At the end of 2002, an album called "Tongali Body Art Photo Book" was published, which caused an uproar across the country.
As the star of this photo book, female model Tongali has also stood on the cusp of public opinion while gaining overnight fame. Although some people expressed admiration for her courage, more people still thought that it was bad for her to do so, and scolded her for wanting to be famous and crazy.
Not long after the album was published, photographer Zhang Xulong took Tongali and the publisher who published it to court, which once again caused a huge repercussion.
Although Tongali won the lawsuit in the end, she also paid a heavy price - her father broke off relations with her, her husband divorced her, no one in the circle looked for her to film, and she received countless abusive letters from netizens every day, which made Tongali lose sleep and depression for a while, and even thought about suicide.
Twenty years later, Tongali is now in her fifties, but she is still alone. A reporter once asked her in an interview: If she could go back to 20 years ago, would she make the same choice?
Tongali responded: "I don't regret it, but life is stormy, please don't mention the past." ”
One
In 1994, when director Shen Dong was filming a MV for singer Su Hong at the Beijing Dance Academy, among the onlookers, he found a female college student who looked like a beautiful girl.
Out of professional sensitivity, Shen Dong concluded that as long as he spent some energy, he would definitely be able to make this beauty popular. So he asked his assistant to invite the beautiful woman to his office.
After talking, I learned that the girl's name is Tang Jali, a native of Hefei, Anhui Province, who just turned 18 years old this year and is a sophomore student majoring in dance at the Beijing Dance Academy.
Shen Dong asked Tangali straight to the point: Do you want to make a movie?
Making movies, being an actor has always been Tongali's wish since childhood, seeing that the director took the initiative to come to the door, where is he willing to let go of this opportunity? Without thinking, she replied, "Of course, I always dreamed of being an actress." ”
Director Shen thought to himself, if he marries this sister home as a wife, wouldn't it be equivalent to marrying a sister Zhiling by his side? Subsequently, Director Shen took the initiative to attack and repeatedly used filming as an excuse to ask Tongali to come out together to communicate.
Tongali is the only daughter in Hefei, Anhui Province, where her father is a veteran and her mother is a virtuous housewife. So from the moment she was born, her parents set a goal to raise their daughter to be a good woman.
Tongari grew up very beautiful, not only excellent in learning, but also showed a talent for dance. So when she was 9 years old, her parents followed the teacher's advice and sent Tangali to a dance school in Hefei.
In the dance school, the teacher also liked the hard-working Tongali and often gave her a small stove. Because the teacher can see that this child is very talented and can endure hardships, he will definitely be able to achieve good results in dance in the future.
The teacher's vision was very accurate, and after several years of training, Tongali was selected by the school to participate in the sports meeting held in the province. At this Games, 11-year-old Tongali won two gold medals and was also named an "outstanding athlete", becoming a little star in the eyes of relatives and friends. Everyone encouraged her to continue to work hard and become a dance star in the future.
After winning the gold medal, Tongali was favored by the Anhui Provincial Art School and recruited her to study dance at the school. A few years later, Tongali was admitted to the Anhui Provincial Song and Dance Troupe as soon as she graduated, becoming a professional dancer.
In the Anhui Provincial Song and Dance Troupe, with her beautiful appearance and solid dance skills, Tongali quickly became the top business in the troupe. Relying on her beautiful dance and handsome image, Tangali soon gained a certain fame and served as the lead dancer at the Spring Festival Gala held in Anhui Province.
Two
Tongali has a dream, that is, as a leading dancer, she will participate in the Spring Festival Gala held by CCTV, so that the people of the whole country can see her dancing moves. But she also knew that in order to achieve this wish, she must undergo higher professional training, and the local Hefei people could no longer meet this wish. Therefore, she was admitted to the Beijing Dance Academy despite the retention of the troupe.
As the capital, Beijing undoubtedly has more opportunities than Hefei. But Tangali soon found that although she had a certain reputation in Anhui, few people knew her in Beijing, and the dance level that made her proud was a medium level at the Beijing Dance Academy, which could not attract the attention of CCTV, let alone participate in the Spring Festival Gala.
There are many beautiful girls in Beijing Dance Academy who "dance and you act", and many have become film and television stars, which also allows Tongali to discover another way to become famous. So whenever a crew comes to the academy to film or film a MV, she will come forward to watch, hoping to meet a "Bo Le" one day. This wish finally came true when she met Shen Dong.
In 1997, Tongali graduated from university and successfully entered the Oriental Song and Dance Troupe with the help of Shen Dong. In the process of contact with each other, the two quickly fell in love and soon entered the palace of marriage.
