On October 31, 2018, 55-year-old Lan Jieying collapsed to death in her apartment, and her body was found three days later when friends visited.
On the same day, Lan Jieying fans will post on Weibo to confirm the news. Netizens summarized her life in one sentence: once beautiful Wutaishan, but there has not been much sweetness in her life, a bitter woman with a red face and a thin life, I don't know if there will be retribution for ruining her life.
Lan Jieying, who was once the head of TVB in the 80s, has the name of "Beautiful Wutaishan", and should have become a generation of film and television drama divas, composing the legendary life of ordinary girls against the wind. Who would have thought that she would be hidden in the snow, sexually assaulted, and eventually reduced to a crazy woman written by the Hong Kong media.
How many unknown things happened in the middle, outsiders inevitably sighed: When she was down, there was no one to help, what happened to her?
One
In 1963, Lan Jieying was born in an ordinary family in Mong Kok. My father runs a food stall and is busy, but his family is also quite prosperous. She is the daughter of the family, and she has three brothers and one sister in front of her. Because she is the youngest and cute, everyone in the family likes to tease her.
Lan Jieying's little brother especially likes to tease her. Once, he took the iron that his mother had just used and lied to Lan Jieying that the iron was not hot at all. Lan Jieying believed it, stretched out her hand, and made her whole body jump. The little brother laughed.
The uncles and aunts around often praised Lan Jieying for being beautiful, and she quietly asked her father if it was true? Dad happily lied to her: No, uncle and aunt coaxed you. As a result, Lan Jieying has always thought that she is not beautiful.
Once she went to her parents' food stall to hang out. An uncle saw her and reached out and pulled her braids. She immediately turned around and scolded this uncle. Who would have thought that the uncle's backhand was a slap in the face. This incident left a deep impression on Lan Jieying: "Why did I curse, he wanted to beat me?" ”
When she was a child, Lan Jieying never thought of becoming an actress, and her earliest ambition was to be a doctor, but her grades were not good enough. When she graduated from high school, her father wanted to send her to an American school in Taiwan. She didn't want to go, but instead entered society early, learning tailoring, typing, and other livelihoods during the process. Three hundred and sixty lines, I just didn't think about acting.
In 1982, Lan Jieying accompanied a friend to take the TVB artist training course, but her friend did not come, but she successfully passed the exam. In this 12th training class, she became classmates with Wu Junru, Liu Zhenyun, Zeng Huaqian and Liu Jialing.
As soon as she graduated from the training course, she got a lot of good opportunities with her beautiful appearance. worked as an location host in the popular music program K-100 and interviewed Teresa Teng; He also hosted the children's program 430 Shuttle with Stephen Chow and Zeng Huaqian.
A year later, she moved to the film and television department. The first TV series was "Twisted Double Star", and then filmed "Beyond the Love Line", "Draw a Rainbow" and "Family Has a Wife". In "Family Has a Wife", she partnered with Tony Leung, and it was this drama that made her a new first-line actress, which can be described as the peak of her debut.
Compared with other training class students, Lan Jieying's resources are very good as soon as she debuts, she does not need to painstakingly find opportunities, nor does she have to wait for the beginning.
No matter how good the resources are, the salary received is very small. At that time, the monthly salary of 2,000 Hong Kong dollars was not worth the hard work of the actors in filming, and the remuneration received was not comparable to the money earned by the female factory workers.
Lan Jieying's parents will subsidize their younger daughter from time to time. Sometimes, the mother will put one or two hundred yuan on her daughter's dresser, saying that it is the bus fare to work.
In fact, the family does not want Lan Jieying to be an actress, she just likes it and insists on acting. The family couldn't help it, so they let her go.
Lan Jieying sometimes has contradictions in her heart, because the actor's industry has to deal with many people, and she herself is pampered and grew up, people are not good, direct nature, easy to cause trouble, will be very hard. Her father saw it in his heart and often said: Don't do it if it's too hard.
Seeing her rising star path, wireless considered that the three-year contract was about to expire, and in the second half of 1984, she began to discuss the follow-up contract with Lan Jieying. Wireless hopes that she can sign a three-year long-term contract so that she can develop steadily.
At that time, Lan Jieying hadn't thought about it, she thought that the acting industry was colorful, and she knew the hardships when she entered the industry, and she felt that she needed to adapt again. Based on this idea, there is no answer wireless.
