"Death has swallowed, and life is often compassionate." Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan, the "immortal couples" who have been dependent on each other for more than 30 years, are now suffering from the pain of life and death isolation. On November 1, 2020, Zhang Yi died of illness at the age of 69. Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan were originally the "golden boys and jade girls" of taiwan's film industry, but they resolutely quit the show business circle and created the "Liuli Workshop". The "Glass Workshop" is the practice of the two people in this life and this life, and like their love, it has become a legend in the hearts of the world.
Liuli Workshop issued a statement on the evening of November 3, "There is never too late love" Zhang Yi memorial meeting will be held at 10 a.m. on November 20 at the Taipei Dojo in Fo Guang Shan, the memorial will be open to all walks of life to commemorate, the family will plead their resignation, the statement reads: "Liuli artist Zhang Yi's most concerned life topic: 'Life, can love; death, no fear'. When he created the "Freedom" series, he hoped that he would be comfortable with life and the world; he could sleep with love, and he could sleep on death. Life is inherently bitter, so why not fly freely. ”
The news of Zhang Yi's death made people sigh, and everyone prayed that he could be like the figure of the medicine master Liu Liguang rulai shaped by Yang Huishan, "May my body be like a glass in my next life, when I attain Bodhi, my body will be like a glass, clear inside and out, pure and flawless." ”
< h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > collaborated with Yang Dechang and others on "The Story of Time and Yin", which opened the prelude to Taiwan's New Wave films</h1>
Born in Taipei in 1951, Zhang Yi graduated from Shih Hsin University in Taiwan with a degree in film, and worked as an editor of a film magazine, engaged in film criticism and short story writing. Zhang Yi is a well-known talent, and at the age of 19, he became a high-profile short story writer. In the view of critics, Zhang Yi's text is "a rare Chinese writing style after Zhang Ailing and Bai Xianyong". Friends commented that Zhang Yi is a Wenqing, "very familiar with poetry, always speaking slowly, the words are round and thoughtful, and therefore look at works and goods, you can always jump out of different levels." ”
In 1979, Zhang Yi serialized the novel "Source" in "Xinsheng Bao", which was highly acclaimed, and after that, he cooperated with Zhang Yongxiang, a screenwriter who had served as a screenwriter for famous works such as "A Boat in the Ocean", "Story of a Small Town", "Duck Farmer's Home" and made the story "Source" into a film of the same name, which won the Best Screenplay Award at the 28th Asia-Pacific Film Festival.
In 1982, Zhang Yi collaborated with Yang Dechang, Tao Dechen, Ke Yizheng and others to make "The Story of Time and Yin", which is regarded as the prelude to Taiwan's New Wave cinema.
"The Story of Time" is composed of four sections: "Little Dragon Head", "Hope", "Jumping Frog" and "Newspaper Name", which shows the four stages of growth of "childhood", "youth", "youth" and "adulthood", and the four young directors describe their feelings about the world around them. Zhang Yi directed "Report the Name", which tells the exaggerated story of the young couple David and Finnish when they went to work one morning after moving to their new home, describing the helplessness of adulthood while also pointing out some social problems brought about by Taipei's increasing prosperity.
After "The Story of Time", Zhang Yi also began his directing career, successively creating classic works such as "Yuqing Sister-in-law", "I Have Lived My Life Like This", "My Son's Hansheng", "My Love" and so on. Among them, "Yu Qing Sister-in-law", "I Have Lived My Life Like This" and "My Love" are known as "women's film trilogy". "I Lived My Life Like This" won the Golden Horse Award for Best Film, Zhang Yi also won the Golden Horse Award and the Best Director Award at the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and "My Love" was selected as one of the top ten film masterpieces of Taiwanese cinema in the past century (1895-1995) by the yearbook of Variety Magazine in New York.