It's just that before getting married, Tongali put forward a request: before the success of their careers, the two should not rush to have children, and then consider this matter after their careers are stable.
In 1999, through Shen Dong's introduction, Tongali stepped on the screen for the first time, playing a chivalrous woman with stunts and jealousy in the movie "Dragon and Phoenix Wisdom Fighting Panlongfang". The following year, she played a prostitute named Ziyun in the TV series "Kangxi Dynasty", and got the opportunity to play against actor Chen Daoming.
Although she had the opportunity, Tongali was not professionally trained after all, and her performance was still very immature. So although "Kangxi Dynasty" is popular, few people can remember the prostitute played by Tongali.
These two plays did not make Tongali famous, but exposed her immaturity in acting. So for a long time after these two plays, no director came to Tongali. Although Shen Dong also found several crews, they were all rejected on the grounds that "the role has been set" and so on.
Three
In the summer of 2001, after hearing that a Taiwanese company wanted to build an actor database in the mainland, she thought it was an opportunity for her, so she contacted the other party.
When Tongali came to the company, the head of the company was receiving a special guest.
This guest is Zhang Xulong, a famous domestic photographer with the reputation of "Prince of Photos". In 1999, he won the title of "Ten Masters" of the 3rd Chinese Photography Award, and was also named "World Chinese Artist". He came to the company to work with the company to find models for a Shanghai lingerie brand.
When Tangali appeared in front of Zhang Xulong, Zhang Xulong's first reaction was: The model I am looking for today is her! So he enthusiastically greeted him and tried to persuade Tongari to audition.
Tongari wants to be famous too. Although she was also a little hesitant at first, but could not stand Zhang Xulong's persuasion of "keep an eternal moment for your beautiful youth", Tangali thought that she was a dancer, and her job was to show the audience the beautiful body, and taking some photos was nothing, so she agreed.
Before the shoot, Tongali signed a contract with the company, agreeing that the company had the right to use some of the photos taken by Zhang Xulong for herself for the publication of art books.
The contract now seems like a fatal mistake, but at the time Tongali didn't think that long-term. She thought that the company was at most in a published book, accompanied by one or two photos of herself in underwear, and it would not affect her life.
Soon, the underwear photos were finished. Zhang Xulong asked Tangali again, would he like to take a portrait of the human body?
Tongali knew that this so-called "body portrait" required the model to strip naked for the photographer to shoot. So at first, she didn't say yes.
But then Zhang Xulong's words made her change her mind: "As long as I take a portrait of your body, you will definitely be red!" ”
After thinking about it, Tongaris felt that if he missed this opportunity, he might not be able to realize his dream of stardom in his life, so he was ruthless and decided to gamble.
Over the next year or so, the two took thousands of portraits of the human body. In the photo, Tongari is doing various movements naked, and the scale is jaw-dropping. Because her husband is very busy and shoots movies in other places all year round, Shen Dong does not know about her taking these photos.
Four
In the spring of 2002, Tongali received a call from the Taiwanese company, who told her that they were going to publish a collection of Tongari body portraits taken by Zhang Xulong. Tangali was stunned at once, she went to find this company theory, but people had a contract signed by herself, and it was useless for her to object.
Tongari returned home in dismay, and did not dare to tell her husband, so she had to find a girlfriend of her own and spit bitter water on her. The girlfriend thought about it and came up with an idea for her: instead of letting this company publish first, it is better to publish a book herself, after all, she can choose those photos that are slightly smaller in scale and more beautiful, and control the photos in the category of art.
The girlfriend's words made Tongali light up and thought it was a good idea. So she took the initiative to find the most authoritative People's Art Publishing House in China, and published "Tongali Body Art Photo" in September 2002.
This photo album includes 144 artistic photographs of Tongari, as well as an essay by her called "Beautiful Women Are Everywhere".
What Tongali didn't expect was that after the album came out, 15,000 copies were sold out in just one day. Within three days, the Internet was filled with photos reposted from this photo album by netizens, as well as extensive discussions.
You don't need to look at it to know that most of these discussions are mocking, sarcastic and insulting Tongari, and even some netizens have very vicious words, calling her a "faceless bitch".
Tangali doesn't understand, she thinks that the country positions body art photography as art, and excellent body photography works abroad are also regarded as works of art, why is there such a deep prejudice against this in China?
In any case, Zhang Xulong's original promise was fulfilled. After the publication of this photo book, Tongali became popular overnight, and her name also appeared on the hot search, setting a record of 100,000 searches in a single day.
Soon, many relatives and friends around Tongali also saw her body portrait on the Internet. Everyone was surprised, saying that she wanted to be famous, wanted to get rich and wanted to go crazy, many relatives and friends called to question her, and some said in a strange way on the phone: Tangali, you have made a lot of money, remember to treat ah!
