On March 17, 1969, the famous movie star Shu Xiuwen died at the age of 54. Writer Cao Yu wrote an article entitled "The Life of an Outstanding Artist - In Memory of Comrade Shu Xiuwen" to mourn her:
"Her life has been a life of service to the people, and she is worthy of being an outstanding performing artist of our people and a good daughter of the party." However, under the devastation and persecution, her heart disease worsened badly, she did not get the treatment she deserved, and she left us prematurely on March 17, 1969, at the age of fifty-four. This is a very sad loss. ”
Figure | Shu embroidery text
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In 1915, Shu Xiuwen was born in Anqing City, Anhui Province, originally from Jiudu Shu Village, Yi County, Anhui Province, and Chinese mainland famous actor. She is approachable, modest and studious, takes her work seriously and responsibly, and is a well-known performing artist of the older generation.
When Shu Xiuwen was a child, he was very wild, naughty and rough, and he was the child king and eldest sister of a group of children. The big firecrackers that the boys did not dare to play, she dared to play; when she saw the tram coming, she ran up and put the copper plate on the rail, and used the tram to roll into copper sheets to play. Such children tend to be more assertive and more creative.
Shu Xiuwen has loved acting since he was a child and often participates in school performances. She is not afraid of the stage, will make new tricks, remember the lines well, and also write and direct her own small stories, which is warmly praised by the teachers, students and audiences. People who have seen her performances have said that this child will be able to act and become a big star in the future.
Shu Xiuwen's parents, Shu Zixin and Xu Peilan, were both teachers at a middle school in Anqing, and gave birth to Shu Xiuwen through free love. Her parents loved her very much and called her "Kitten's Nest". However, at that time, Shu Zixin already had an original wife, and his combination with Xu Peilan was not recognized by society and the people around him at all, so the two had to move to Beijing together to live a hard life.
Later, Shu Zixin lost his job and suffered from lung disease, became addicted to marijuana, and owed a lot of debts outside, so his already barren family life plummeted. As the saying goes, the children of the poor are in charge of the family. The young Shu Xiuwen understood his responsibility as a daughter early, chose to go out to earn a living to subsidize the family, and once entered the dance hall under the pseudonym "Xu Feiqiong" to become a dancer.
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While in the dance hall, Shu Xiuwen met a reporter surnamed Chu. Shu Xiuwen was not deeply involved in the world, and was soon coaxed by the other party to be confused. Chu reporter said he was willing to marry her and wanted to take her to Shanghai. 16-year-old Shu Xiuwen was shaken, it was not that she did not want to go, but such a big thing, she could not be the lord for a while.
Soon, the family's creditor came to the door to ask for the debt. Father Shu had difficulty supporting the family, and he had no money for them. So the other party said that he would take Shu Xiuwen away as a concubine to pay off the debt. Unexpectedly, in the face of this unreasonable request, Father Shu actually agreed. Shu Xiuwen's heart was not a taste, which simply gave her a reason to leave. So, she followed reporter Chu to Shanghai.
However, after arriving in Shanghai, she found that she had been deceived by the other party, and Chu reporters were basically people with families. So she chose to break up and casually found a restaurant to do ordinary work. Working in the restaurant is relatively idle, and she can often chat with others. She is articulate and has an authentic Beijing accent that attracts people's attention.
One of them, a young man named Gui Gongchuang, observed her for several days. One day I asked her, "What are you doing in Shanghai, a Beijing girl?" ”
Shu Xiuwen said, "You ask me what I do with this, beijing girls can't come to Shanghai?" ”
He suddenly became interested and asked, "Would you like to make a movie?" ”
Shu Xiuwen said: "I came to Shanghai to make movies. ”
Gui Gongchuang was very happy to talk to her and immediately introduced her to work in the "Tianyi Film Company". Shu Xiuwen's acting career began here.