When the contract expired in 1985, Wireless immediately offered to sign a five-year contract, and the terms of the contract were also very stringent. Originally, Lan Jieying's monthly salary was not high, and it was not proportional to the effort, and the harsh conditions were really difficult to accept. The workers' own interests must be protected, so Lan Jieying, Andy Lau, Miao Qiaowei, etc. refused the wireless contract and began to engage in a tug-of-war with wireless.
In this way, wireless has a killer feature: snow hiding.
Lan Jieying just got the role of "Greater Hong Kong" at that time, and was replaced because of the renewal issue. The reason is also very simple, there is no need for wireless to hold an employee who does not renew his contract and make a wedding dress for other companies.
Two
Xue Zang's matter is to kill a thousand enemies and self-damage a hundred. Three months later, under the pressure of his old rival ATV dramas, Wireless had to relax and agree to Lan Jieying's request. Lan Jieying eventually received a salary increase and renewed her contract with Wireless for two years.
After signing the contract, she starred in "Six Finger Piano Demon". The next year, there was a role of Zhao Min waiting for her in "The Legend of Relying on the Sky and Slaying the Dragon".
Seeing the smooth wind, who would have thought that at this juncture, her boyfriend Deng Qiyang suddenly committed suicide. Hearing this news, Lan Jieying couldn't believe it, she hadn't eaten for seven days, and she was thinking all the time about how to bring her boyfriend back to life. Even the words "the black cat jumps out of bed and the person will come back to life", she believes it.
When Lan Jieying decided to concentrate on acting to dissipate her inner grief, the news came that Zhao Min's role had been changed. It turned out that Wireless was worried that this matter would affect her public image and affect the state of her performance, so she replaced the actor with Lai Meixian, and also found a lame excuse: the schedule of "The Legend of Relying on the Sky and Slaying the Dragon" conflicts with her other drama "Hero Story".
But Lai Meixian also has a role in "Heroic Story", how come there is no conflict? Apparently the wireless argument is untenable.
For the first time, Lan Jieying really tasted the taste of being coldly abandoned and hidden, and even had thoughts of suicide for a while.
When the contract expired in 1987, Lan Jieying left wireless and wanted to get married and enter a new stage of life, but because it was an actor's professional relationship, her relationship was eventually frustrated and she could not enter marriage.
She thought about it and finally understood what she was going to do, so she returned to wireless in 1988. In one year, she connected nine scripts and played nine different roles. Because she understands her goals, she is very strict with herself. As long as there is a scene that is not filmed, it will be asked to be repeated.
Such high standards have tempered her acting skills and won her praise from the media, calling her an acting actress.
On the other hand, this pursuit of perfection personality also brings some negative evaluations. Some classmates in the training class said that her personality was more persistent and paranoid, because she had to criticize everything, and everyone would be uncomfortable with her for a long time, and gradually she would lose friends.
When she finally got out of the grief of her boyfriend's suicide, she met Paul Zhong.
However, unexpectedly, it didn't take long for Paul to be addicted to gambling and owed huge gambling debts, and the creditors often went to the residence of the two to collect debts.
In the end, Paul Zhong was overwhelmed and committed suicide by jumping off the building.
Within 3 years, she experienced the suicide of two boyfriends, which hit Lan Jieying's spirit hard.
In 1990, Lan Jieying's contract with Wireless expired, and this time she wanted to enter the film industry and broaden her star path, so she signed her agent Chen Ziqiang.
At that time, Chen Ziqiang had actresses Maggie Cheung, Wang Zuxian, Lin Qingxia, etc., and Lan Jieying's cross-border entry was not so prominent. Fortunately, Taiwanese dramas are developing, and Chen Ziqiang asked Lan Jieying to go to Taiwan to film.
After filming two plays in Taiwan, she was recognized by the Taiwanese film and television industry, and other invitations came one after another. But Wireless is not happy, if Lan Jieying develops in Taiwan, then Wireless's video tape business in Taiwan will be affected. So wireless let Lan Jieying return to Hong Kong. In desperation, Lan Jieying had to return to Hong Kong.
