Text/Mountains and rivers of the past
Editor/Noisy
He has a high degree of achievement in the field of art, but in his early years, he became the godfather of the wind and moon film due to the yin and yang forced by life.
And because of the speed of the extraordinary accumulation of wealth, he also lost himself for a time and did many "exaggerated consumption" behaviors.
Although he looked five years old and three thick-faced and fierce, he was a fragile and sentimental literary and artistic youth.
He is Xu Jinjiang, a strange man who combines many labels such as actors and artists.
01
Xu Jinjiang was born on October 12, 1961, to a family of doctors in Mudanjiang, Heilongjiang Province.
Since his grandfather, parents, uncles and aunts are all all all in life, the family naturally has high hopes for Xu Jinjiang, hoping that he will one day inherit the medical skills of his ancestors and become a doctor who saves lives and helps the injured.
However, since he was a child, Xu Jinjiang seems to have little interest in studying medicine, and what interests him more than studying medicine is painting.
As a teenager, he often ran to the nearby studio to watch how the teachers and masters painted. Every stroke they sketched on the canvas was deeply imprinted in Xu Jinjiang's young heart.
It was also from that time that Xu Jinjiang made up his mind that he must become a painter, no matter how many people opposed it, no matter how bumpy the road ahead was.
02
When the father learned of his child's dream, he was very puzzled: if the family members had studied medicine for generations, would this tradition be broken in his generation? No, he would never allow such a thing to happen.
Xu's father called Xu Jinjiang home and invited a doctor with superb medical skills to teach him medical knowledge.
But Xu Jinjiang said that he didn't want to learn anything, and in his heart, there was only one thing, that is, painting, and no one could persuade him.
In the end, Xu's father compromised, after all, the child is older, and he can't decide everything for him. However, the Xu family has not had a student of painting for generations, and Xu's father can't help but worry about his son's future.
If one day he is gone, will there still be a place for his children in the world?
At this time, Xu's father made up his mind, since the child has an iron heart to learn to draw, he must let him learn the best!
03
In 1968, Xu's father found his own family friend, Guan Shanyue, who was also a master of Chinese painting in the Lingnan School, and asked his son to worship him as a teacher, and told him thousands of times that when he studied, he should study hard and not give up halfway.
Xu Jinjiang also listened to his father's teachings, learned more seriously than every brother and brother, and finally he did not live up to the expectations of his father and master, and finally in 1977, he was successfully admitted to the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts.
When he happily ran home to inform his father of the news, he found that the house was empty, and he did not know that bad luck had come.
Also in 1977, Xu Jinjiang's father died of illness, and this loving father, who had worked hard for his children all his life, completed his task and left with peace of mind.
Until many years later, when Xu Jinjiang mentioned his father, he would still be in tears.
You must know that inheriting the family business was the top priority in that era, and other fathers would have broken his leg and expelled him from the house when Xu Jinjiang proposed to learn to paint.
But Xu Father did not, he paved the way for the future of his children with extraordinary tolerance, and when the children finished their studies, they passed away happily.
Without his father in front of him, the road ahead would depend on Xu Jinjiang alone.
04
After graduating from the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts in 1981, Xu Jinjiang planned to go to the United States to find his grandfather because he had no future in China.
Passing through Hong Kong, perhaps by fate, Xu Jinjiang mistakenly walked into a restaurant and ordered a lunch there.
Halfway through the meal, two young men came up to him and asked him if he was interested in acting in movies.
Xu Jinjiang was confused at that time, he grew up in the mainland, never thought about making movies - in his opinion, making movies is only the privilege of a very few people, does he really have a chance?
At this time, he did not know that these two young people were the two brothers of the famous Mai Dangxiong and Mai Dangjie!
At that time, they were also eating at a restaurant, and at a glance, they fell in love with this man who was five years old and three thick, thinking that he would have a good way out as an actor.
The brothers did not agree to Xu Jinjiang, so they relied on the posture of not leaving, and after several tug-of-war, Xu Jinjiang finally decided to go to Jiahe to audition.
He thought in his heart, even if he went to the United States, he would be sent to the fence, it would be better to try it in Hong Kong, anyway, he was still young, and it was a big failure to return to the mainland to start over.
At this time, Xu Jinjiang's hometown is already far behind, but the vast world is close at hand!
05
The wait after the audition was long, but Xu Jinjiang was already determined to stay in Hong Kong.