Li Xingwen, who debuted with the filming of Zhang Yi's "My Son's Hansheng", was extremely sad after hearing the news of Zhang Yi's death, and he said in an interview with Taiwan media that when he first met Zhang Yi when he was a child, he felt that "he was very strict, moody and angry, and emotional ups and downs were in his heart." He was very strict but also very patient, and had never seen him angry and charming when he laughed. ”
Li Xingwen recalled that he was only 17 years old when he acted in "My Son Hansheng", director Zhang Yi was very good to him, took him to see movies, and gave him a lot of books, "He took me to see movies, saying that watching movies is to go to class, the director said that good movies should be watched, good books should also be read, when I was only in high school, he constantly reminded me to read more, he said that filmmakers should have culture, and have a connotation of filmmakers." ”
Li Xingwen said that director Zhang Yi has the greatest influence on him, that is, he must be upright and have culture: "He has the backbone of a literati, a strong backbone, a very stable attitude, firm willpower, and a very safe feeling." ”
Li Liqun, an "old drama bone" who has worked with Zhang Yi, recalls that Zhang Yi looks easy-going when he works, but in fact, he is very strict about the details of the work, and has reached an overly strict level, "It is not nitpicking, but he feels that all the requirements are tried to be done, otherwise one thing is not done, two things are not done, and the accumulation will not work, so he will stick to every small detail." Li Liqun said that Zhang Yi rarely loses his temper, and even if his temper comes up, it will pass quickly, "When you are still uneasy, he has already suppressed, like the wind." Filming on the spot, he also encouraged, not scolded. ”
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > extramarital affairs have been reproached and have been affectionate for decades</h1>
On October 28 this year, some Taiwan media reported that Zhang Yi was infected with blood transfusion after heart surgery, and his condition was critical, and he was sent to the intensive care unit, which caused countless people to worry for a while.
On October 29, Liuli Workshop released a letter from Yang Huishan to employees, telling the psychological journey of accompanying her husband through illness in the past two years.
It is reported that Zhang Yi had a heart stent catheter in 1998 and a heart bypass surgery in 2013. Yang Huishan revealed in the article that Zhang Yi has been very ill for the past two years and has been in and out of the hospital non-stop, especially since these days. Zhang Yi's body often swelled and ached due to many problems with congenital immune function and kidneys. Lying in a hospital bed, full of tubes and injections, his arms could not find a place to inject, he had a high fever, coughed up blood, and could not count the symptoms...
Yang Huishan wrote: "Looking at him who is still weak, trying to write the explanatory text of the new work of the workshop; the copywriter, with the swollen hand that can hardly lift the pen, seriously practices signing hard, because many official documents have to wait for him to sign, looking at his hardships, my heart is like a knife." I prayed that the bodhisattva would give me a little pain... He has not tolerated my hard work, I told him in his ear, you are my whole world, even if you are in a wheelchair or lying in bed, as long as you do not feel that it is the so-called bad quality of life, as long as you are willing to live, I will happily take care of you, by your side, very happy to live with you for the rest of the day..."
Unfortunately, Zhang Yi failed to survive this hurdle, and in the early morning of November 1, Zhang Yi passed away peacefully accompanied by his wife Yang Huishan, daughter Zhang Yuan and his family.
Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan have always been in love for more than 30 years, but their love was not blessed at the beginning. Yang Huishan was once a popular star in Taiwan, and in her film career for more than ten years, she has starred in 124 movies, and won the Best Actress Award at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards for two consecutive years with "Little Fugitive" and "I Have Lived My Life Like This". At that time, Yang Huishan had an average of 10 movies released a year, the highest record was because she did not touch the bed for 10 days of filming, Zhang Yi said that she could find a place on the set to make up for sleep, so hard that there was no blood in her eyes, and her physical condition could be described as unique.
Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan are born of love because of drama, the two cooperated in "Yu Qing Sister-in-law" and "I Have Lived My Life Like This", both films were great successes, "Yu Qing Sister-in-law" let Yang Huishan win two film laurels at the Taiwan Golden Horse Awards and the Asia-Pacific Film Festival, and "I Lived My Life Like This" won four awards at the Golden Horse Awards for Best Film, Best Director, Best Screenwriter and Best Actress.
Stills from "YuQing Sister-in-law"
When Yang Huishan and Zhang Yi fell in love, Zhang Yi was already married, and his wife was Xiao Sa, a "genius girl writer" who bloomed in the literary world at the age of 17, and many of Zhang Yi's films were adapted from Xiao Sa's scripts, including "I Lived My Life Like This" and "My Love". Before the release of "My Love" in 1986, Xiao Sa wrote "A Letter to Her Ex-Husband", exposing her husband's feelings with Yang Huishan, and this extramarital affair was a sensation, and Yang Huishan was saddled with the strong public opinion pressure of the "third party".
Zhang Yi, Yang Huishan (left) and Xiao Sa (right) were once considered the "Iron Triangle"
When there is a contradiction between love and career, Yang Huishan and Zhang Yi chose love, just as the two red chose to retire, Yang Huishan once said that she did not regret giving up the status of the film queen, she said that they did not need others to accompany them, rely on their own achievements, put down the aura of the big director and the film queen, and become each other's shadow.
