Yuan Xuefen is a well-known figure in the history of Chinese Yue Opera, she actively reformed Yue Opera, let the traditional flowers of Yue Opera shine in modern times, and worked for Yue Opera creation throughout her life.
The Yuan-style singing voice she created is still used as a classic teaching material for students to teach today, and the guidance roles of "Xiangyun Sister" and "Mulan in the Army" are still classics in Chinese film history.
Yuan Xuefen has a lofty position in the history of Cantonese opera, and Yuan Xuefen in real life is also a character who dares to love and hate, with a humble background, who has experienced ups and downs and has become a generation of celebrities.
Experienced slander and threats to life.
In her 30s, she belatedly found the love of her life, the handsome and gentlemanly publisher editor Zheng Huang, and they lived a happy life after marriage.
When her youngest son Zheng Pingping was 18 days old, Yuan Xuefen heard a banging knock outside the door, and the people who came in completely shattered her peaceful life.
After that, the suffering officially began...
1
In March 1923, it was early spring, and it was a light snow in Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, and in a mud house, several women were busy in the sky, carrying water basins with scissors and shouting trumpets.
The pregnant woman in the bed had no strength, and with the last cry, a child fell into the hands of the midwife.
Listening to the joyful laughter of the people around her, the pregnant woman thought that she had been born, it was too torturous, when she heard the midwife tell her a small fortune.
The pregnant woman was shocked, her pale face added a sense of weakness, she signaled with her eyes, but if she lied to me, she was affirmed by the other side, and completely lay flat on the pillow: "It's really torturous... God, why do this to me? ”
She already has two daughters, her third child, and her husband is the most traditional Chinese literati, and inheritance is a top priority for the couple.
Unpretentious traditional Chinese thought.
Yuan Xuefen was born like this, at that time she was not called Yuan Xuefen, but Yuan Xueyan, just because there was a light snow that day.
The father opened a private school, the mother was at home with three daughters, and they still wanted a child, and finally put it on the agenda five years after the birth of the third daughter.
This time the mother prayed to the weather, has repeated it for the third time, bless this time must be a son, her luck is really not good, this time is a little girl.
Yuan Xueyun met her sister for the first time, and felt that she was lying obediently in the baby cradle, she was finally not the youngest child in this family, and she must spoil this sister well in the future.
This impoverished family cannot afford the arrival of a fourth girl.
After a while, there was no longer a sister in the baby's cradle, and the sister was sent away by her parents and given to an unknown family.
2
Yuan Xueyun was enlightened at the age of 4, and entered school for three years at the age of 5, and her father told her that there was no money at home, and you had to go out and make money by yourself.
When she was 8 years old, she was sent to the Yue Opera class to learn drama, which was not accessible to everyone in the old Chinese drama class, and insults were still relaxed.
The class leader and tutor are all strict, not learning well, being beaten and scolded are common things, and the saddest thing is not enough to eat.
Yuan Xuewu, who was young and had no strength, studied for more than two months, and five of them could not eat dinner in a week.
How did the class owner see how she was unpleasant, grinding, eating a bowl of rice less to get sick, in addition to wasting food and not earning money, sent her home.
After Yuan Xueyun returned home, she looked at her mother with a big belly and realized that she had left home to make room for her newborn child.
The father is very helpless to see the third daughter, after all, they have feelings after raising them for 8 years, not cats and dogs thrown casually.
When she was 9 years old, Yuan Xueyun's fifth sister was born, this sister is also Yuxue cute, she is reluctant to let go when she holds it in her arms, and she had the experience of her sister being abandoned last time.
She told her mother that she would go out to earn money and begged them not to throw her sister out again.
At the age of 8, she went to the Yue opera class for two months of life experience, which gave her a great shock, the protagonist has 30 yuan for living expenses for more than a month, and her father only has 2 yuan 5 a month.
She decided to study Yue opera again, and with this goal in mind, she went to the Four Seasons Spring Opera Class when she was 11 years old.