Initially, he planned to use his professional skills, painting, to attract the attention of Hong Kong people.
So in 1981, he held his first solo exhibition. Hong Kongers, who are heavily influenced by Western culture, scoff at traditional Chinese painting, and Xu Jinjiang's first attempt failed.
With his tall and powerful appearance, Xu Jinjiang has also worked as a model and nightclub singer, and even played ugly, making people happy with various antics.
But without exception, these actions did not attract people's attention, and he could only live in a room of a few square meters, living a life of not eating.
Although it has been hard, Xu Jinjiang is also happy in it, and from time to time he goes to the set to run a dragon set, live an actor addiction, and has been learning professional knowledge, planning to apply for the TVB E-Artist Training Class.
In the same year that Xu Jinjiang came to Hong Kong, he was successfully admitted to the tenth training class and became classmates with Leung Ka Fai, Andy Lau and others.
The legend that belongs to Xu Jinjiang is also about to officially open.
06
In 1983, after two years of training, Xu Jinjiang officially stepped into the film industry.
Born as a northerner, Xu Jinjiang is very prominent in Hong Kong, often half a head taller than everyone else, and he is born strong and fierce, playing most of the roles he plays as villains or strong men with developed limbs and simple minds.
But Xu Jinjiang was not discouraged, even if he could not play the male lead, he also tried his best to play each of his roles, and did not live up to the expectations of the director and the audience.
During this period, due to the unsuccessful career of acting, Xu Jinjiang returned to his old business and devoted a lot of time to painting, sculpture and other fields, so that his achievements in the field of art were further advanced.
Although Xu Jinjiang went on the set every day, no director ever looked for him to act, which also made him fall into deep self-doubt: maybe he was not born suitable for acting.
Heaven will send down a great task to the Scythians, and they will first suffer their hearts and minds, and work their bones and bones. Sure enough, after a few years of hard times, Xu Jinjiang's career ushered in a turnaround - he met two people he met in the restaurant that year, Mai Dangxiong and Mai Dangjie.
07
After seeing Xu Jinjiang, McDonald was very excited - this is simply the actor he dreamed of! So he asked Xu Jinjiang on the spot: "Recently there is a drama to be filmed, are you interested?" ”
Xu Jinjiang agreed without saying a word, because at that time he was already too poor to eat, so he almost went to the nightclub to sing again.
It turns out that Ma Dangjie's vision is indeed poisonous, and Xu Jinjiang was simply born for Li Xiangdong in this "Provincial Hong Kong Flag Soldier 2".
This role made Xu Jinjiang completely bid farewell to the career of the dragon set, and the film contracts came and went, and he also officially entered the show business circle.
Originally, his life path should be like his classmates Leung Ka-fai, Andy Lau and others, making a few movies, taking a few film emperors, and then enjoying the praise of the world, but Xu Jinjiang was partial, he made a shocking decision - to make a third-level film.
08
In Hong Kong in the 1980s and 1990s, tertiary films occupied a huge market.
Xu Jinjiang, who originally restricted the drama road because of his tough appearance, became the darling of directors in the market of tertiary films.
In those years, Xu Jinjiang participated in many tertiary films, many of which were regarded as classics by fans, and he even received a nomination for Best Supporting Actor for his wonderful performance in "Pornographic Men and Women".
Although during this period, Xu Jinjiang also filmed classics such as "God of Gamblers" and "Deer Dingji", at that time, Xu Jinjiang's most widely known name was "The Godfather of Wind and Moon Films".
When this name reached the ears of her mother in the original mainland, she was simply angry, she did not expect that her family had been a scholar since her ancestors, but now he was such an unscrupulous descendant, and for a time he cut off contact with Xu Jinjiang.
Art and pornography are often only a line apart.
Xu Jinjiang himself generously admitted that at the beginning he would indeed be afraid of being pointed out by others, but after a long time, he figured it out.
Since he chose the path of actor, he should accept the multi-faceted nature of actors, and should not be limited to one aspect of performance.
Then, between 1992 and 1995, Xu Jinjiang filmed films such as "Nine Pin Sesame Officer" and "Deer DingJi", and began to quickly become popular as an evil person.
Also because of the "evil professional household", many people subconsciously think that Xu Jinjiang is a big devil who is "unforgiving", but what is the truth?
The opposite is true.
09
In real life, Xu Jinjiang is a good husband and father without compromise. His and his wife's decades-long romantic love is even more enjoyable.
