In 1984, China's international victory set off a strong and fierce patriotic trend on the mainland, which blew south to Hong Kong.
So Director Huang Yihe, who has successfully held the first CCTV Spring Festival Gala, came up with the idea of inviting Hong Kong actors to the Spring Festival Gala stage.
Therefore, Hong Kong singer Zhang Mingmin took four songs to the CCTV Spring Festival Gala, "My Chinese Heart", "Yang Shangxing", "Grandma's Penghu Bay", and "Country Road" have become popular songs and sung by everyone.
In particular, "My Chinese Heart" made Zhang Mingmin an idol that the audience worshiped and longed for overnight.
"Although the dress is worn on the body, my heart is still the heart of China."
A magnetic and slightly restrained sound resounded in every corner of the motherland.
A patriotic song with a main theme should have been sought after, but unfortunately Zhang Mingmin's return to Hong Kong was suppressed and the company terminated.
A singer did not sing, now that almost forty years have passed, what happened to Zhang Mingmin?
01
CCTV Spring Festival Gala is not only a visual feast, it also closely follows the country's political and social hotspots to convey home-country feelings and positive energy.
In 1999, there was a huge flood, the people's children and soldiers used their bodies to form a human wall to block the raging flood, in order to praise their heroism, a song "For Whom" sang their heroic deeds.
In 2020, the sudden outbreak of the new crown epidemic touched the hearts of hundreds of millions of Chinese, so the Spring Festival Gala temporarily adjusted the program list and added the epidemic prevention and control program "Love is a Bridge".
Therefore, the second CCTV Spring Festival Gala in 1984 naturally took advantage of the major events of Hong Kong's return to the motherland to push the patriotic wave even higher.
Therefore, letting the Hong Kong wanderers go to the stage to express their thoughts and loyalty to the motherland has become the inspiration of Director Huang Yihe, so he has no stop going south to Guangdong to find a suitable singer.
But things were far more complicated than he thought, at that time in Guangdong, the streets and video stores were playing Cantonese songs, and he couldn't understand them.
Huang Dao, who had already given up the idea, heard Zhang Mingmin's "My Chinese Heart" when he took a bus in Shenzhen, and really stepped on the iron shoes and found no place, so he went around looking for the record of this song, and immediately reported it to the leader after finding it.
However, Zhang Mingmin's parents are overseas Chinese, and it is difficult to pass the political trial, but the time is somewhat too late, so Huang Dao, who has always been gentle, dropped the leader's phone and advocated letting Zhang Mingmin go to the Spring Festival Gala without authorization.
It turns out how correct Huang Yihe's decision was.
"The rivers and mountains are only in my dreams, the motherland has not been close for many years, but no matter what, it cannot be changed, my Chinese heart",
Everywhere the melody goes, everyone will hum it, and this song has become the strongest sound in the 1980s and a good medicine for the unity of overseas Chinese.
According to incomplete statistics, Zhang Mingmin has sung this song more than 10,000 times in the big and small fields, and Stars such as Su Youpeng and Huang Xiaoming have also sung this song, which shows that the popularity and popularity of this song are very high.
Zhang Mingmin suddenly became popular in the mainland, but in fact, his way to the Spring Festival Gala stage was actually not smooth.
02
Zhang Mingmin was born in Hong Kong in 1956. However, due to his poor family, he did not enter the society as a singer, but as a worker in an electronic watch factory.
But he likes to sing, and he also has a talent for singing, so, outside of work, he has been in the scene of various singing competitions.
It is gold that always shines.
In 1979, he won two consecutive championships, the "Hong Kong Workers' Singing Competition" and the "Hong Kong Amateur Singers Singing Competition". Receiving recognition not only for his singing ability, but also for his confidence in continuing to sing.
So he signed to Eternity Records. The company positioned him as a patriotic national singer, so the songs he sang were branded patriotic, such as "I Am Chinese", "We Have a Name Called China" and so on.
In 1982, when the Japanese intended to rationalize their aggression against China by falsifying history, patriotic sentiments were mobilized.
When the news reached Hong Kong, Huang Xia, who was full of patriotic enthusiasm, wrote his patriotic feelings with a pen:
"The blood flowing in my heart and the surging voice of China cannot be changed even if I was born in another country, my Chinese heart."
At this time, Zhang Mingmin was already famous for singing patriotic songs, not to mention that he had already taken three platinum records, so Huang Xia found Zhang Mingmin and invited him to sing this song.
