Text/Si Qi
In her later years, she wished Xi juan
When it comes to Zhu Xijuan, there should not be many familiar friends.
Today, the old drama bone is 84 years old, with pale white hair and wrinkles full of stories.
Before Liu Xiaoqing, Si qinggaowa, Chen Chong and other famous Hua Dan, Zhu Xijuan was the first winner of the "Hundred Flowers and Shadows Queen" in the mainland, and her acting career presented nearly 100 film and television dramas such as "Red Detachment of Women", "Ode to the Silver Needle under the Shadowless Lamp", "Model Husband", "The Story of the Old Man" and so on.
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In the year of winning the Hundred Flowers Award, Premier Zhou Enlai invited her to dance, and Guo Moruo, a "generation of literary heroes", wrote an inscription for her "Southern Qionghua".
Such a people's artist with both virtue and art, but in his old age, he and his wife lived in a nursing home, which made people wonder...
01
In the 1930s, warlords were at war, and the people were not happy.
Born in a chaotic world, people who do not want to live, their fate is destined to be not ordinary.
On January 17, 1938, Zhu Xijuan was born in Ganzhou City, Jiangxi Province, in a scholarly mendi.
His father, Zhu Yuanqing, was a professor at Tongji University in Shanghai, and his mother was a primary school teacher.
Zhu Xijuan also has an older brother and an older sister above, the sister is a graduate of Fudan University, and the brother died young.
As the youngest child in the family, Zhu Xijuan has been spoiled since she was a child, soaking in the "ink bottle" and growing up.
Youth Wish Xijuan
If the world is peaceful, Zhu Xijuan will become an intellectual who eats cultural food.
But the reality was cruel, and soon shattered the family's peaceful and happy life.
When Zhu Xijuan was 3 years old, with the smoke of war, her parents took her and her brother and sister around since then, living a life of displacement without a fixed place.
During this period, due to the relocation of Tongji University several times, the Zhu family of 5 traveled to Jiangxi, Guangxi, Yunnan and other places, and then lived in Yibin, Sichuan for 6 years.
Sadly, the 18-year-old brother also contracted an illness and died during the migration, and the family fell into deep grief and could not be calmed for a long time.
Youth Wish Xijuan
In 1949, the people of the whole country welcomed liberation, and Zhu Xijuan's family also ushered in a turning point in their destiny.
They moved back to Long-Lost Shanghai, where they rekindled the glimmer of hope.
From primary school to junior high school, Zhu Xijuan is a school bully and is deeply liked by teachers.
In addition, she also likes to sing and dance, and has an artistic dream.
After people's lives gradually moved onto the right track, literature and art also revived.
In the first year of junior high school, Zhu Xijuan was 14 years old, and the movie quietly broke into her life.
Youth Wish Xijuan
02
This year, Changchun Film Studio was actively preparing to shoot "Blessings for Children", and the directing task fell to the director Zhao Dan.
In order to select small actors with aura, Zhao Dan set his sights on middle school students across the country.
By chance, the excellent Zhu Xijuan was selected, but she only got a small role in the movie.
This short performance made her fall deeply in love with acting, and the idea of being an actor was even more fierce.
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In order to get closer to the film, Zhu Xijuan worked hard and was admitted to the Shanghai Theater Academy in 1956.
You should know that at this time, the teachers who play are very strong, and the lineup of teachers is even more jaw-dropping.
Among them, mei Lanfang, Huang Zuolin, Chen Baichen and other people have given their full attention to teaching, and there are many big directors and actors who have been trained.
During her studies, Zhu Xijuan worked diligently and diligently, asking teachers for performance skills from time to time and learning various performance knowledge.
In 1958, 20-year-old Zhu Xijuan was in her sophomore year of college, looking young and beautiful, and her academic performance was also among the best in school.
Zhu Xijuan painted a biography
At this time, she seems to be gentle and atmospheric, but in fact, she has the fiery and stubbornness of a boy.
One day, she quarreled with her male classmates backstage over a small matter, and the two sides fought red-faced.
Although she is a girl, Zhu Xijuan is "unforgiving.".
Only to see her hands crossed at her waist, looking at each other angrily, vowing to divide and conquer.