Figure | Stills of Shu Xiuwen and Zhu Lin
Shu Xiuwen was new to movies for the first time, and she was very curious about movies, and she also envied movie stars. One day, the boss and director Shao Drunk weng improvised and let Shu Xiuwen play Xi Niang with only one shot in "Yunlan Girl".
The lights in front of the camera are dazzling, and there are many people watching next to them. Shu Xiuwen lost the confidence he had when he was a teenager on stage, and he panicked. Careless mistakes, wasted a lot of film. The boss, Shao Drunken, saw the situation and scolded her. Shu Xiuwen couldn't stand this anger, angrily left Tianyi Film Company, and secretly made up his mind that he must learn to act.
Shu Xiuwen has performed in many drama clubs such as Jimei Song and Dance Drama Society, Mayflower Drama Society, Spring and Autumn Drama Society, etc., and has also participated in many movies, exercising a high degree of performance skills. Once, at a performance in the CPPCC auditorium, she performed a recitation, which was Mr. Lu Xun's "A Small Thing". Premier Zhou also praised her after watching her performance.
As an actor, Shu Xiuwen is not prominent. Plain appearance, tough facial lines, no unique temperament, no culture, not tall. However, she has made extraordinary efforts. As long as it is the skills needed to act in dramas and make movies, she will study very seriously and diligently. When filming "The Female Driver" in 1950, she even learned to drive a train and passed a professional appraisal.
People joked with her: "You can drive cars and trains, so there are no ships or planes left, right?" ”
She said: "If you need to, as long as you make up your mind to learn, you can always learn." ”
She thinks about acting all the time and has brought professional habits into her life. Sometimes when you meet people from different classes on the road, you must imitate each other, and remember their expressions, actions, voices, and temperaments in your mind as performance materials. When it comes to the performance, three or two sentences on the script can inspire her, and the vivid character image can be performed immediately.
During the War of Resistance, she put on a play and asked a male character to slap her. In order to perform better, before each performance, she asked the male actor to hit one hard before saying it. Once on stage, the actor actually entered the role, making enough strength to suckle, making her dizzy and almost falling. Afterwards, the actor kept apologizing to her, but Shu Xiuwen was still very pleased and did not hate him at all.
Absolute professionalism, coupled with unremitting efforts, has enabled Shu Xiuwen's performance to reach the highest level of simultaneous representative family. The audience also liked her performance very much, and called her the "Four Famous Dans" together with Qin Yi, Bai Yang and Zhang Ruifang.
After Shu Xiuwen's work stabilized, she also took all the people in her family to live with her and took them to enjoy the blessings together.
Figure | Shu Xiuwen in "A River of Spring Water Flows Eastward"
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Such a successful and excellent person will naturally not lack admirers. Among them, Wu Shaowei, the son of a wealthy businessman who loves drama performance, has a deep love for Shu Xiuwen, and the two soon fall in love. The Wu family felt that the door was not right and did not agree with the marriage, but Wu Shaowei resisted the pressure of the family and resolutely decided to marry Shu Xiuwen.
After marriage, the two were very happy and life was full of taste. It's just a little regrettable that Shu Xiuwen can't have children because of physical reasons. Later, the couple simply adopted a child, named Shu Zhaoyuan.
Slowly, Shu Xiuwen's reputation grew, his status in society became higher and higher, and he also became a deputy to the National People's Congress. This made Wu Shaowei feel full of pressure, and he said to his adopted son Shu Zhaoyuan: "Your mother's political status is getting higher and higher, I think I have to look up at her, I am getting more and more tired..."
The relationship between the two became weaker and weaker, and finally divorced, and it was decided that the child would be raised by Shu Xiuwen.
Figure | Shu Xiuwen and his adopted son Shu Zhaoyuan
Shu Xiuwen was very strict about Shu Zhaoyuan's education. When he was in elementary school, Shu Zhaoyuan once went to the children's theater to watch a movie, and before entering the scene, he used the money used to buy tickets to buy popsicles. It was already dark after the end, and he was in a hurry to go home and got on the bus without thinking about it, but he had no money to buy a ticket. The conductor grabbed him and was about to interrogate him, when he heard that he was Shu Xiuwen's son, he generously released him.