At that time, Hong Kong had not yet begun to promote Mandarin, but the song was written in Mandarin. Therefore, this cry of love for the mother of the motherland reached Huang Yihe's ears.
But when Zhang Mingmin received a call from the Spring Festival Gala program group, he hesitated, because at that time China's opening up was still very limited, and it was in a sensitive period when Hong Kong had not returned, so he had worries about the future, but Zhang Mingmin was lucky, he had a mother who understood the righteousness.
"You go, but don't talk nonsense, it's okay to be locked up, I'll go see you."
In this way, Zhang Mingmin went all the way north with a Chinese heart.
After the fire broke overnight, he was treated with courtesy at mainland airports, stations, shops, and everywhere Zhang Mingmin went.
But unfortunately, after returning to Hong Kong, he was suppressed, and four months later, the old owner also terminated his contract with him.
03
In 1840, the British opened the door to China with a strong ship cannon, the first of which was Hong Kong, which gradually westernized the thinking of Hong Kong people under centuries of British rule.
Therefore, although the return of Hong Kong is just around the corner, the feelings of Hong Kong people for the country are not as strong as imagined, so when Zhang Mingmin became popular because of his patriotic songs, some Hong Kong people with ulterior motives labeled him a "red label".
Therefore, he returned to Hong Kong without more announcements because he became popular on the mainland, and in order to make a living, he returned to the electronic watch factory and began the assembly line work at the school.
At that time, there was very little communication between Hong Kong and the mainland, and Zhang Mingmin did not know that he had become a household star because of a song.
In mid-1984, Zhang Mingmin was invited to participate in the charity performance of "Love Me China, Repair My Great Wall", and after returning to Hong Kong this time, his status began to rise slowly, but the preferential treatment he received was still inconsistent with his fame.
When CCTV forwarded to him many letters written to him by fans through Xinhua News Agency, his patriotic enthusiasm was awakened again.
So, he made a decision that ordinary people could not match.
04
Zhang Mingmin decided to make patriotism his business, and he did.
"Zhang Mingmin has been singing this song with his life", this is the most pertinent evaluation of Zhang Mingmin made by Huang Yihe many years later.
In 1987, Zhang Mingmin's son was born, and he named his son "Song Hua", Yu Yi sang in praise of China.
Zhang Mingmin, who was suppressed at that time, did not know whether he could continue to praise the motherland, so he pinned his uncompetited career on his son.
In 1988, after he learned the news that Beijing was going to host the Asian Games, he took the initiative to contact the organizing committee in the hope of helping, so the organizing committee proposed that he could raise some funds, and he agreed without saying a word.
But in fact, Zhang Mingmin's economic conditions are not good, he still has to go back to the electronic watch factory from time to time to work to subsidize the family, and where to get money to support the Asian Games?
So he decided to play his strengths to tour the country, and the money from the performance was used to support the development of the country, but the concert was not something that one person could complete, and a team needed to be formed, and the group team also needed money.
So, Zhang Mingmin began to fight the idea of the house, and after his wife knew, she only said one sentence:
"Don't mortgage, the money is too limited, it is better to sell."
In the face of the great national righteousness, Mrs. Zhang really did not have any ambiguity.
With the support of his wife, Zhang Mingmin sold the house and car, and with the start-up capital, he formed a team of more than seventy people and prepared to start the tour.
The road ahead is vast, I don't know where the road is, with all my belongings to the tour, Zhang Mingmin is actually very bottomless, at this time, Mrs. Zhang's words once again gave him great encouragement:
"You come back without food, I'll raise you."
Without worries, Zhang Mingmin put down everything and embarked on the road of touring.
He used a year to perform one hundred and fifty-four performances in more than twenty cities across the country.
His concerts were very popular, at first the ticket price was 30/50, but there were too many people who wanted to watch the performance, the ticket price rose to three yuan at one point, and the audience's call to watch the concert became more and more loud, in order to meet their requirements, sometimes three times a day.
And in order not to delay the rush, sometimes it is necessary to drill under the train.
In this way, Zhang Mingmin's team raised more than 600,000 yuan, all of which were handed over to the Asian Games Organizing Committee.
After the charity performance, he returned to Hong Kong and was "homeless", so he was crammed under the same roof as his parents. It wasn't until the mid-to-late '90s that he was able to afford to buy a small house to live in.
Material deprivation did not prevent him from continuing to be patriotic.
