In 2000, 19-year-old Chen Ting took Zhang Yimou, 50, home to meet her parents.
The old couple recognized Zhang Yimou at a glance: Isn't this the famous big director on TV!
After some greetings, the old two knew that the big director in front of them was the "boyfriend" that the daughter said.
At that time, in the face of the "son-in-law" who was 11 years older than herself, Mother Chen was crying and laughing.
But for the happiness of her daughter, she also made 3 demands on Zhang Yimou.
As a director, Zhang Yimou was never willing to be constrained.
It is said that Zhang Yimou and Gong Li had feelings because of filming, and their wife Xiao Hua pleaded bitterly.
Zhang Yimou answered:
"I don't like others to restrain me, and if you don't agree, I'll run away from home and never come back."
However, in the face of Chen Ting, who is 31 years younger than herself, and her family, Zhang Yimou actually agreed to 3 requests of Mother Chen.
What exactly do those 3 requirements say? Why did Zhang Yimou agree?
And Chen Ting, this seemingly weak Jiangnan woman, she has endured for 13 years for her feelings, what is hidden behind those bitterness?
What the hell is she trying to do?
First, acquaintance
Speaking of Zhang Yimou, in his life, there are 3 crucial women:
His wife Xiao Hua, his confidant Gong Li, and his "wife" Chen Ting.
Chen Ting was born in 1981 in Wuxi, Jiangsu Province.
This year, 31-year-old Zhang Yimou and his junior high school classmate Xiao Hua have been married for 3 years.
Although it is not a newlywed Yan'er, the two are soaking each other and tasting the saltiness of married life together.
Two years later, the daughter of the two, Zhang Mo, was born.
For the marriage of Zhang Yimou and Xiao Hua, many people believe that Zhang Yimou "climbed high" Xiao Hua.
Not really.
Zhang Yimou's family was a famous family in Lintong at that time.
Zhang Yimou's grandfather graduated from Yenching University and served as the head of a county, and Zhang Yimou's father was an officer.
Only later, such a family origin became a shackle on Zhang Yimou's body.
This also developed Zhang Yimou's character of being both proud and inferior, and liking to avoid things when encountering things.
Later, as a director, Zhang Yimou filmed the movie "Red Sorghum".
Because of this movie, he met Gong Li, who was still studying.
If Xiao Hua and Zhang Yimou care about each other in life, Gong Li and Zhang Yimou are soul-loving.
In 1988, Zhang Yimou divorced his wife Xiao Hua.
Between Xiao Hua and Gong Li, he chose the latter.
Perhaps it was because Xiao Hua at that time gave him too much pressure in order to keep Zhang Yimou.
Emotional things are sometimes like sand in your hand: the more you try to grasp it, the faster it will be lost.
Next, Zhang Yimou and Gong Li co-starred in the movie "Ancient and Modern Wars of Qin Figurines".
This also began the period of cooperation between him and Gong Li.
This year, Chen Ting, who is far away in Wuxi, was just 7 years old, and she has already shown her talent in dance.
In order to raise their daughter, the parents of the Chen family sent Chen Ting to learn dance.
This also allowed Chen Ting to practice the elegance and tenacity that flowed from her bones.
Since junior high school, Chen Ting has chosen to live in the school, and for her own affairs, she has developed an independent and assertive personality.
At the age of 12, Chen Ting watched the movie "Qiu Ju Fights a Lawsuit" starring Gong Li.
At that time, she decided to become an actress.
Although her parents did not agree, Chen Ting insisted on applying for the Beijing Film Academy.
Deep affection is not long-lived.
As the wonderful partners of "actor and director", Gong Li and Zhang Yimou eventually had a rift in their feelings.
It is said that Gong Li once made a wish that she would marry at the age of 30.
Although we have worked together to make many classic films, Zhang Yimou never mentions the marriage.
Once, Gong Li's second brother came to visit the crew, and he found Zhang Yimou and mentioned the marriage.
As a result, Zhang Yimou replied: Isn't marriage just a piece of paper...
This answer let Gong Li know that what she wanted most would never be obtained from Zhang Yimou.
Therefore, after filming "Shake, Shake, Shake to Grandma Bridge", Gong Li left Zhang Yimou.
In those years, Zhang Yimou, who entered the "empty window period" emotionally, entered a "blowout period" in his career:
He has successively produced works such as "Have Something to Say", "No One Can Be Less", "My Father and Mother" and so on.
Because of these acclaimed and well-sold movies, Zhang Yimou stepped into the ranks of the fifth generation of directors.
Until 2000, Zhang Yimou planned to shoot his new film "Happy Time".