Tongali regretted it, she felt that her normal life was completely broken. She didn't dare to go to work, didn't dare to take on film and television dramas, she didn't even dare to go to a supermarket - once she was queuing in the supermarket, and found that the man in front of her took out a wallet with her photo, she was so scared that she snatched the door out, and then she must be wearing big sunglasses outside.
In order to avoid the strange eyes of her friends, she decided to return to her hometown in Anhui Province for a while. At the same time, she worried: What would happen if her parents saw the photos.
As Tangali expected, it didn't take long for her father to find out about it. He became furious and demanded that his daughter destroy the unsightly photos or else he would be evicted from the house.
To add insult to injury, her husband Shen Dong also learned about it. What man can stand his wife stripping naked in front of other men? Shen Dong did not hesitate and filed for divorce from Tongali.
In order to save the marriage, Tangali promised that she would never take such photos again, while currying favor with her husband, saying that she was willing to stay at home from now on with her husband and children, and proposed to give Shen Dong a child.
But Shen Dong coldly refused: "I don't want my child to be ridiculed by others for having such a mother." Soon after, Shen Dong and Tongali ended their three-year marriage.
At this time, another headache happened to Tongali: Zhang Xulong took Tongali to court because of the right to sign the photo. Although the lawsuit ended with Tongali paying Zhang Xulong 100,000 yuan in compensation, the cooperative relationship between the two was terminated, and even friends did not have to do it. This is also worse for Tongali.
Five
During those days, Tongari washed her face with tears all day long. She repeatedly asked herself: Am I really a "faceless" woman? The person she loves the most does not understand herself, can she still expect strangers to understand her? Life is still so long, how long can I hide?
When she needed help the most, there were also well-wishers who stood by her side, encouraged her, and gave her confidence.
A netizen said to her: Why are you hiding? If you don't stand up yourself, all rumors become facts. You should be brave enough to stand up and tell everyone that "Tongali Body Art Photo" is not a yellow work. Only if you stand up bravely can more and more people be familiar with and understand body art, and people will understand you!
These encouragements gave Tongali renewed her confidence and made her decide to face it all bravely. Then she set up her own website, putting her heart journey and a large number of life and art photos on it, so that readers and netizens can understand her and know her.
In order to come out of the shadows, she read books such as "John Christopher" and "The Legend of the Giant" every day. She told herself that there are so many people who have experienced hardships in their lives and still face life calmly, what is this setback she has suffered? As long as you get through, setbacks will become precious assets in your life!
Thinking of this, Tongari decided to face everything that had happened. She firmly believes that she is not wrong, why should she live in the eyes of others?
In November 2003, Tongali released her second body photo album, which once again caused heated discussions. But in the face of all the discussion, she always laughed it off. She said: "I dare not say that I am beautiful, but I want to say, I am brave. ”
Shortly after the publication of the second body photo book, Tongari accidentally fell off her horse while riding a horse, and doctors diagnosed her with the possibility of "lifelong paralysis". But after 45 days in bed, she survived. When she was able to walk to the balcony alone and see the long-lost scenery outside the window, she did not shed a single tear, she knew that she had grown up.
"Not only did I survive, but I was able to walk freely, dance freely, and not be crushed or driven crazy! I am thankful for life! "
Since then, she has been working and living, writing a mood diary and communicating with fans online. She is famous, but also got a lot of dance performance opportunities, and even the famous Toronto Dance Company in Canada invited her to Canada to star in the action musical "Tang Concubine".
Unlike her previous desire to be famous, after becoming truly famous, Tongali found that what she had thought about turned out to be the life of an ordinary little woman. In an interview, she said: "I am a product of this era, and if it were not for the relaxed atmosphere of society, my photos would not have come out; Without a photo, there is no later distress and the current me. "
Tongali regretted most that her father had not really forgiven her until now. Although he no longer "distanced himself" from her as before, every time she returned to Hefei, her father's attitude remained cold. However, Tongali believes that over time, his father will eventually understand him, after all, he loves his daughter so much.
Today, Tongari is 47 years old and still living a celibate life. For love, she believes that one day she will meet the man who understands her. She does not have high requirements for this man, as long as the other party can truly understand herself and can regard herself as proud.
In her spare time, she occasionally flips through her body photos. She reminds her of a lot of good times, and she believes, "If one day I lose my memory, show me these pictures, and I will remember them all at once!" ”
Resources:
China Consumer Daily: Tongali: Beautiful Youth, No Regrets
China E-Commerce Magazine: Tongali: Making Beauty Braver
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Author: Li Li
Editor: Monon