Zhu Xijuan, who sounded like Hong Zhong, could not have imagined that it was precisely because of this quarrel that she was "watched" by director Xie Jin.
At that time, Xie Jin was worried about the casting of the newly prepared movie "Red Detachment of Women", and interviewed a number of actresses and was not satisfied.
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Just as he was looking at the students of the upper drama, he happened to see this scene.
Xie Jin immediately patted his thigh: Isn't this exactly the "Wu Qionghua" I want, and what else are you looking for?
In this way, Zhu Xijuan successfully joined the crew of "Red Detachment of Women" and officially opened her brilliant life.
The filming location of the film was chosen in the beautiful Hainan, but the crew did not come to enjoy life, but to experience hardships.
As the female number one, Zhu Xijuan even has a heavy responsibility and cannot be sloppy.
In order to create this "Iron Lady" image, she successively visited Feng Zengmin, the company commander of the former Red Lady Scout Army, including a group of veteran soldiers.
During this time, she wore leggings and shorts, and practiced hard in the hot sun, turning herself into a "little black girl".
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No pain, no gain!
After several months of combat life experience, in addition to not really going to the battlefield, Zhu Xijuan and her colleagues have been no different from the warriors, resolute and upright.
In order to be closer to the image of the soldier, she also cut off her beloved shoulder braid, like a tomboy.
In 1961, "The Red Detachment of Women" appeared in theaters, and once it was released, it achieved great repercussions across the country.
In the film, Zhu Xijuan played "Wu Qionghua", Wang Xingang played "Hong Changqing", Xiang Mei played "Fu Hongmei", Chen Qiang played "Nan Batian"... Each character is deeply rooted in people's hearts and has influenced generations.
Chen Qiang played Nan Batian in "The Red Detachment of Women"
In the 60s, when the Internet had barely developed, "Red Detachment of Women" created a boom of 600 million viewers watching movies, and its influence was unprecedented.
With the role of "Wu Qionghua", Zhu Xijuan won the best actress of the first Popular Film Hundred Flowers Award, becoming the first film queen since the founding of New China.
The first Hundred Flowers Award Ceremony
On the day of the award ceremony, Guo Moruo personally presented her with an award certificate and inscription "Southern Qionghua".
At the party, Premier Zhou Enlai personally invited Zhu Xijuan to dance ballroom dance together.
Due to the excitement of the mood and the weak dance skills, Zhu Xijuan accidentally stepped on the instep of the prime minister's feet several times.
This honor, I wish Xijuan will never forget.
03
After graduating from the drama, Zhu Xijuan was assigned to the Shanghai Youth Repertory Theatre and began to be honed on the drama stage.
During this time, she continued to act, and successively starred in movies such as "Burning Plains", "Love on Aoyama", "Ode to the Silver Needle Under the Shadowless Lamp" and so on.
This year, she was also named one of the 22 biggest movie stars in Chinese films by the Ministry of Culture, and her reputation spread to thousands of households.
Youth Wish Xijuan
In 1963, the 25-year-old Zhu Xijuan ushered in a sweet love.
Through the introduction of friends, Zhu Xijuan met Hou Fengmin.
This is her first love and the man who accompanies him to the end.
Born in 1935 in Tai'an, Shandong Province, Hou Fengmin graduated from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts and was a teacher in the fine arts department of the Shanghai Theater Academy at that time, three years older than Zhu Xijuan.
Friends who like art will not be unfamiliar with Hou Fengmin's works such as "Chairman Mao is like the sun, where it shines and where it shines", "The Girl Under the Banana Tree", "Before Departure" and so on.
Zhu Xijuan and Hou Fengmin
The boy is handsome and talented, and the girl is beautiful and generous.
The two men who look like langcai and woman are soon attracted to each other and gradually fall in love.
After falling in love for a year, the two married late in Shanghai, and after marriage, they gave birth to their daughter Hou Lan, and the family of three was happy and harmonious.
But their happiness was soon overwhelmed by the vortex of the times.
In 1966, a special period of 10 years was officially opened, affecting many people in the literary and artistic circles and educational circles.