This year, Chen Ting was 19 years old.
Chen Ting, who is studying in North Shadow, came to the crew for an interview.
Zhang Yimou, who was 50 years old at the time, looked at Chen Ting in front of the camera and had an inexplicable feeling in a trance.
In the end, Chen Ting was not selected, but she left a deep impression on Zhang Yimou.
The two left contact information for each other.
In the following days, Zhang Yimou and Chen Ting had a lot of exchanges and contacts.
In these exchanges, the hearts of the two are also unconsciously close to each other.
"Happy Time" was eventually starred by Dong Jie, and Zhao Benshan was also the protagonist, but this movie did not have much repercussions.
Dong Jie also became an unknown "girl".
Chen Ting, who failed to get the role, received a text message:
"I like you, although you can't be the heroine, but you can be the heroine of my life." 」
It was such a sentence that made Chen Ting fall.
She lived with the idol she admired.
Soon, Chen Ting called Zhang Yimou, and her tone was full of panic: I am pregnant.
It is said that at that time, Zhang Yimou calmly asked a rhetorical question:
Were you born, or did you choose to continue learning?
It can be seen that in many things, Zhang Yimou will choose to escape.
But at this time, Chen Ting gritted her teeth and insisted: Hugh xue gave birth.
It can be seen from here that Zhang Yimou is very indecisive in life affairs, but Chen Ting is very decisive.
This is the complementarity of the two personalities.
It is said that Chen Ting then took Zhang Yimou to meet her parents.
Seeing the "son-in-law-to-be" who was older than himself, the old two were speechless.
It's just that they can't beat their own daughters.
Finally, Mother Chen made 3 requests to Zhang Yimou:
One is not to hurt his daughter and must marry her in the future;
Second, in order to protect Chen Ting, do not disclose the relationship between the two to the public, and let her daughter live with her;
Third, all property has half of Chen Ting's.
For these problems, Zhang Yimou agreed to it, and fully honored it in later life.
However, for Chen Ting, since 2000, she has "disappeared".
2. Caprylic
"Disappearing" from the front of everyone, can only silently be Zhang Yimou's "woman behind the scenes".
This is hard for anyone to accept.
But Chen Ting took it on, because she knew what she wanted and what she could provide for Zhang Yimou.
It's just that she faces too much bitterness.
The first problem is to have children: 3 children in 5 years.
After Zhang Yimou was exposed to the news of "super life", Zhang Yimou said in an interview that he was influenced by family concepts and always wanted to "have more children and more blessings".
This sentence is simple to say, but the bitterness behind it is Chen Ting silently bearing.
In 2001, Chen Ting gave birth to her eldest son, Zhang Yinan.
Zhang Yimou is a workaholic who is not good at raising children.
Therefore, in the matter of raising her son, Chen Ting and her mother all took care of it.
In the next 5 years, Chen Ting gave birth to his second son Zhang Yiding and his younger daughter Zhang Yijiao.
Two sons and a daughter, in the eyes of outsiders, this is how happy.
But only those who have actually experienced childbearing will know how hard it is behind it.
In particular, when Chen Ting needed Zhang Yimou the most, he was still shooting movies outside.
Even the relationship between the two cannot be made public.
Whether physically or psychologically, Chen Ting has endured tremendous pressure.
Fortunately, she took on it.
In addition to having children, Chen Ting also has to have a good relationship with Zhang Yimou's family.
Zhang Yimou's mother, Zhang Xiaoyou, is a very old-school old-school old man.
She is very dissatisfied with her son's "empathy and non-love".
Anecdotal rumors, it is said that the old lady once held the hand of the former daughter-in-law Xiao Hua and sighed:
"Our old Zhang family only recognizes you as a daughter-in-law."
Because of her dissatisfaction with her son's approach, the old lady also transferred her anger to Chen Ting.
After Zhang Yimou and Gong Li broke up, the old lady wanted to match her son and Xiao Hua to reunite.
Unexpectedly, this came out of another Chen Ting.
Because of the gambling, the old lady insisted on not living with Zhang Yimou.
She would rather live alone in a dilapidated old house.
In this regard, Zhang Yimou has no way to do anything, but the gentle Chen Ting is trying to repair the "contradiction between mother-in-law and daughter-in-law".
Once, when she and Zhang Yimou went to visit her mother, Chen Ting specifically instructed her to bring her son.
When they arrived at the old man's home, Zhang Yimou picked up his mother and lived with him.
Zhang Xiaoyou's face was unhappy.
At this time, the grandson stood up and must drag the grandmother to live in his own home.
