She is a goddess who cannot be forgotten no matter how many generations of people have changed. She is the darling in the director's camera and a destiny actor whom God appreciates food.
She is a different scenery in the eyes of men, sometimes beautiful and dignified, sometimes happy and charming, but after the passion retreats, she also becomes a victim of their fame and fortune.
She was trapped in the terrifying circle of people's words in her best years, and eventually forced herself into a desperate situation, leaving her life to stop forever at the age of 25.
On the day she was in her funeral, 12 big names in the film industry carried the coffin, and 300,000 fans went to tears to bid farewell along the street. She was a superstar of the generation Ruan Lingyu .
At the end of the Qing Dynasty and the early Republic of China, Ruan Lingyu was born in a lower-class family in Shanghai. At that time, her name was Ruan Fenggen. My father is the only laborer who works in Shanghai Pudong Asia Oil Stack, earning a meager salary every day and bearing the expenses of the family.
Because of long-term high-intensity physical labor, his father died of overwork when Ruan Lingyu was young, leaving them with orphans and widows. In order to survive, his mother took Ruan Lingyu to a wealthy family named Zhang as servants.
Although he was vigorously advocating the elimination of slavery and promoting new ideas at that time, servants were still the lowest job. Although Ruan Lingyu's mother was not educated, she gradually realized through her eyes that "a woman's virtue is virtue" was wrong. If she wanted her daughter to live with a face, she had to send her to school.
So when Ruan Lingyu was a child, her mother begged the head of the family to send her to a private school, and later to the Shanghai Chongde Girls' School where the Zhang family held shares.
In order to protect her daughter's face when she is studying for social interaction, the mother told her not to say that she is the servant's daughter. If someone digs into the bottom of the matter, she will say that she is a distant relative of the Zhang family.
Perhaps it was because my mother's teaching on her life was too effective since she was a child. Ruan Lingyu has valued face since she was a child. She should wear clean and decent dresses at school, work hard, walk with her chest and head up, be humble and low-key when she is young, and she must not be honest with the public. This thought indirectly led to her final tragedy.
As time goes by, Ruan Lingyu gradually grows out and becomes more and more famous. Her eyebrows are like distant mountains, her eyes are filled with autumn water, her skin is like cream, and her smile is like flowers. With a tall and slender figure and a curvy cheongsam, walking on the street at the age of fifteen or sixteen can attract many men to look back frequently.
It was at this age that she met the young master of the Zhang family who returned from studying in the Zhang family. The first time the two met was at the Zhang family's cocktail party. Zhang Damin could no longer look away when he saw Ruan Lingyu.
The common scene in idol dramas where the rich young master falls in love with his servant's daughter, I don't know if it was written by Ruan Lingyu and Zhang Damin.
Zhang Damin pursued Ruan Lingyu passionately. Ruan Lingyu could not resist Zhang Damin's sugar-coated shells, and the girl's love that had just begun to bloom in that spring.
However, the relationship between the two aroused strong dissatisfaction from the Zhang family's wife, so Zhang Damin simply took Ruan Lingyu and her mother out of the old house and rented a house outside and started living together.
After that, Ruan Lingyu dropped out of Chongde Girls' School and adopted a girl with Zhang Damin. The couple took their children and lived a warm married life with their mother-in-law.
But Zhang Damin is not a kind man and trustworthy woman. After his passion faded, he was unwilling to stay at home every day. Playboys like him will still get tired of seeing too many beautiful beauties like Ruan Lingyu. Less than a year after the two lived together, Zhang Damin started to go out to spend money, and the money he brought from his family was slowly spent.
all Ruan Lingyu can do is wait for the drunk Zhang Damin to come home in a long dark night. Just when they were almost out of ammunition and food, Zhang Damin's brother Zhang Huichong recommended Ruan Lingyu to participate in the interview in the movie "The Famous Couple".
Ruan Lingyu has never learned to perform, but she was naturally beautiful and was attracted by the director as soon as she appeared and entered the film and television industry.
Since then, Ruan Lingyu has used her pay to support Zhang Damin, an idle person in society. Zhang Damin’s university diploma is just a piece of paper, and she can’t do anything except drinking and gambling.