When Shu Xiuwen later heard about this incident, he was so angry that his face was red and his liver was furious, and he immediately took him to the bus terminal to admit his mistake, saying that he was not strict with his godson and made up the ticket money. She said to Shu Zhaoyuan, "How can you take advantage of the country!" And lying! Don't think that five cents is a small thing, and it will be a crime to develop. This is a matter of losing personality! Be innocent, upright, and honest. ”
Shu Xiuwen's excellent qualities have left a deep imprint on the young Shu Zhaoyuan's heart and have always served as a benchmark for his moral conscience.
Shu Zhaoyuan recalled many years later: "What kind of person was my mother? In the eyes of the people, she is a genius, an outstanding performing artist. But in my mind, she is a dear mother, but also a strict teacher. As a son and a student, my mother's teachings and affection to me will never be forgotten. ”
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In 1965, Shu Xiuwen suffered a heart attack and was sent to the hospital for rescue, almost losing his life. When I returned to Beijing after surgery, the turmoil had already begun. Her body has not yet recovered, and she and her adopted son Shu Zhaoyuan are also implicated and forced to participate in labor. Soon after, Shu Xiuwen was again admitted to the hospital.
When she was in the hospital, no one cared about her. Some people even taunted her: "What other shelves do stinky stars have to put up?" "This has left her without the treatment she deserves and her health is deteriorating. She even had trouble getting out of bed and going to the bathroom, and there was no one to help her, so she had to ask a friend who had come to visit her and ask for a cane.
Shu Xiuwen's illness became more and more serious, and finally he could not support it, leaving a suicide note to his adopted son Shu Zhaoyuan, who died forever on March 17, 1969.
In his suicide note, Shu Xiuwen instructed him to hand over all his savings of tens of thousands of yuan to the organization, and educated Shu Zhaoyuan: "What I leave you is not money, not status, nor honor, but the spirit of hard work, the spirit of selflessness, the spirit of struggle, in short, in a word, the spirit of serving the people." ”
After her death, the famous director Ling He wrote a poem to express his grief:
A generation of famous youyi embroidery, Han Gao cooperation traces the City of Chongqing;
Hua Blossom Tang Di praised Yingjie, and he was sad and martyred.
Fighting female bright mountain red, generous wind and dust grand duke;
Acting to the place of cross-eyebrow anger, worthy of the chaotic world hero.
Stealing charms to save Zhao Meiruji, witty and gentle and unswerving;
Heaven declares that she is loyal and handsome, wielding a sword dipped in blood to write new poems!
Dedicate your life to the people, mourn the faithful soul and justice;
Who is talented? The old tears of the art world are stained!
Not only Ling He, but also dozens of celebrities including Cao Yu, Li Pingqian, Hong Chu, Ouyang Shanzun, Ye Zi, Li Lili and other celebrities sent long messages to mourn her.
Looking back on Shu Xiuwen's life, he is modest and studious, competitive and self-reliant, enthusiastic and sincere, good in playing, never stealing plays, not picking roles, not highlighting himself for the collective, and never pretending to understand. The performance is real and natural, without a posture. Throughout his life, he served the party and the country and the people, and also made indelible contributions to the propaganda and anti-Japanese work.
She has starred in dozens of films such as "National Survival", "A River of Spring Water Flows East", "Night Fragrance", "Li Shizhen", "Defend Our Land" and so on, her artistic career is not over, the artistic flame in her heart is still far from extinguished, but she died due to misfortune, which cannot but be regretted.
Now that the harsh winter has passed, a hundred flowers are glorious, and I hope that she can also know the spring under the Nine Springs.
Wen 丨 Ah Qiu