In 1992, director Wei Jiahui strongly invited Lan Jieying to join the crew of the wireless 25th anniversary Taiwan celebration drama "Big Time", playing Fang Zhanbo (played by Liu Qingyun) stepmother Luo Huiling. This kind but tragic woman was vividly interpreted by her. With this role, Lan Jieying won the most popular artist award of the year and laid the foundation for strength.
She laughed that she has acting skills, but she has no masterpiece, and her future goal is to make a masterpiece of her own. With a masterpiece, she can feel at ease when she gets married.
Perhaps God was jealous of Lan Jieying's luck, after which she ushered in the last two major blows of her life - the death of her parents and sexual assault.
Three
When Lan Jieying was thirty-two years old, Stephen Chow found her and hoped that she would take over the filming of the spider Jingchun Thirteenth Niang in "Journey to the West". Lan Jieying contributed superb acting skills in the film, and expected the film to be a box office hit, but the result ended dismally. Full of wanting to make achievements in the film industry, she never got her wish.
Not only that, her parents died one after another in those two years, which made her blame herself for not being able to fulfill her filial piety under her parents' knees and fell into a low mood.
Since then, she has gradually faded out of the entertainment industry, until the Hong Kong media continued to expose her a series of negative news, such as a nervous breakdown at the Canadian airport, and the media gave her the name of the four crazy kings.
In 2006, she was in the news again due to bankruptcy, becoming the first Hong Kong star to file for bankruptcy.
In 2013, an interview video of Lan Jieying once again stirred the water of the entertainment industry.
In the video, Lan Jieying revealed that she had been sexually assaulted and showed the scars on her hands that committed suicide.
It turned out that during 1998, she was always in a bad mood for the death of her parents, and in order to comfort her, friends invited her to visit Singapore at the end of the year. As a result, she was violated by her big brother in the entertainment industry, which made her mood worse.
For who is the big brother in the entertainment industry, all kinds of speculations flew for a while. In fact, it doesn't matter who it is, this injury has been devastating to her, and it has also allowed people to glimpse some of the reasons for fading out of the entertainment industry - depression, unscrupulous media.
In April 1999, Lan Jieying went to see a psychiatrist, and by then she was already suffering from depression.
Combined with the time of the invasion in Singapore, it is not difficult to guess the cause. Ben was depressed due to the death of his parents, but he was obviously happy to distract but encountered aggression, and he fell from heaven to hell in an instant.
Many people will wonder: why not call the police?
Lan Jieying didn't dare. The perpetrator is a big brother in the entertainment industry, the weight of the words, she shouted that no one may believe it. What's more, once the media smells the wind and exposes the news, it will be her who will face pressure, it is she who is stripped by the media, it is she who is suspected by all kinds of groundless, and it is she who is humiliated.
Just like she was originally hidden because she didn't renew her contract with Wireless, she was replaced in the media because she played a big name. It is obviously a serious work issue, but it is written by the media as a personal character problem. News like this is endless. Each of them even spread rumors that her parents were divorced and her stepfather beat her severely.
The Hong Kong media paparazzi have never been good people, and they drill wherever there is a breaking point. The more it stimulates the reader, the more excited they are, no matter what the truth is, what harm it does to others. What is not written is yes, what is dead is written as alive, and the barrel of the paparazzi is a knife of Ling Chi, specializing in digging pain points.
Because she knew the paparazzi too well, Lan Jieying knew how she would be criticized if this matter was made public. The theory of victim guilt was the most common accusation of sexual assault cases in that era - "It must be something you did to happen!" "Who made you scantily dressed?!"
Lan Jieying will not be able to withstand the indefensible public opinion attack. However, silence did not diminish her pain.
Lan Jieying, who grew up in the sixties and seventies of the 20th century, is relatively conservative in her thinking, and her view of female chastity has become an imprint. Lan Jieying, who has shown herself as a pure jade woman since her debut, also recognizes such an image.
The violation caused a crack in "perfection", and Lan Jieying was even more difficult to let go of such a result.
Did she mention it to her family or to her friends when she was assaulted? Most likely no one said.
Just like after Carina Liu was kidnapped, she only said that it was a robbery and did not mention the photo. It's so normal that no one wants to mention this "shameful" thing, especially a woman, even if she's not wrong.
In 2002, the "East Weekly" photo incident caused a heated discussion, Liu Jialing could not withstand the pressure of public opinion, and once thought of suicide. Isn't this an invisible oppression of women by the environment? In a sense, Lan Jieying was already aware of this situation.