Feeling that her name is not atmospheric enough, Wen Crepe may have a very bitter life in the future, and the name Yuan Xuefen was changed to her by the teacher.
This time, she did not complain or be tired, and the students who were with her same time cried and cried, because once she was lying on the ground and crying, shouting that she wanted to go home.
Yuan Xuefen looked at it coldly, life told her that she couldn't afford to toss, and now she didn't have the ability or the confidence to toss.
Calm and hardworking, the teacher's appreciation stood out among more than 30 students, became the teacher's love apprentice, and also gave her many opportunities to take the stage.
At the age of 14, she was already able to single-handedly pick the big beam, and she was not afraid of the stage for the first time she sang Danjiao, which won the applause of the audience, and also made the opera class decide to focus on training her.
3
Following the opera class in Zhejiang, Jiangsu and other places to the south and north, accumulated a lot of fame, but also received an invitation from Shanghai, when she was 17 years old she went to Shanghai Radio to record the Vietnamese opera record "Fang Yunniang Crying Tower".
This trip to Shanghai made her see a lot of opportunities, many famous gentlemen, literati and elegant people gathered here, there will always be drama to find her to sing a steady stream, much better than performing in caves everywhere, she is determined to stay in Shanghai.
At that time, Yuan Xuefen was only a small Danjiao, and it was not very outstanding in Shanghai, where many famous people gathered, and in that era, the immortals fought and competed for resources.
Yuan Xuefen worked hard and sent all the money she earned back to her hometown to improve the lives of her sisters and parents.
In 1941, a letter from Shaoxing, Zhejiang Province, told her that her father was ill and that he was afraid to see her for the last time, and told her to return home immediately.
After Yuan Xuefen left home, the head of the opera class pressed people to greed for money to give her a steady stream of work, she had not returned home for five or six years, and she took this letter to the class owner.
The class leader always has all kinds of excuses: "No, we have a very important play recently, you must stay here." ”
The most important thing is that I am afraid that Yuan Xuefen, the cash cow, will run away, and as soon as the people on the train disappear, the sea of people is vast, and I don't know where the people are going.
Yuan Xuefen looked at the red charcoal fire in the furnace in winter, watching the tears that couldn't help but flow down, worried excessively, and it was a cold day, she had typhoid fever into her body and dragged her body down.
The coughing for days brought out tuberculosis, and seeing that this cash cow was about to be folded in her hand, the helper looked at her: "You go back, but you have to leave some money here, and you must come back later." ”
4
Yuan Xuefen got her wish and saw her father, who had not seen her for several years, her hair was gray and thin, and her mother was crying in the hospital bed.
Her sister was still very young but not at home, and when she left her father's room, she asked her mother, "Where has my sister gone?" I came back and I brought her a lot of things. ”
The mother only promised, not daring to look at her daughter's eyes: "You also know that our family is too poor to afford another girl, your father is sick again, we have no choice, we can only find another good family for her." ”
Yuan Xuefen is simply a thunderbolt, she works so hard, she still can't keep her lovely sister.
She grabbed her mother's arm and asked her sister where she had been sent?
She strode to the nearest nursery, too much time had passed, there was no archive in that era, there were too many daughters sent, and she didn't know who took them.
Yuan Xuefen returned home, and a month later her father died, and she returned to Shanghai in a daze after losing her sister and father.
Without the drag of family, Yuan Xuefen made a "little temper" when doing things.
She has always liked Yue opera, sincerely likes to sing, after watching a lot of modern products, she has a higher pursuit, she understands that the operation mode of the theater is really rigid.
This time there is no worries.
Yuan Xuefen threatened the class leader: "If you change it for me, I will continue to sing, if you don't change it for me, I will not sing, I will not sing when I go out as a waiter to be an old mother." ”
She doesn't want so much money now, she wants to be happy.
"Don't be like this, you change, change for you..." The class leader, how to allow this cash cow not to sing, full mouth agreed.
