 years old, but his life due to bone cancer had entered the countdown. Before dying, he donated his cornea and said he hoped that the children in the orphanage would wear new clothes for the New Year. At that moment, Qin Yi seemed to be relieved, and she got the strength to continue to move forward.

She packed up her mood and turned her "little love" for her son into "big love" and spread it to a wider place. Wenchuan earthquake, she has donated more than 200,000 yuan; Yushu was affected, she paid another 30,000 yuan. Others knew very well that this was almost half of Qin Yi's wealth. But she said she donated, and when asked how she would live in the future, she said, "I still have a salary to receive." In her opinion, her son is no longer there, and the money originally intended to be left for her son's pension has been turned to building a school building for children in the disaster area, which is its best place to go. In 2012, she starred in the film "Three Unmarried Mothers", caring for children who lack mothers and calling on society to pay attention to vulnerable groups.

▲In recent years, Qin Yi has actively participated in public welfare activities

While actively facing life, Qin Yi has insisted on standing for Chinese films and Shanghai films for many years, and she almost never refuses public welfare activities as long as there is a need for society. Someone advised her to rest, and she shook her head and said, "I won't stop, I always feel that these things are more meaningful." "About to ascend to the birthday of Yi, Qin Yi is still obsessed with a matter, she wants to write a script, related to the War of Resistance. She always feels that she is responsible for Chinese films and even Chinese society, "cultural and spiritual products should be able to lead people, play some role in subtlety, and improve the audience's ideological level." ”

At the end of 2014, Qin Yi won the Lifetime Achievement Award of the Shanghai Literature and Art Award. On the night of the award ceremony, she came from the hospital on leave, and the descendants of the audience gave her the nickname "Beautiful Girl". Critics have said: "People know Qin Yimei, in fact, they should understand that her beauty has a double connotation, one is the artistic beauty of gao, and the other is the beauty of personality that illuminates the world." ”

Mordaunt Sang Yu evening, for Xia still full of heaven.

Journalist's Note

Eternal stars

▲ 93-year-old Qin Yi self-directed and self-performed "Qinghai Lakeside", creating an artistic miracle at an altitude of 3800 meters

In today's literary and artistic creation context, the word "star" is often blurred, and the word "face value" is even more discredited. But for Qin Yi, these two words are appropriate.

Looking back at the dappled but intimate memories of light and shadow, we can find the starting point of her being defined as a "star" more than half a century ago. It was the 1960s, and the Hundred Flowers Awards, the first nationwide mass film award in New China, were held. After more than three months of voting, Cui Wei, Zhu Xijuan and others won the award, while Yu Lan, Qin Yi, Wang Xingang, Zhao Dan and others also received a considerable number of votes. Soon after, these film actors, who were voted by the audience one by one, had a collective title of "New China's Top 22 Movie Stars", and they were the "stars of their own" for Chinese audiences.

At that time, the meaning of "star aura" was very pure: the actor was well known to the audience because of the role, and the role was deeply rooted in the hearts of the people because of the wonderful portrayal of the actor. In the two or three years after being defined as a "star", Xu Yunfeng portrayed by Zhao Dan in "Eternal Life in the Fire", Jiang Xueqin portrayed by Yu Lan, Wen Sister-in-law played by Shangguan Yunzhu in "Early Spring and February", Tao Lan played by Xie Fang, Xiao Jianqiu played by Sun Daolin, Yinhua portrayed by Qin Yi in "Northern Jiangnan", and Li Shuangshuang played by Zhang Ruifang have all become unforgettable classic images in the history of Chinese cinema.

In recent years, Qin Yi has heard a lot of discussion about Chinese films, both good and bad. She has a lot to think about. Take the face value as an example, there are many stills hanging on the wall of Qin Yi's living room, there are photos, there are oil paintings, there are her 20-year-old condition, there are also 70 years old, but there are few side photos. "Because I studied my side not to look good, the distance from my cheekbones to my jaw was too wide." She said, "You see, I'm in my 90s and still care about appearance, which is normal, actors want to present the most beautiful side to the audience." 」 But only the skin bag, but not ready to dare to suffer, can bear the hardship, also does not work. Now what to say about high value, we must know that the more people pay attention, the more we should be a good example of dedication to art. Art is eternal, and actors are meant to be learned for life. ”

This is Qin Yi's artistic view, and she has also demonstrated for today's Chinese filmmakers how to become the eternal stars in the hearts of audiences.

Author: Wang Yan

Editor: Zhao Zhengnan

Editor-in-Charge: Fan Bing Xing Xiaofang