Fame and human words are the most likely reasons for Lan Jieying's initial silence, and behind this is a microcosm of the environment of the times.
Coupled with the fact that depression is easy to make people blame themselves, in this case, Lan Jieying, who has no one to talk to, is likely to constantly blame herself. Blam yourself for why you went to Singapore, blame yourself for not being careful, or blame the world for being unfair to women, or resent that offenders can't be punished. All the anger, grievances, and pain can only be held in my mouth and tried to swallow.
She estimated the violent consequences of public opinion, but did not estimate the limit of her own endurance. Eventually, in the cycle of self-denigration, self-pity, and self-harm, her state got worse and worse until she collapsed.
In those years, she was most likely to stay away from all social interactions, and even had some outrageous behaviors that pushed her family and friends away. Friends and relatives may not understand what is going on at all, and in the end they only think that she may not welcome the attention of others. Family and friends don't know how to deal with people with depression.
In this way, the connection that slowly fades will only fade more and more, and finally disappear.
In one interview, she said that it had been two years since she and her closest sister last met, and when she called her sister, all she heard was a recorded phone call. What she hopes most of all is to see her sister again. When she said this wish, her face was full of hope.
Hong Kong media took the opportunity to portray an ordinary depressed person as a mentally crazy actress, using this as a gimmick to win attention. Gossip is flying all over the street, and people talk about it. After all, at that time, people did not know much about depression, and even had misconceptions.
Seeing the paparazzi who made money even squatted outside Lan Jieying's apartment to take pictures, which made her unbearable. These behaviors worsened her condition.
In 2013, Lan Jieying, who was in good shape, posted on Weibo to express the idea of a comeback. However, no one approached her to film. The entertainment industry is still optimistic about the young popular little flower at this time, and she is already beautiful.
She lives on welfare assistance, occasionally with neighbors or movie fans. She is not willing to accept it in vain, and must return the gift, which is the dignity she retains in the end.
In the eyes of the public, she is a star who has fallen into disgrace, with no one to care for and no one to help.
Four
In 2017, the Metoo movement against sexual harassment began, and in 2018, Lan Jieying passed away.
What if Metoo was thirty years earlier? Her life must be a different outcome.
Unfortunately, the times have their own paces, and people in 99 years are another time and space existence.
If Lan Jieying had opened up everything at that time, did not care about the smear of the media, did not care about the so-called image of the jade woman, did not care about the theory of the guilt of the victim, bravely went to the police to testify against the aggressor, and demanded a justice ruling, would she have been able to get rid of the fate of "madness"?
What will people say? Don't be afraid, we support you! Or the other way around: consider your reputation.
Even if justice is pursued despite it, what happens after that? What do people around her think of her? Will she have a new job? Can she move into a new life? The most important thing is how does she get through herself?
The limitations of the times do not give an ideal answer.
What can really reverse Lan Jieying's fate is that after the events of that year, she immediately opened her heart with the help of others' strength, recovered her state and entered a new life. The biggest help for people with depression to get better is the support of family and friends.
If she asks for help, receives the support of family and friends, and with the help of professional doctors, it is only a matter of time before she recovers.
And so it is.
In 2013, why was she able to talk about sexual assault in an interview video? Because she is gradually getting better, let go of the knot. Under the recommendation of her new friend Sister Zhen, she met a lot of parishioners, and the mutual encouragement of the parishioners allowed her to slowly come out of the haze.
It's just a pity that it's too late. Only five years after 2013 to 2018, she died unexpectedly, which was too short.
If she had been looking for professional doctors for help and family support earlier and earlier, she would have recovered sooner, had more peaceful and happy time, or realized her dream of having a masterpiece.
The times cannot be changed, what can change is the choice, and a choice represents a road.
When there are storms in life, facing the wind and rain is one choice, sheltering from the storm is another choice, and borrowing the umbrella of others to live together is the third choice.
Lan Jieying did not choose to face the wind and rain, chose to shelter from the wind and rain, unfortunately did not borrow other people's umbrellas to live with, only thinking that one person carried everything, and finally could not survive his own life calamity.
It's a pity that this poor woman did not end her bumpy fate after her death.
Her cemetery was a mess...
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