In this revolution, because her father was listed as an "old social intellectual", Zhu Xijuan became the target of the attack.
Years later, recalling those bitter years, Zhu Xijuan is still silent.
In addition to not acting, she writes inspections every day to review the "mistakes" she has committed.
Wish Xi Juan
At the monthly review meeting, we still have to read it out in front of the masses and accept everyone's criticism and accusations.
For a long time, Zhu Xijuan couldn't figure out what mistake she had made and why she had to be treated unfairly.
The double torture of spirit and body made her desperate, and she even thought that she would never see the day of her head again.
Fortunately, during this difficult time, she still had to love her husband and accompany her sensible and well-behaved daughter.
In 1976, with the end of the special period, Zhu Xijuan's family finally ushered in the warm sun.
This year, she is 38 years old, and she has survived a good year in the haze.
That day, she and her husband made a large table of good dishes, paying tribute to the past with tears of joy.
Zhu Xijuan took a group photo with Tian Hua and others
04
In 1978, the 40-year-old Zhu Xijuan gave birth to a big fat boy for her husband, named Hou Liang.
The arrival of the little life makes her full of energy and eager to return to the acting position quickly.
Under the meticulous care of Hou Fengmin, Zhu Xijuan quickly passed the delivery period, and the advanced age of childbirth did not affect her at all.
Wish Mr. and Mrs. Xijuan with their children
In an interview, Zhu Xijuan felt very nostalgic: "Marrying him in this life is simply earned." During the confinement period, he was like a sister-in-law and never let me go to the ground. ”
After a short break of a year, Zhu Xijuan and Xie Jin collaborated again and starred in the feature film "Ah! Cradle".
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After a full 10 years of separation from the show business circle, her acting skills have not decreased but increased, and the instructor "Li Nan" played by her has only a wonderful portrait, and she cannot see the traces of performance at all.
In the next two years, Zhu Xijuan galloped between movies and dramas, and presented works such as "Model Husband" and "Goodbye, Paris".
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In 1983, Zhu Xijuan was invited to serve as the deputy director of Shenzhen Television Station and the director of the Art Center, and became the first program host of the station.
At a time when the spring breeze of reform was full of spring, Shenzhen's development was ready to go.
Two years later, Zhu Xijuan decided to go with the European gold panning with the momentum of the film and television industry and bring the good experience back to China.
In 1985, she planned and launched the feature film "Male Citizen", which reflected 20,000 engineers in Shenzhen, which achieved great response after its release.
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Since then, she has successively launched film and television works such as "Beyond Life" and "The Last Nobleman", and the response is also good.
It was Zhu Xijuan's reform that completely overturned the old situation in which local television stations only broadcast news and broadcast Hong Kong and Taiwan dramas the rest of the time.
Behind the success is endless bitterness.
Zhu Xijuan just arrived at the beginning of the TV station, no one was willing to sponsor, many people think that she is "a fool's dream".
In order to raise funds, she visited again and again, and was turned away again and again.
Middle-aged Zhu Xijuan
Fortunately, her husband supported her, and even if he gave everything he had, he did not complain, and even pulled sponsorship with her.
The couple worked hand in hand and finally got through the most difficult time.
It is no exaggeration to say that the reason why the Shenzhen television industry has achieved impressive results is inseparable from the perseverance and unrepentant efforts of Zhu Xijuan and others.
In those years, she took over film and television dramas while serving as a leader, such as the Shenzhen documentary "Charming Young City", which exuded the light of Shenzhen's growth.
Zhu Xijuan and her son Hou Liang
05
In 1998, Zhu Xijuan reached the age of Hua Jia and retired honorably.
It should have been a day of leisure and happiness, but she was not willing to go "old" like this, and vowed to bloom herself in her old age.
This year, together with the 63-year-old Hou Fengmin, she traveled thousands of miles to the United States and settled in Los Angeles.
Zhu Xijuan's purpose in coming to this land is very clear, that is, to learn from Hollywood's advanced film and television culture in order to achieve the integration of China and the West.
In order to integrate as soon as possible, this sixty-year-old man began to learn English, take a driver's license, cook Western food... It's like stepping back in time to student days.