Until the old man of the Zhang family passed away, Zhang Damin asked Ruan Lingyu to hold a wedding with him in the mourning hall so that he could get more property as a married person. Unfortunately, Mrs. Zhang did not accept Ruan Lingyu at all. After breaking up with the family, Zhang Damin continued to squander with the few property, and Ruan Lingyu gradually realized that he would not marry her.
Ruan Lingyu had thought of leaving, but every time Zhang Damin would mock her with very mean words, saying that no one would want her to leave, and threatened to sell the gossip news that she had elopement with her since she was sixteen to the tabloid newspaper. Ruan Lingyu has been loving face since she was a child and can never stand the humiliation of Zhang Damin. She can only obey her mother's advice and "bear it."
At first, Ruan Lingyu participated in some small-produced movies. She was not very famous, but she was highly praised by every director. She is very malleable. As long as the director explains her needs clearly, Ruan Lingyu can perfectly interpret it in front of the camera, and sometimes even bring surprises to the director.
Director Sun Yu once said that she is the pride of the silent era of Chinese films. There is no doubt that she is a destined actor who God can enjoy food.
1930, Ruan Lingyu became famous for "The Dream of the Old Capital". At this time, her net worth was far higher than Zhang Damin. Zhang Damin, who had lost all his family property, lived a life of clothes and food every day. The higher the reputation of Ruan Lingyu, the more chips he had, he would try his best to satisfy him.
1932, the January-28th Incident broke out. Ruan Lingyu and many actors fled to Hong Kong for refuge. Here she met Tang Jishan .
Tang Jishan is in the tea business and is a famous playboy in the Hong Kong business circle. When she saw Ruan Lingyu's first face, she was deeply attracted by her beauty. She abandoned another film beauty, Zhang Zhiyun , and pursued Ruan Lingyu fiercely.
At this time, Ruan Lingyu was already shrouded in the haze of Zhang Damin. Tang Jishan's gentle hometown became the redemption she was seeking blindly. Even though she had heard too many Tang Jishan's romantic affairs, even if Zhang Zhiyun showed up and wrote a letter to persuade him, Ruan Lingyu still chose to fly into the flames.
Ruan Lingyu of course also knew that Tang Jishan would not marry her, because his business was entirely supported by his wife in Guangzhou. He was a lady from a wealthy family, and his family business was spread all over the country and abroad. If Tang Jishan divorced her, she could become a pauper in every minute.
But Ruan Lingyu still hopes to rely on Tang Jishan, who is backing her, to get rid of the tick-like Zhang Damin, so after the situation stabilized at that time, she returned to Shanghai and moved into the golden house that Tang Jishan bought for her.
At this time, Zhang Damin was already in a state of decline and did not dare to provoke Tang Jishan. He could only hold Ruan Lingyu like a dog skin plaster, and made an unreasonable request to pay 300 yuan a month for a breakup fee and pay a full year.
Ruan Lingyu's monthly income was only about 1,000 yuan at that time, and it was really impossible to afford it to take out one-third of it to Zhang Damin. She asked Tang Jishan for help, and finally the two sides agreed to pay 100 yuan per month for two years, but Zhang Damin must keep it confidential to everyone.
Ruan Lingyu thought she would be able to completely separate from Zhang Damin in two years, but she didn't know that Zhang Damin didn't want to let her go. Just when the contract was about to expire half a year, Zhang Damin asked Ruan Lingyu for 5,000 yuan in breakup fee. This time Ruan Lingyu did not compromise anymore. Unexpectedly, Zhang Damin sued her in court with a complaint, with the charge of theft.
Ruan Lingyu sold all the furniture in the house when she left Zhang Damin. Zhang Damin said he was completely unaware of it. Even though these were bought by Ruan Lingyu for money, she could not defend herself because there was no evidence.
Zhang Damin even mentioned in his complaint that Ruan Lingyu gave his home things to Tang Jishan, indirectly making Tang Jishan a defendant.