According to statistics, he sang more than two hundred songs in his lifetime, more than 70% of which were related to the motherland.
He loves the motherland, and the motherland loves him as much as he loves it.
05
Hong Kong was returned to the motherland in 1997. Mother and son, who have been scattered for a hundred years, Hong Kong wants to understand the mainland, and the mainland also wants to understand Hong Kong, and Zhang Mingmin has become a medium for cross-strait cultural exchanges.
At this time, singing has become Zhang Mingmin's side business, he has opened karaoke, sold pipes, opened an advertising company, but his business acumen is not smart, and many companies have closed down.
But the motherland has needs, and he always stands up for the first time.
In 2014, there was an illegal violent incident in Hong Kong, and the "Chater Garden - Hong Kong Youth Rally" sponsored by the Youth Committee of all walks of life in Hong Kong was held in Central, Hong Kong, and Zhang Mingmin, as a public figure who was not afraid of the threat of violence, also appeared at the scene of the rally. And loudly called for:
"Our roads are not for this garbage."
This sentence was very appealing and resonated with the audience.
He also demanded that young people must learn Mandarin well and contribute to cross-strait exchanges and reducing cross-strait friction.
In 2019, He Junyao was searched by some evil forces for expressing opposition to violence in public, and his family information was leaked, his office was surrounded, and even his ancestral graves were dug.
But this did not stop He Junyao's rational voice, and he even publicly stated that as long as the saboteurs were willing to stand up, they would choose to forgive.
However, The forgiveness of Senator Ho did not awaken the conscience of the criminal elements.
At this time, Zhang Mingmin stood up again.
"The office of a parliamentarian who is serving the people has been so blatantly vandalized that even if there is any grievance, violence should not be used to vent it."
It seems like a few simple words, but Zhang Mingmin is at risk of being violently attacked.
In 2020, Zhang Mingmin received a call from CCTV again, this time recording a public welfare song "Firmly Believe That Love Will Win" to fight against new crown pneumonia.
I agreed without saying a word.
Due to the special period of the epidemic, he could not find a temporary recording studio to rent, so he asked an old friend to help; because the time was relatively fast, he did not sleep, and practiced four solos for two days.
His patriotism is not limited to his words, and he has set an example for the young people of Hong Kong with his actions.
In 2021, Zhang Mingmin received the new crown vaccine, and afterwards he said in an interview with the media:
"I am very grateful for the salvation.".
He expressed his love for the mother of the motherland all the time.
In recognition of his contribution to national unity, he has received eleven honors: member of the Ninth Hong Kong Regional People's Congress Election Conference, adviser to the Hong Kong Federation of Youth, etc.
In 2011, the Hong Kong government also awarded him the Bronze Bauhinia Star, an exclusive honor for long-term service to the community and outstanding performance.
Life goes on and on, patriotism does not stop, Zhang Mingmin's patriotic spirit is continuing and being inherited.
epilogue
Zhang Mingmin was the first Hong Kong person to take the stage of the Spring Festival Gala, the first Hong Kong person to hold a concert on the mainland, and the first person in Hong Kong to devote himself to cross-strait cultural exchanges and fight for national unity.
His patriotism infected many people.
In 1991, in order to raise funds for the floods in the mainland, more than 100 popular Hong Kong stars made cameo appearances in the movie "Night Feast of the Giants";
In 2004, at the Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony, Huang Zihua, as the host, said a word to the winning Harajima Daichi:
"When you go back, don't forget to tell the Japanese that the Diaoyu Islands are Chinese."
In 2006, Andy Lau attended a small singer's club in Japan and refused to say hello in Japanese, saying: "I didn't want to come to Japan, but because I had a contract."
In 2021, Nicholas Tse said in an interview that he was applying to withdraw from Canadian citizenship because "I was born in Hong Kong, I was originally a Chinese";
Zhang Mingmin's love for the motherland is only because he shed the blood of his Descendants of China, he was born in Sichuan and grew up in Sichuan, and will always belong to this great nation;
Why do we often have tears in our eyes, because I love this land deeply, and Zhang Mingmin's eyes are all the motherland, he must talk about patriotism when he opens his mouth, so that he can always feel happy;
In the face of Hong Kong people with different ideologies, in the face of occasional violent incidents, Zhang Mingmin is not afraid and unreservedly speaks out for justice, because as a Chinese, he is very proud, and he does not allow anyone to destroy the motherland that he is proud of.