In 1998, Zhang Yi once had a heart attack, and after that, perhaps feeling the fragility of life and the impermanence of life, the two became more and more inseparable from each other. Whether it is work or life, they are in and out of the same industry, accompanied by each other. Yang Huishan once said in an interview that Zhang Yi is the treasure trove of her life, her dictionary: "Zhang Yi knows me best, and if I have any achievements, it is just a reflection of his light." ”
Asked if there would be a conflict between the two, Yang Huishan said, "Sometimes I will be red in the face, sometimes I will be cold." But after that, everyone will reflect, and then there will be concessions. Zhang Yi said: "The learning of life is not easy, and there are stages of change in the learning of two people together. Both sides cannot be the same and need to adapt and learn from each other. As long as there is no thought of separation, sometimes quarrelling is also a pleasure. ”
What is enviable is that Zhang Yi must help Yang Huishan prepare breakfast every day. Zhang Yi said that although there is some meat and numbness, Yang Huishan is already an indispensable part of his life. Zhang Yi also revealed that he and Yang Huishan were fans of Korean dramas before his death, chasing dramas together every night, once watching an average of 9 dramas a week, Yang Huishan described the fanaticism of Korean dramas with "wolfing" and "watching what you have", and now the deep affection of Qinse and Ming and the couple in the life of husband and wife has become a memory.
As for Zhang Yi and Xiao Sa, later the passage of time has long resolved the grievance, Xiao Sa once said in an interview that the two are not intolerable to the outside world, which is also the result of years of no longer clinging, in 2015, Xiao Sa published "Backlight Taipei", at that time also planned to ask Zhang Yi to make a preface, but because he was hospitalized at the time, he gave up.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" > suffered at the beginning of entrepreneurship</h1>
In 2001, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" shined at the Oscars, and the Liuli Workshop founded by Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan also made a splash at this Oscar, and it turned out that their glass wine vessel "Will Enter the Wine - Ancient Style Six Pins" appeared in the guest basket, which was the first time that Chinese glass crafts were selected as Oscar guest gifts. The creation of "Will Drink Wine - Six Ancient Styles" stems from the study of the image of the ancient wine vessel "Huo", which is composed of six glass wine vessels of different colors and different details.
At that time, Yang Huishan held an exhibition in the United States. An official from the Oscar Organizing Committee was attracted by its delicate Xiang embroidery technique and peony pattern with Chinese characteristics as soon as he saw the packaging of "Ancient Style Six Pins", and immediately asked Yang Huishan to put Chinese glass into the Oscar gift basket. Because the Oscars stipulate that guests cannot be paid in any money, the organizing committee puts some world-famous artworks into baskets for guests every year. What gifts are in this basket every year is also the focus of everyone's attention, because it also represents a high honor.
Nowadays, the fame of Liuli Workshop has long been a household name, and for young people, the scenery history of Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan in the film industry is less known.
In 1987, Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan, who quit the film industry, founded Liuli Workshop and began to explore liuli art. Speaking of how to get acquainted with Liu Li, it is also related to the movie.
Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan's last film before quitting the film world is "My Love", this movie is to explore the unsatisfactory marriage, the impermanence of life, in order to express this theme, they borrowed glass crafts as props, Bai Juyi has a poetry cloud: "Caiyun is easy to scatter Glass brittle." In Zhang Yi's view, glass is an "impermanent" material, "When the camera's focal length slowly moves, it flashes the pure, transparent and fragile material of glass." However, no matter how gorgeous it is, as long as it falls to the ground inadvertently, it will be completely and completely broken. Doesn't this speak of the impermanence and insecurity of life? ”
Yang Huishan also said that after seeing Liu Li, she felt that "fate has come", Yang Huishan said that they left the film circle to think of a creative, simple life that can be controlled by themselves, "As a director and actor, can you really make the movie like the one you really want?" Almost impossible. Movies are a kind of karmic meeting, and many times it does not depend on a person's will. We didn't want to show our lives through other people's stories anymore, so we chose to make glass crafts. This material determines that we can complete a work according to our own imagination. Glass is a space, and it is interesting that different viewers see different content. That mentality is very pure, unlike the red dust in the movie. ”
At the beginning of the business, they were tortured, Yang Huishan not only took out all the property, but also mortgaged the house of his father and brothers and sisters, they once had a debt of NT$75 million, when Yang Huishan was in charge of research and development, Zhang Yi was responsible for borrowing money, and later friends did not even answer his phone, and he would be ridiculed when he went to the bank for a loan. Zhang Yi recalled before his death, "During that time, as long as I mentioned the matter of money, I was incredibly sensitive, and my pupils were enlarged 500 times. ”
Yang Huishan was studying the "dewaxing casting method" that is unique to France in the world, but it was repeatedly failed, Zhang Yi said in an interview before his death: "In 1987, our seven partners, in a small studio in Tamsui, physically and mentally tormented. Every morning I went back, faced with a stove scrap, and started from scratch again. At eleven o'clock in the evening, the temperature is only 6 degrees, and the hand should reach into the cold water to stir the plaster. There are 18 million interest payments a month, and there is almost no income. But the pawn who crossed the river could not turn back, and could only move forward. In this way, during the day, she went to work, constantly experimented, I went to raise money, constantly think of ways, spent the most bitter three and a half years...", at that time Yang Huishan did not sleep all night, and one stop was more than forty hours, the legs were swollen and did not know, and even appeared deaf in the left ear.