Tang Jishan was originally unwilling to participate in the entanglement between Ruan Lingyu and Zhang Damin. She was inexplicably involved and even attracted the attention of tabloid reporters, which made Tang Jishan very angry. In fact, Tang Jishan was also tired of Ruan Lingyu and had already found another place of gentleness, but Ruan Lingyu still had fantasies about him.
Due to public pressure, Tang Jishan's business was greatly affected, and his wife also warned him. Tang Jishan, who had nowhere to vent his anger, began to beat and scold Ruan Lingyu, and the former handsome young man finally showed his beastly nature.
Ruan Lingyu wanted to leave Tang Jishan, but when she thought of her embarrassing appearance, it would be another scandal if the media reported it heavily, and she would never stand being pointed at by others.
When she was confused and helpless, Ruan Lingyu took on the movie "New Women", which is a masterpiece of the era calling for women's independence and gender equality . Wei Ming, played by Ruan Lingyu, is a new era intellectual woman who has suffered a failure in marriage, but she has been in a bad relationship throughout her life, and has to face the long and happy words. In the end, she chose to commit suicide due to the pressure of public opinion.
After reading the script, Ruan Lingyu felt that this was completely tailored for her. She devoted a lot of effort to this drama. When filming the heroine's suicide scene, Ruan Lingyu, who has always been in and out, was still unable to calm down after the director called for a stop. Ruan Lingyu used this drama to vent her depression and met Cai Chusheng, the third and last man in her life.
Cai Chusheng admired Ruan Lingyu's talent and did not care about the casting of "New Women" Ruan Lingyu once rejected herself when he was not famous. Such a broad mind alone made Ruan Lingyu admire him.
During the filming process, Cai Chusheng learned that Ruan Lingyu was deceived by Zhang Damin and Tang Jishan, and felt pity. He also lamented that she was talented and her peerless youth was held in the palm of two men and could not be free, which was so similar to the fate of the heroine Wei Ming in the film.
Cai Chusheng's appearance became Ruan Lingyu's life-saving straw. She approached him panic and helplessly, begging for charity and wanted to seek protection and warmth. However, although Cai Chusheng was not a good man, he was not a liar. He had his original wife in his hometown and a girlfriend living together in Shanghai, so he couldn't squeeze out the space to take Ruan Lingyu in. So when Ruan Lingyu begged him to take her away, Cai Chusheng refused without hesitation.
At this time, Tang Jishan had already ignored Ruan Lingyu, and Zhang Damin saw that he could not wait for Ruan Lingyu to surrender, but fortunately, he broke the tide and sold all the secrets of Ruan Lingyu living with him since he was 16 to tabloid reporters.
For a while, this peerless beauty, the romantic affairs of the film queen of the times, became a topic of conversation after dinner in the streets and alleys, and Ruan Lingyu finally had to face the most unacceptable things in her life. Her face was ruined and people were afraid of words.
On the evening of March 7, 1935, 25-year-old Ruan Lingyu attended a celebrity dinner. At the banquet, she was shining with light and frequently changed her male companions to dance in the pool. She was rarely so cheerful and indulgent. Many people remember that Ruan Lingyu, who was abnormal that night, smiled brightly like fireworks.
It was also that night that she poured three bottles of sleeping pills into a bowl and ate a piece of hot eight-treasure porridge without leaving any of them, leaving only two suicide notes that are difficult to distinguish between true and false, as well as the intriguing four words "People's words are fearful."
The superstar of the generation suddenly disappeared, and Ruan Lingyu's death caused a huge response in society. On the day of the funeral, 12 film giants including Jinyan and Sun Yu carried her coffin. 300,000 movie fans spontaneously gathered on both sides of the road through the hearse to see her off, and many people burst into tears.
Not only that, on that day alone, five female fans committed suicide in Shanghai, and similar incidents also occurred in other provinces and cities. They are all advocates of the new female thoughts, Ruan Lingyu is their spiritual pillar, and when Ruan Lingyu dies, they feel that the road ahead is dark.
Ruan Lingyu's short life was not only dedicated to the film career, but also consumed in the tragic love story and finally ended in "people's words are fearful".