In 1994, Xu Jinjiang was filming in Yunnan, where he fell in love with a girl riding a bicycle and confessed on the spot: "I am Xu Jinjiang, I will leave here tomorrow, I like you, I want to marry you."
In the face of the marriage proposal of a man who has never seen before, the girl naturally will not agree, leaving a word of "neuropathy" and leaving in a hurry.
But the fate is so magical, not long after, the two met again in Beijing. This time, Xu Jinjiang seized the opportunity to confess to the girl: "A week later in Yunnan, the same time and place as the last time we met, you are waiting for me to marry you!" ”
This time the girl didn't say anything, but turned her head and left.
A week later, Xu Jinjiang was dressed and went to the agreed place with trepidation, but who could have imagined.
The girl had been there for a long time, waiting for him for a long time.
In the end, they successfully entered the palace of marriage and had a son, who is still in love with each other. Their love story, like a movie, has also been celebrated for many years.
10
In 1997, after the return of Hong Kong, there was a new round of economic development, during which Xu Jinjiang and his wife rode the stock market with the money they had saved from filming, accumulating a lot of wealth.
It is also with this money that the husband and wife have lived a profligate, rich and willful life.
To what extent is it willful?
One time when it rained heavily, Xu Jinjiang couldn't get a taxi, so he ran directly to the car dealership and picked up a car to drive home.
But it didn't take long for a financial storm to hit him, and all his money in the stock market was burned. In order to live, Xu Jinjiang had to frantically take the scene, often back and forth between several sets.
The effects of intense work on him were fatal. So much so that later, as soon as he saw the crew's car, he was confused, anxious when he heard the phone ringing, and even considered committing suicide for a hundred years.
Realizing the seriousness of the problem, Xu Jinjiang stopped his work and went to see a psychologist with his wife, only to be diagnosed with depression and no longer suitable for acting.
So in desperation, Xu Jinjiang completely bid farewell to the show business circle.
But it seems that there will always be flowers in the suffering, and Xu Jinjiang, whose career and life have become a mess, did not give up on himself, but regained his brush.
He intends to continue his youthful desire to let art heal his scarred heart.
11
The vicissitudes of life experience have brought Xu Jinjiang countless sources of creation, and he has placed his feelings about life all on the brush and created one masterpiece after another.
His masterpiece "Qiu Song Jin Luo Wet Shirt" once offered a high price of 1.5 million yuan, and even a pair of paintings with a hand-drawn painting was offered to buy for 800,000 yuan.
Many people have questioned: it is only his fame, so people will flock to his paintings, if you change another person, the paintings sell for hundreds of pieces, not necessarily someone wants it!
In this regard, the art critic Ji Tainian commented:
In 2015, Xu Jinjiang invested 15 million yuan to establish the "Xu Jinjiang Art Center" in Anhui. At that time, many people advised him that the times were different, and the current social trend was: "You can engage in art, but there is no need", and engaging in art will definitely lose money!
Xu Jinjiang also smiled and said lightly: "If I lose money, I will shoot a drama to raise it." ”
Perhaps, it was this change in mentality that made Xu Jinjiang's career usher in the second spring, and in the following years, he was active in various types of entertainment programs.
In 2016, he collaborated with Huang Xiaolei on sketches and appeared on Beijing Satellite TV's program "King of Cross-border Comedy"; in 2019, he took his newly adult son to participate in the variety show "All the Way to Adulthood".
12
Fast forward to 2021.
Xu Jinjiang, who was born in 1961, will celebrate his 60th birthday in October this year. Looking back on his life, there are highs and lows.
His life has experienced countless ups and downs, but whether it is shooting tertiary films when he was young, or devoting himself to the creation of calligraphy and painting when he is old, the only thing that Xu Jinjiang has not changed is his love for art.
Today, with the help of art and his family, Xu Jinjiang has successfully stepped out of the shadow of depression, and will also interact with netizens on Weibo from time to time, showing the true color of "people's artists".
Xu Jinjiang, who is about to enter the year of huajia, has too many things to do, and he himself has lamented with regret: "The dream of film, the dream of painting, the dream of art, there are many dreams that I have not yet realized in my heart."
However, he did not settle for the status quo, enjoyed life like all retired grandfathers and aunts, but continued to pursue his dreams.
To this day, he is still practicing what he once said: Life is everyone's dream show, in this process, he will see himself and see the heavens and the earth!