Yuan Xuefen's first reform of Yue opera was born, she improved some traditional singing voice, and asked to shoot new Yue opera films, according to the position of Western films, so that the audience likes.
5
She did not stick to traditional themes, and at that time Lu Xun wrote a novel "Xianglin Sister" which caused a sensation in Shanghai, and was hailed as a heavy blow to the old Chinese feudal etiquette system.
Yuan Xuefen liked this novel very much, Yuan Xuefen likes to read, she is different from other colleagues in the drama class, and she likes to hold a book when she is not filming.
The class owner does not agree with her wanting to shoot Xianglin's sister-in-law, this is not that traditional themes are too risky, it is better to honestly shoot some traditional themes to earn a lot of money.
Yuan Xuefen insisted on what he thought: "The world rises and falls, it is the responsibility of the husband, if it can be spread to the Chinese people through my film, then why not?" ”
This film opened up a strong chapter in the history of Yue opera reform, it turned out that there was not only tradition, but also so close to life.
Yuan Xuefen's reputation has also been caught in controversy, and the reactionaries especially hate her for going off the sword in this movie.
"Just make a movie with a scene, specialize in this mess, and don't look at what you are."
Yuan Xuefen once went out on the street, and someone who looked at her very unhappy, took dung water and slammed it in front of her, splashed her all over her body, and then fled quickly.
There was also a threat that if she filmed this new Yue drama again, she would die well.
All these tribulations did not stop Yuan Xuefen, and she made the movie "Mulan in the Army" and some movies that preached loyalty and patriotism in troubled times.
In the movie, we can see Yuan Xuefen's love for this country and this nation.
6
After the founding of New China, the shadow that shrouded her dissipated, and Yuan Xuefen finally found her true love, and all her dreams before the age of 30 were in Yue Opera.
Busy with her career, she has not taken care of the young people around her, coupled with the prejudice of the old society against the profession of an actor, she has never had the idea of finding a other half.
At the age of 30, she met Zheng Huang, the editor of the magazine, who was a fan of Yuan Xuefen and often watched her movies to give her a show, and the two were introduced through friends.
Yuan Xuefen thinks that Zheng Huang is a young man with aspirations, and he also respects her in life, and he is very comfortable with each other through acquaintance, and he also has ideas on the other side, and the two become a couple.
Getting married and giving birth to three children also lived this sweet and sweet time.
Until 18 days after the birth of her youngest son, that horrific wave finally swept over her head.
Yuan Xuefen was born as an intellectual, and she couldn't run away if she wanted to, but she pity her 18-year-old son, and she never heard her mother's voice or saw her mother again for the next 7 years.
After entering prison, Yuan Xuefen contracted a serious illness due to poor living conditions, brought tuberculosis in her youth, and often coughed up blood.
Hold a glass of water to get through the cold day.
Seeing her husband again, the two were speechless, there was no way, how could there be a way?
How much I want to hug together, but if they still have a husband and wife relationship, they will be dragged down by her identity, so what about the three children?
Helpless can only write the divorce document, before leaving, Yuan Xuefen looked at her guilty husband and said to him: "It's okay, it's okay, I really don't blame you." ”
In prison, she carried the longing for her son and survived for 7 years, and finally saw the light.
That day, her ex-husband brought three sons to see her, she was thin, emaciated, and she couldn't even recognize her.
Once intimate couples, there is nothing more to say.
Returning to the stage of Yue Opera, Yuan Xuefen ushered in a peak creative period, made many movies, filmed many plays, and taught many students, wanting to pass on his knowledge.
Until the age of 82, she worked tirelessly to show students your body and singing voice.
This photo is really, Tingting Grace, can't help but put the second time
Her three sons were well groomed, talented and filial, had good careers, and grew up to be the backbone of society.
When Yuan Xuefen died in 2011, her filial sons donated a lot of money to express their remembrance of their mother, and also donated commemorative items in front of their mother to the museum.
"I hope they can feel my mother's love for Yue Opera from these things and pass on the spirit."