The 100-year-old “People’s Artist” Qin Yi died in Shanghai in the early morning of May 9.
Countless actors have posted to express their nostalgia. Among them, director Chen Kaige, who once worked with him, said:
“Mr. Qin Yi was one of the last deceased of the older generation of film performers. I saw her when I was a child, and I only thought she was dignified and beautiful at that time… Now she has completed her 100-year life course. , but left a voice and a smile that is always in the world.”
In public perception, it seems that only those with good faces are worthy of ups and downs.
Qin Yi, who was born in 1922, has a beauty that spans centuries. In the past century, she played many classic roles and suffered countless disasters.
War, cancer, domestic violence, divorce, bereavement… Qin Yi has gone through all kinds of ups and downs. She always realizes the long and huge pain with hindsight. “Forget it” is the word she often talks about .
Under the great waves of the times, Qin Yi couldn’t help herself. She had no right to watch, but she just used all her strength to fight against the impermanent fate.
The beautiful and brave female image she left to the times and Chinese films is Qin Yi herself.
She has never lost her dignity, self-fulfillment, and this fulfillment is mixed with too much forgiveness.
Qin Yi’s long century-long life is full of the marks of the times.
No tears, no sighs.
When Ruan Lingyu committed suicide, Qin Yi was 13 years old.
With a newspaper in her hand, she stood crying in an alley in Shanghai. Ruan Lingyu was Qin Yi’s favorite actress.
It was 1935, and Qin Yi was indulging in various dramas. At that time, the Shanghai Youth Propaganda Troupe was a place she often went to.
She has lived in a big family of decline since she was a child, and has a personality like her mother. “I have my mother’s brave and strong side, and I will face anything I encounter.”
At the age of 16, after graduating from Shanghai Zhonghua Vocational School, Qin Yi ran away from home and went to Wuhan to participate in the anti-Japanese national salvation activities, and then went to Chongqing.
The moment she arrived at the dock, the springboard had been removed and the ship was leaving. Qin Yi ignored it, ran a few steps, and jumped with her eyes closed.
This moment has become a symbol of Qin Yi’s life, and she has been striving for it.
In 1938, the Anti-Japanese War had broken out for a year. The brutal atrocities of the Japanese army had awakened countless young people. Qin Yi’s blood was also inspired.
This constant concern for the destiny of the country reveals a fascinating spiritual temperament.
In the same year, 17-year-old Qin Yi entered the film studio as an intern actor, and a year later starred in his first movie “Good Husband”.
Her talent was quickly revealed. Because of her outstanding appearance and her love for drama since childhood, her perception of performance has been integrated into her blood. It only took Qin Yi a few years to become the stage of the Chinese Drama Society. Pillar.
Young Qin Yi
“After I became a movie actor, I never wanted to do anything else.”
In that war-torn era, Qin Yi starred in the drama “The History of the Qing Palace”. Her acting skills were superb. She performed more than 100 performances in a row, and many celebrities came to support her.
Every night after the performance, a large number of audiences will wait at the door of the drama club just to catch a glimpse of Qin Yi’s demeanor.
In Shanghai in the 1940s, Qin Yi was evenly divided with female stars such as Hu Die and Zhou Xuan, and was equally famous with Bai Yang, Shu Xiuwen and Zhang Ruifang, and became one of the “Four Famous Actors” in drama.
From left to right: Qin Yi, Bai Yang, Zhang Ruifang, Shu Xiuwen
In the film industry for many years, Qin Yi has created countless classic roles, such as the witty and firm believer Fang Lin in “Railway Guerrilla”, and the kind and brave Lin Jie in “Women’s Basketball No. 5″…
In those years, the roles played by Qin Yi
Qin Yi has countless fans, but is very humble.
When filming the movie “Women’s Basketball No. 5”, director Xie Jin said: “I was still a little-known director at that time, but Qin Yi was already a big star, but she respected me very much, and there was no big star at all. shelf.”
In 1958, a clip of Qin Yi from the movie “Women’s Basketball No. 5”
After actresses such as Zhou Xuan and Hu Die gradually retired, Qin Yi became one of the most popular actors after the founding of the People’s Republic of China.