Wish Xi Juan
During this period, Zhu Xijuan and her friends established the "American Qionghua Art Film and Television Company" and served as the president, which effectively achieved the purpose of Sino-Western film and television exchanges.
For more than 10 years, Zhu Xijuan flew between China and the United States, taking care of the company's business while filming, and was busy and happy.
Such a colorful retirement life is the envy of many elderly people.
In film and television works such as "Remarried Family", "Send You To a Small Town", "Destiny", Zhu Xijuan and young actors are fighting together, and the younger generations are humbly asking her for acting experience.
Wish Xi Juan
The tree is thousands of feet tall, and the leaves fall back to the roots!
In 2016, 78-year-old Zhu Xijuan decided to return to Shenzhen with her wife.
At this time, their daughter Hou Lan had already established a family in Los Angeles, and their son Hou Liang was a director in Shenzhen.
Although Hou Lan struggled to keep it, his parents had already decided to give up.
After returning to Shenzhen, Zhu Xijuan did not stop acting, and successively starred in film and television dramas such as "Keeping The Marriage" and "Snow Winter Solstice".
With the film "Snow Winter Solstice", which reflects the empty nest old man, she was shortlisted for the Best Actress Award at the 9th Macao International Film Festival and won the Special Honor Award of the Jury of the Media Concern Unit of the Film Channel of the 20th Shanghai International Film Festival.
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It is also because of the film that Zhu Xijuan's idea of "pension" has undergone earth-shaking changes.
After discussing with her wife, she lived in a nursing home in Shenzhen.
Nursing homes have always been the best home for widows and widows, and there is generally no child support.
So, why do the couples who are filial to their children and have good economic strength spend the rest of their lives in nursing homes?
Suddenly, public opinion has been overwhelming, and relatives, friends and fans are in the clouds.
Stills from "Snowy Winter Solstice"
06
When they learned that their parents were going to live in a nursing home, Hou Lan and Hou Liang resolutely refused to let them, and the sisters and brothers took turns to fight, and finally joined forces to dissuade them.
"Mommy and Daddy, is it the children who are doing something bad?" Or is it the brother-in-law and daughter-in-law who make the second elder unhappy? If you live in a nursing home, don't we become filial children? ”
Looking at her son's anxious look, Zhu Xijuan explained in a serious tone: "Child, the reason why we took the initiative to live here is because it is really good here, and we can get happiness here. In addition, there is always a gap between two generations living together, and living apart is more missed. ”
Wish Mr. and Mrs. Xi Juan
Seeing that his father Hou Fengmin also nodded in agreement, Hou Lan and Hou Liang no longer demanded it.
After living in a nursing home, the old couple did live a relaxed and comfortable life.
Every day, they play chess with the old guys, talk about life, visit the park... What a pleasure!
It is worth mentioning that the various facilities of this nursing home are relatively complete, and the service staff is also highly equipped.
Most of the elderly who choose to come here to spend their old age are those with relatively superior economic conditions.
Once, the reporter interviewed Xi Juan, who was 80 years old, with a full stomach of questions.
She replied:
"Since ancient times, old-age care has been a serious topic. When you are young, you work hard, and it is reasonable to say that you should enjoy it when you are old. But if this is the case, it will become a burden for the next generation. In fact, even if you are old, as long as you are physically and mentally healthy, you should be self-reliant and live your own wonderful! ”
Being able to say these words shows that Zhu Xijuan's thinking is advancing with the times, which can be called "sober in the world."
But I also have to say that whether it is economic strength or prestige, she has this strength.
Compared with Zhu Xijuan and his wife, many elderly people are "respectful and distant" from the nursing home because of various unbalanced factors.
In 2020, Zhu Xijuan starred in the drama movie "Empty Nest", in which she played the role of "Zhao Yimei" as an empty nest old man, which well showed the many difficulties faced by the elderly living alone and promoted the truth, goodness and beauty of human nature.
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In September of the same year, Zhu Xijuan won the National Top Ten Film Actress Award at the New Era International Film Festival to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the founding of New China.
As an old artist who came out of the old society, this award is not only deserved for her, but also has far-reaching significance...