It is said that "the next generation of children", seeing such a big grandson, who can not be moved.
Therefore, the old lady lived with Chen Ting.
After living together, the mother-in-law's diet and living were all pressed on Chen Ting.
She left the most spacious house in the family to her mother-in-law, and arranged three meals a day according to the dietary preferences of the elderly.
All the interpersonal relationships in this world are nothing more than: people's hearts for hearts, and true feelings for true feelings.
Watching Chen Ting's comeback, Zhang Xiaoyou finally accepted this daughter-in-law.
In 2018, Zhang Yimou's mother was seriously ill and hospitalized, and during the period, Chen Ting was cared for in the hospital.
Such true feelings are really touching.
In addition to Zhang Yimou's mother, Chen Ting has to face Zhang Yimou's eldest daughter Zhang Mo.
Zhang Mo was only 2 years younger than Chen Ting.
Such two people stand together like sisters.
But Zhang Mo is not a "good talking" daughter.
Once, Zhang Mo directly wrote an angry article reprimanding Gong Li for destroying his family and leaving a shadow on his childhood.
She has always been angry with Gong Li.
For Chen Ting, naturally there was no good face.
However, Chen Ting still took the initiative to do what she should do.
Later, Zhang Mo married abroad, and later came the news of her foreign handsome husband "domestic violence".
In this regard, Chen Ting has always been very concerned about Zhang Mo.
Perhaps because he had also experienced the pain of marriage, Zhang Mo could finally understand his father's choice.
Later, Zhang Mo had a very good relationship with Chen Ting, and the two even got along as "girlfriends".
There is a family portrait of Zhang Yimou on the Internet.
In the photo, Zhang Mo and Zhang Mu were present, and Chen Ting was just standing on the side of the photo.
However, everyone has a smile on their face.
Perhaps, such a warm family atmosphere is all exchanged for Chen Ting's own sincerity.
III. Conclusion
Someone once asked: The temperament is not as good as Xiao Hua, the strength is not as good as Gong Li, why can Chen Ting be favored by Zhang Yimou for more than 20 years?
Some people also asked: Chen Ting fell in love with Zhang Yimou, who was 31 years older than herself, and gave birth to 3 children for him.
In fact, the answer to all the questions may lie in Chen Ting's deepest love for her family:
As we all know, Zhang Mo inherited his father's career and became an excellent director.
Chen Ting and Zhang Yimou's eldest son, Zhang Yinan, is also excellent.
At the age of 18, his short films shot with his classmates won three awards at the Student Film Festival, including Best Picture, Best Director and Best Music.
As an old father, Zhang Yimou once sighed: he won the first award at the age of 38, and his son did it at the age of 18.
From this point of view, in the future, Zhang Yinan will inherit his father's career.
The second eldest, Zhang Yiding, is also very good, he studied abroad alone when he was 16 years old, and some people posted photos of him playing the violin on the Internet.
It can be seen that it is also versatile.
As for the youngest daughter, Zhang Yijiao, she is proficient in piano, chess, calligraphy and painting, and is also good at ballet.
She often practiced with her mom.
At the age of 11, Zhang Yijiao published her own book, Food Diary.
Moreover, the poems written by this little girl are very good, and the poems she wrote to her father Zhang Yimou are very meaningful.
Perhaps it is because of Chen Ting's excellent education and dedication to the family that Zhang Yimou has more events and energy to devote to his career.
As a result, we can see that even if we have reached the age of 70 and the director has rarely produced works in the same period, Zhang Yimou has successively launched wonderful movies such as "One Second", "On the Cliff", "Sniper" and so on.
Moreover, even though he is already in his 70s, Zhang Yimou still served as the general director of the opening ceremonies of the Winter Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Chinese-style romance is fully displayed under zhang Yimou's lens.
Perhaps, this is also Zhang Yimou's "love letter" to his wife.
Once, when Chen Ting was interviewed and asked about self-growth, she replied:
"I went to school after giving birth to my eldest, and I went to graduate school after giving birth to my second eldest."
From here, it can be seen that Chen Ting has never given up her own growth.
Later, Chen Ting took off the title of "Zhang Yimou's wife" from her personal social account profile on the Internet.
From here, it can be seen that this strong and independent woman is still so shining.
Some people say that Chen Ting married Zhang Yimou, but it is only to illustrate his fame and earning power.
This is not the case.
For people without strength, the higher you stand, the heavier you may fall.
In a relationship and marriage, the most important thing is mutual achievement and promotion.
This is the reason why Chen Ting and Zhang Yimou can get along so lovingly.
Bless Chen Ting, this woman with a fragrance in her soul.