【Memorial】
On May 9, the morning after Mother's Day, Qin Yi left.
With beauty, tenacity and elegance spanning a hundred years.
She is an outstanding member of the Communist Party of China, a witness and a struggler of Chinese films, and has always been active in the torrent of the era.
In the 100-year-old light and shadow life, Qin Yi has created countless classic female images, and also forged herself from a girl who "run away" from a feudal family into a "people's artist" and "the most beautiful struggler".
She is hardworking and persistent, and she has been ups and downs and suffering all her life, and she is also strong and flexible all her life.
Time has endowed her with penetrating beauty, and it has also allowed her to illuminate the surroundings and become a lasting light.
She spends her life interpreting beauty
In January 1922, Qin Yi was born in Shanghai.
At the age of 16, she ran away from home alone.
First went to Wuhan to participate in the anti-Japanese propaganda, and then moved to Chongqing to become an actor in a Chinese film studio.
In 1941, he joined the Chinese Drama Society and began to shine on the stage of drama.
In Chongqing, she starred in plays such as "Earth Rejuvenation" and "La Traviata".
Among the four dan, Qin Yi is the youngest.
She once recalled: "When I was in Chongqing, I played six plays a year for 280 days, and I was the main character. I played the role of nurse, sister-in-law, all kinds. As long as the Japanese didn't bomb, I would play."
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War, Qin Yi returned to Shanghai.
In 1949, the Shanghai Film Studio was established. She has appeared in dozens of films such as "Farmhouse", "Railway Guerrilla", "Women's Basketball No. 5", "Song of Youth", "Moya Dai" and "Overseas Child".
In her legendary artistic career of more than 80 years, Qin Yi has created many classic artistic images, which are loved by generations of fans.
Beauty, elegance, tenacity, and a sense of justice have become her unique screen "logo".
She is the reborn progressive woman Yu Zhen in "Distant Love", the witty and courageous Sister Fanglin in "Railway Guerrilla", the resolute scraper worker Ma Lan in "Malan Blossoms", and the "Women's Basketball 5" The suffering but still optimistic Lin Jie in "Song of Youth" is also Lin Hong, a Communist Party member in "Song of Youth" who sees death as her home and righteousness... In the New China Film Art Gallery, she left behind with timeless beauty and ardent pursuit. A bold stroke.
In 2014, Qin Yi climbed to the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau at the age of 93, and filmed the film "Qinghai Lakeside".
The artistic image of the meteorological scientist Mei Xinyi portrayed in the film expresses her incomparable love for work, life and the motherland.
Before and after the screen, Qin Yi's beauty is very penetrating.
It is the beauty of calm, sincere beauty, and the beauty that exudes the brilliance of human nature.
"Even when she attended events in her later years, she had never seen her on crutches, and she was always in high spirits." Shi Chuan, vice chairman of the Shanghai Film Association and a professor at the Shanghai Theater Academy, recalled Qin Yi.
Qin Yi often said: "I just hope that some spirits in the works can be carried forward and enlighten people's souls." On January 31, 2022, accompanied by medical staff and family members, Qin Yi celebrated his 100th birthday.
When it comes to performing arts, the "young goddess" is still full of passion.
She makes love the meaning of life
Qin Yi's beauty largely stems from love.
As a child, she loved to watch movies, and also liked to read novels and plays by Tolstoy, Chekhov and others.
She once said, "I played a lot of roles in a daze", relying on the most simple "stupid method" - study and hard work.
She loves to fight and is fierce to herself.
When I was young, when I performed the drama "Marriage March", because of poor living conditions and fatigue, my voice went wrong, and I was so dumb that I could only speak in an airy voice.
But Qin Yi insisted on finishing three acts and five scenes, and when the curtain call came, the applause was more enthusiastic than usual.
In her later years, Qin Yi recalled the performance and said that it was "the highest reward and the greatest respect she has ever received as an actor".
Released in 1956, "Railway Guerrilla" is one of Qin Yi's most well-known works.
She plays Sister Fanglin, the only female character in the film.
Since "Railway Guerrilla" is a typical man's play, although Qin Yi plays the heroine and has not many roles, this does not affect her leaving a classic image on the new China screen with this film.
When the older generation sang "Play my beloved pipa and sing that moving ballad", Qin Yi's figure still flashed before their eyes.
"Women's Basketball No. 5" starring Qin Yi is the first sports-themed color feature film in New China.
She plays the kind, strong and brave Lin Jie in the film.
Although there are not many professional shots of playing, in order to play this role well, Qin Yi went to the basketball team to study for two months, and got up at 4 o'clock every day to train with professional athletes.
She infuses each character with the strong breath of life and the delicate and real experience of the characters' emotions, enriching the characters' inner world.
Over the years, she has also been willing to play tricks for others, and even wrote a book called "Running Dragons", which describes the "Dragon Spirit" in her heart - no other: do one line, love one line, specialize one's line, fine line, take every single line seriously. One character, every performance.
In 2019, nearly 100-year-old Qin Yi participated in the public welfare film "Everything Is Like You" and insisted on completing all the shooting in the hospital.
In the film, she has silver hair, like an orchid that has been washed with time and is still beautiful.
She said that she liked it very much after receiving the script. "As an actor, I just want to do more and more for Chinese movies."
Her friend revealed that Qin Yi insisted on taking cold showers from a young age until October every year.
In her 100-year-old life, she kept climbing and was fearless. She said: "Performing is my career, just like my song that can never be sung."
She makes misery brightly colored
Qin Yi's beauty is radiant.
Behind the beauty is the background of life's suffering.
She has experienced ups and downs in her life, but she is always optimistic and strong.
In the early days, she ran away from the big feudal family and embarked on the road of anti-Japanese national salvation.
In Chongqing, he witnessed the Japanese bombing and was one of the survivors of the war.
In the 1960s, she suffered from cancer and underwent several major surgeries and had her gallbladder removed.
But she never looked sick, and she joked with people about her illness, always calling herself a "braveless hero".
After the death of her son "little brother" (Jin Jie), although Qin Yi couldn't hide her grief, she soon returned to work.
Tong Ruixin, head of the Shanghai Film Actors Troupe, recalled: "I always remember Mr. Qin Yi's words, 'Age is not something I can decide, but I can decide my life by myself! Since I am alive, I have to do some work. Have fun doing work'!"
The 90-year-old Qin Yi heard that everyone called her "post-90s". At first, she didn't understand what it meant. Soon, she accepted this statement and was very willing to be called a "beautiful girl born in the 90s". , but also replied with a smile: "Thank you".
In recent years, Qin Yi has been hospitalized for terminal cancer.
No matter what situation she is in, she always shows people with beauty and infects people with the enthusiasm of life.
She said: "The older we live, the more we pursue. I always feel that whether it is pain or joy, we should always embrace our career with passion."
In the opinion of literary critic Mao Shi'an, "Qin Yi, with the breadth of her mother and the warmth of women, vividly and vividly shapes the image of contemporary Chinese women on the screen and on the stage, and digs up the contemporary Chinese women. A rich, kind and beautiful inner world.”
"The most commendable thing is that in the midst of so much suffering, she has always maintained a kind of faith, a kind of strength, a kind of forwardness and a kind of gentleness, which is very difficult for ordinary people to do. How can we break through in the suffering? How to persevere, Qin Yi is a coordinate of our life force." Mao Shian said.
(Reporter Yan Weiqi of this newspaper, Shanghai, May 9)