Making movies has become an indispensable mission in Qin Yi’s life. “Cinema is a very special art. Not only language, appearance, but a small action can show people’s inner world.”
Qin Yi recalls the story with Premier Zhou Enlai
In the eyes of many people, Qin Yi, who seems to be the darling of fate, has experienced many disasters in her long life.
Beauty has been hurt by love since ancient times, and Qin Yi is no exception.
In 1938, Qin Yi, who was displaced and came to Chongqing, met Chen Tianguo, who was also a drama actor. At that time, she did not expect that this man would be her partner in her first unhappy marriage.
Facing the charming Qin Yi, Chen Tianguo launched a fierce pursuit. The two agreed to climb the mountain. Just when they were about to reach the top of the mountain, Chen Tianguo suddenly knelt down and proposed marriage.
When Qin Yi was at a loss, Chen Tianguo pressed him to death, and if she didn’t agree, he would jump off the top of the mountain.
In the panic, the ignorant Qin Yi agreed.
Unexpectedly, the tragedy began.
After marriage, Chen Tianguo exposed his nature and became addicted to alcohol. Every time he finished drinking, he punched Qin Yi.
Just when Qin Yi was about to get a divorce, she found out that she was pregnant. In 1944, after giving birth to her daughter, Qin Yi couldn’t afford to be ill. Because she could not afford child support, Chen Tianguo wanted to give the child away.
This move completely disappointed Qin Yi, and she resolutely divorced Chen Tianguo.
In 1947, 25-year-old Qin Yi returned to her hometown of Shanghai with her daughter, but her father had passed away. She worked hard to make money by filming and took on the responsibility of supporting her family.
In the winter of the same year, she met her second man, Jin Yan, while filming the movie “Boundless Sea” in Hong Kong.
Jin Yan is a Korean, and Qin Yi is 12 years old. He is a well-known movie actor. He once filmed “Wild Weeds” with Ruan Lingyu, which is popular all over Shanghai. He is tall and handsome, and he is very good at taking care of people.
On December 15, 1947, Qin Yi and Jin Yan got married at the Universe Club in Central, Hong Kong Island. The witness was their mutual friend: Guo Moruo.
In the wedding speech, Guo Moruo said to the couple: cherish love and cherish artistic life.
That year, Qin Yi was 25 years old and Jin Yan was 37 years old.
Qin Yi and Jin Yan
At the wedding, Qin Yi only said one sentence: “If there is really love in the world, then it is him.”
After the marriage, the two were immersed in the sweetness of love, and they also starred in the movie “Lost Love” together, which is the only work the film couple has ever collaborated on.
Qiu Liying, the heroine played by Qin Yi, bid farewell to Qin Fangqian, played by Jin Yan, and finally died in a cold prison.
The ending of the two in the movie seems to be some kind of prophecy, indicating the unfortunate marriage of Qin Yi and Jin Yan in the future.
In 1949, their son Jin Jie was born, and Qin Yi named his son “Little Brother”.
The life of a family of three was very happy, but unfortunately, the good times did not last long, and fate made fun of Qin Yi again. Jin Yan also liked to drink big wine, and there was a problem of principle: cheating.
Qin Yi felt that the sky was falling. She proposed for a divorce, but Jin Yan disagreed. He said, “There is no love, there are family, human, and children, and the organizational impact must also be considered.”
She chose to forgive.
Qin Yi has many reasons for compromise. She feels that although love is important in life, it is by no means the only one. Since then, she has maintained a marriage in name only, and her life is not only filming, but also her son.
Qin Yi and her son
In 1957, during the filming of the movie “Eagle in the Storm”, Jin Yan suffered from stomach bleeding due to heavy drinking.
The illness made his health worse.
After the operation, he has been living on the sickbed. Qin Yi has been taking good care of her husband on the sickbed without complaining. This is the kindness and kindness instinct.
It was raining overnight, and Qin Yi was found to have rectal cancer soon after.
While receiving treatment, she took care of her husband until his death in 1983. Qin Yi remembered that when she was parting, there were tears in Jin Yan’s eyes. She never left her eyes, but love had long since been lost.