Yang Huishan said that Liuli created a total of 12 processes, each of which hid their failures, and in the early days of entrepreneurship, every day was like guessing the mystery, guessing the reason for the failure, but no matter what the process was, she and Zhang Yi would never complain to each other, "It is very happy to be together, this is the most important." ”
Nowadays, Liuli Workshop has become synonymous with liuli art in the world, and Yang Huishan and Zhang Yi are known as the pioneers and pioneers of contemporary liuli art. Liuli Workshop has set up 70 art galleries in Asia, Europe, the United States and other places, and has not only been invited to Japan, the United States, Britain, Italy, Germany, France and other countries for many exhibitions, but also has more than 20 works, which have been permanently collected by important world-class museums. Fan Jinshi, president of the Dunhuang Research Institute, praised that "Yang Huishan is the 493rd cave in Dunhuang".
Zhang Yi's "Fireworks Zen Heart"
<h1 class= "pgc-h-arrow-right" > glass full of "love and death" imagery Through the glass to see life</h1>
Zhang Yi once said that only culture has dignity. In the early 1990s, Zhang Yi and Yang Huishan took several works abroad for exhibition, when they learned from foreign scholars that the original dewaxing casting method was a long-lost technique in China. We want to tell all foreigners that this is the art of glass in China. I would like to ask them not to say anything about Chinese people who don't understand glass, let alone glass. Liuli is only a carrier, what is important is that it carries Chinese culture. Liuli is our yearning for history and culture, and our sense of mission to national culture. ”
Zhang Yi has undergone renal artery amputation surgery, and twice because of myocardial infarction, 3 degrees of wandering in front of the ghost door, but also because of the pain of illness let him have an open-minded sense of life, for him, Liu Li, is also full of "love and death" imagery, its "illusory" and "real", "light" and "shadow", "complete vertigo" and "broken disillusionment", fascinating, but also lamentable. Zhang Yi's creative style is free to act at will and is informal. He let the glass flow freely in the quenching of fireworks, exerting greater freedom and giving the work unlimited ductility. Words and oriental Zen have become distinct creative personalities.
Zhang Yi's work "At Ease"
Zhang Yi once named one of their exhibitions "Human Exploration", because in his opinion, he and Yang Huishan have not been easy along the way, and in this tossing process, they have expressed some feelings with their own life experience in Liuli's creation. "Let these creations convey the cultural wisdom brought to us by the patriarchs, so that all those who look at our works can have greater guidance in the confusion of life."
Liu Li is a practice of the two, allowing them to see life through Liu Li, and the two hope that Liu Li will become a language that spans thousands of years, can cross borders, and convey a kind of contemplation of compassion. Yang Huishan said, "If art is possible, it is nothing more than hope, through a medium, so that everyone can feel a different face of life." ”
Zhang Yi's work "A Touch of Red"
On the 25th anniversary of the establishment of Liuli Workshop, Zhang Yi wrote a book "The Power of Immortality", which described his experience in liuli art for 25 years and his observations on the development of liuli art. In the book, Zhang Yi said, "Whether Liuli Workshop is successful or not is not about how much money it makes, if it can set a value and a model for society, even if there is nothing in the pocket, it will not affect the pride in the heart." ”
In Zhang Yi's view, in the noisy and noisy, you can only choose the path you want to take, step by step, and it is roughly worthy of the blood that you have no choice. And only by constantly reviewing, self-examining, and constantly moving forward can we go further. (Image from Liuli Workshop)