Jin Yan, Qin Yi and their children
When Jin Yan was pushed to the mortuary, Qin Yi, who had been silent for a long time, could no longer contain her inner grief, and she burst into tears: “Don’t touch him, wait until he is completely cold before pushing forward.”
At that moment, who cares what the decency is.
When there was an earthquake in Japan, everyone ran out in their pajamas. Only she didn’t panic or shout, but changed her skirt and straightened her hair before she was willing to escape.
At the most dangerous time, she has to be graceful and upright, but facing the death of her partner who has lived together for 36 years, Qin Yi still feels grief-stricken.
In the final analysis, no matter how much glory and blessing, she is just a woman.
Falling into the boundless darkness, Qin Yi is not decadent.
“I have endured and suffered a lot at work and at home in my life. People say that I have a good mentality and that everyone has the desire to live a better life after all. But I never accept fate. I will analyze it, just like peeling an orange. Peel off one by one, layer by layer.”
She has never lost her dignity, self-fulfillment, and this fulfillment is mixed with too much forgiveness.
“It’s a coincidence that when I was filming “Mother”, my younger brother was 1 year old, the same size as the son I was breastfeeding in the play. I didn’t expect Jin Jie to get schizophrenia when he was 16 years old.”
Off the screen, she is an ordinary and extraordinary mother.
Qin Yi and her husband Jin Yan have been busy filming and have no time to take care of their son. As time goes by, the younger brother becomes more and more lonely in his heart. This kind of fragility in his heart will directly destroy the child many years later.
Qin Yi and her son
In 1965, the frightened 16-year-old brother was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Qin Yi’s legs were weak and she sat on the ground.
“Since then, I have extinguished all my desires.”
Qin Yi became an unfortunate cube, and she had to carry it hard.
When her younger brother was seriously ill and was hospitalized, she had to bring her son’s clothes and meals while filming “Thunderstorm”. After the filming, Qin Yi packed a huge bag and packed the bus to the hospital. Often, her clothes were soaked with sweat after arriving. .
A passerby said: “Look, isn’t that a big star Qin Yi?” Another said: “How is it possible, how could Qin Yi squeeze the bus!”
Those who know her know it well, this is the real life of Qin Yi in those years, she is a mother.
Qin Yi and her son
“It’s not suffering, it’s love.”
During the long fleeting years, Qin Yi gave his son all his love.
When his son fell ill, he would be manic and beat and kick his mother. Qin Yi protected her face and curled up her fist to greet her son: “Don’t hit my mother in the face, my mother will be filming tomorrow.”
Occasionally, the son would keep shouting during the attack: “My mother is not a counter-revolutionary, she is not, don’t take her away!”
Every time she heard these words, Qin Yi couldn’t help crying. For her son, it was a dull pain.
On March 7, 2007, the 59-year-old younger brother passed away. It was a son who was taken care of by his mother Qin Yi for more than 40 years.
This year, Qin Yi is 85 years old.
The tragedy of the white-haired man sending the black-haired man deepened her loneliness.
The days after her son’s death were the most difficult years in Qin Yi’s life. She had experienced the successive deaths of her husband and son, and her inner wounds became more and more. How to heal her?
People go away one by one, very far, for a long time. The people who stayed inside and did not leave were getting weaker and weaker and staggering.
In 2008, after the earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan, 86-year-old Qin Yi donated all of her savings of more than 200,000 yuan. She said, “The money was originally intended for my son, but now that my younger brother is gone, the mother is the only one. Give that money to those who need it most.”
Qin Yi’s life was long and hard, and it was difficult to talk to outsiders, from one quagmire to another quagmire, but she never felt sorry for herself.
She refused.
All her friends left, and she lived unhurriedly.
In her 90s, she lives in an apartment on Hengshan Road in Shanghai. There are many French plane trees in the community, which is very quiet.
Before that, Qin Yi lived in an old-fashioned house. She said that it was better to live here because the house was noisy with mice.
In Qin Yi’s house, there is a blue oil painting hanging above the sofa. The person in the painting is herself, wearing a royal blue dress, with her hands hanging naturally on her knees, elegant and comfortable.
Qin Yi’s house
In her 90s, she has silver hair, her skin is still fair, and her smile is refreshing. She still can’t be idle, and she knows that she has reached the edge of life and should live every day peacefully.
“As a literary and art worker, we should be born with a sense of social responsibility. People will say that you are so old, you should have fun and enjoy happiness. What I can do now is to enjoy happiness.”
When there is no filming, Qin Yi’s life is quite fulfilling. She has to read the newspapers and documents of the day every day. “When I can’t calm down, someone always asks me to say a word and write braille…”
Life is getting wider, and time has made her more and more able to let go.
Those eyes are always clean and bright, right and wrong, joys and sorrows and wind and rain, Qin Yi swallows them all alone.
On the day of Qin Yi’s 90th birthday, her friend Bai Hua gave her a poem, one of which made her eyes wet: “Where have all your former loves gone?”
She felt inexplicably lost and sentimental. Qin Yi recalled her life for nearly a century. She didn’t know where her love had gone. She was always the one who gave in.
What happened to those who lived for too long; what happened to those who left.
Most of Qin Yi’s contemporaries, unable to coexist with the times that have undergone great changes, have gradually withdrawn from the screen, but Qin Yi is still making movies in her 90s.
My friend Ishikawa, a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy, said:
“She has a very long artistic life. After the reform and opening up, she has performed a lot of works. She can follow the development of the times and become a witness to the changes of the times.”
She said that film is her lifelong pursuit, and the older she lives, the more she pursues. Qin Yi always felt that people should embrace the things they love with passion, whether it is pain or joy.
Qin Yi has always had her own requirements for acting.
Some actors use eye drops in crying scenes, but she doesn’t use them at all. Not only that, she is very particular about where the tears flow.
In 2017, in the movie “The Legend of the Demon Cat”, 95-year-old Qin Yi’s dedicated and serious attitude when filming made Chen Kaige and Huang Xuan very moved. Huang Xuan said:
“No one would have thought that Mr. Qin Yi, who is in his 90s, can still come out to make a movie. All the expressions, eyes, and state of the film are so touching.”
95-year-old Qin Yi filming the scene of the movie “The Legend of the Demon Cat”
She played a white-haired old palace maid who witnessed the rise and fall of the dynasty.
Qin Yi sat there, one look was a story, and her lines were clear.
There are not many scenes, but it makes the audience unforgettable.
Chen Kaige recalled that whenever he saw Teacher Qin Yi reciting his lines seriously during filming, his heart filled with all kinds of respect.
Qin Yi and Chen Kaige
The old maid, the maid of honor in “The Legend of the Demon Cat”, is the last screen image created by Qin Yi in her long acting career.
Qin Yi said: “Although I am old, in this changing and exciting era, I have to run and catch up.”
She has been pursuing it her whole life.
Qin Yi said that she was very old, but she still wanted to do something for Chinese movies.
Nearly 100-year-olds still want to live with dignity.
It’s just that movies and life have their endings.
When life comes to an end.
At four in the morning on May 9, 2022, Qin Yi died in Shanghai Huadong Hospital at the age of 100.
Everyone misses it.
When actor Niu Ben learned of Qin Yi’s death, he told reporters, “This news is too sudden. I’m very sad now. I still owe Mr. Qin Yi a meal of shepherd’s purse stuffed wontons…”
At the 2017 TV Drama Quality Awards Gala, Qin Yi presented the award to the outstanding young actor Hu Ge. The two generations stood together with thunderous applause, which is the power of inheritance.
In 2017, 95-year-old Qin Yi presented the award to 35-year-old Hu Ge
After learning of Qin Yi’s death, Hu Ge wrote: “Grandma Qin has a good journey. I will keep your entrustment in mind and move forward with gratitude.”
When Qin Yi was a child in her hometown of Shanghai, she rode a human-pulled tricycle. She would sit in a way that she thought would reduce the weight. In fact, the weight would not change, but she always wanted to share some of the pain for others.
However, fate never gave her tolerance, and she took this as her return. She chose to forgive.
The heavy snow in this life fell on her body, and it also fell on the homeland of fate.
Today, Qin Yi’s life has stopped at the age of 100, but her spiritual vision is immortal.
Forever miss.
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