Raising children to provide for old age is an uncontroversial and absolutely correct idea in the minds of many older generations.
Many families even regard going to a nursing home to spend their old age as a very dishonorable thing. However, nothing is absolute. Some people reject elderly care institutions, while others support this form of elderly care.
84-year-old artist Zhu Xijuan strongly agrees with the practice of enjoying her old age in a nursing home.
Not only has she publicly expressed this idea many times, but she and her husband Hou Fengmin have moved to a nursing home of their choice a few years ago.
Speaking of the name Zhu Xijuan, many younger netizens may be unfamiliar with it. So who is this open-minded old man?
In fact, she is the actress who played Wu Qionghua in the classic film "Red Detachment of Women".
She is the first movie queen voted after the founding of New China. She has been rated as the top 22 movie stars together with Qin Yi, Xie Tian, Shangguan Yunzhu and other actors, and she is also the youngest one among them. .
She has countless titles and auras. Today, let us take a look at the story behind Zhu Xijuan’s glory.
1
Zhu Xijuan was born in Ganzhou, Jiangxi Province in 1938. Her father was the knowledgeable Professor Zhu Yuanqing.
Anyone with a little knowledge of history knows that it was an uneasy era. Although Zhu Xijuan was born in an intellectual family, she still lived a homeless life throughout her childhood.
Guangxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan have all left their family’s footprints. Zhu Xijuan's family has lived a relatively peaceful life for six years in Lizhuang Town, Yibin, Sichuan, and she also spent several years in school there.
However, Zhu Xijuan later moved to Shanghai with her family.
In 1952, Zhu Xijuan, who was in her youth, got an opportunity to play a small role in a movie.
Although she only played a fleeting role that time, this "electric shock" still made her fall in love with the feeling of acting.
Since then, Zhu Xijuan has regarded acting as her hobby. During the few years in high school, she has been active in the amateur drama troupe and never tired of doing things related to performance.
At that time, Zhu Xijuan had not yet thought about her future path. Although she liked performing, she actually had another hobby in mind at that time, which was to be an agronomist.
The reason why Zhu Xijuan wanted to be an agronomist was influenced by the foreign movie " Michurin ". In the mind of Zhu Xijuan, a girl full of fantasy, there are always beautiful scenes of blue sky, distant trees, golden waves of wheat, and fluttering cloud shadows.
Until her senior year of high school, she had not yet decided what she wanted to do more. At the critical moment, Zhu Xijuan’s teacher gave decisive advice. Teacher
said to Zhu Xijuan, after several years of observation, I think you are still more suitable for learning acting.
Just like that, Zhu Xijuan chose to apply for Shanghai Theater Academy , although she passed the exam smoothly. But she didn't expect that her father's words would cause her to be poured with cold water before she could sail away.
2
When he learned that his daughter was determined to be an actor and had been admitted to an acting school, the old man said with disappointment that there was going to be an actor in our family.
These words of her father were deeply imprinted on Zhu Xijuan's heart. In order to impress her father, she secretly made up her mind to be a good actor and let her father know that actors in New China are different from actors in the past.
However, although Zhu Xijuan was ambitious, when it was time to study, she realized that the road ahead was full of difficulties.
Zhu Xijuan has had a carefree personality since she was a child. Everyone in the class thinks she is a tomboy, which is not a problem in itself.
But it happened that the school’s performance classes at that time were all based on foreign syllabuses.
The first grade is all about practicing relaxation, imagination and other performance elements. Zhu Xijuan, who has never been exposed to these, is always unable to get into the state.If she had to rehearse a love and marriage sketch, she would be at a loss as she had never had any experience in love.
Just like that, during her freshman year, Zhu Xijuan was always worried. She even thought that if she was really not suitable to be an actress, she might as well become an agronomist.
Zhu Xijuan's emotions were noticed by the teacher. One day, the teacher specially found her and personally created a sketch for her about the relationship between brother and sister. Even Zhu Xijuan herself did not expect that she actually performed well this time.
This breakthrough convinced Zhu Xijuan that she could be a qualified actor, and she began to study more carefully.
If this person is confident, his confidence will follow. During that time at
, Zhu Xijuan often had discussions with her classmates. Sometimes when the discussion gets heated, Zhu Xijuan doesn't care about her image at all, and raises her voice as if she is quarreling with her classmates.
What’s interesting is that her informal look with fiery eyes happened to be seen by a director.
The director's eyes lit up that day, and Zhu Xijuan's opportunity came.
3
In 1959, director Xie Jin was looking for candidates for Wu Qionghua, the heroine of the new film "Red Detachment of Women".
In Xie Jin's mind, this character is young and ill-fated, but has a fierce personality and an unyielding light hidden in his eyes.
But he searched all the actresses in the factory, but there was still no suitable one. Either he doesn't have that kind of temperament, or he's not the right age.
At a loss, he set his sights on the female students in the school.
One day, the Shanghai Theater Academy's drama "In Peaceful Days" was being rehearsed.
Xie Jin, who is eager for talents, quietly came to the backstage, hoping to gain something.
At this moment, a loud quarrel attracted his attention. Xie Jin looked around and his eyes suddenly shone with surprise.
It turned out that the people who were having a heated discussion were a pair of young men and women. The young girl had big eyes and very hot eyes. She exuded an aura that refused to give in.
With many years of experience, Xie Jin keenly felt that Wu Qionghua had been found.
Since then, Xie Jin has had several more contacts with Zhu Xijuan. The more you get to know him, the more convinced you are of your own ideas. In this way, Zhu Xijuan became the heroine in "The Red Detachment of Women".
Nowadays, many production crews will ask the main creators to read the script before officially starting filming, which seems to be very dedicated and serious. But in fact, a few decades ago, this was nothing at all.
Zhu Xijuan and other actors who were confirmed to play the role of the Detachment of Women were sent to the place where the prototype characters of the film stayed before filming started. They were led by a real Detachment of Women for a month of training.
Zhu Xijuan was training intensively, but Xie Jin was having a blast.
In fact, many people at the time were not optimistic about this inexperienced actor, and they had been expressing their objections.
In order to convince everyone, Xie Jin invited the film's screenwriter Liang Xin and asked him to select the Wu Qionghua in his heart from a group of actresses.
This approach made everyone present a little nervous.
4
Facts have proved that Xie Jin’s casting was very accurate. After scanning the actors, Liang Xin pointed at Zhu Xijuan and said, she is Wu Qionghua.
The double affirmation of the director and screenwriter made other people less critical. After Zhu Xijuan filmed a few scenes, everyone changed their previous thoughts and became more and more optimistic about her.
After the release of "Red Detachment of Women", it also achieved great success.
Zhu Xijuan won the Best Actress Award at the first Hundred Flowers Festival precisely for this movie.
While her career was improving, Yuelao also arranged a good marriage for her.
Around 1963, Zhu Xijuan was introduced to a man named Hou Fengmin.
This man is from Tai'an, Shandong. He was born in 1935. He is 3 years older than Zhu Xijuan. He is a painter who graduated from Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts.
Previously, Zhu Xijuan had never been very familiar with this aspect and had no experience in falling in love. However, after several contacts with Hou Fengmin, she felt very relaxed and comfortable. Although the two of them did not have ups and downs, the quiet taste of the years was equally wonderful.
In this way, Zhu Xijuan and Hou Fengmin entered into marriage hand in hand.
After getting married, Zhu Xijuan gave birth to a daughter and a son.
A family of four should have been enjoying themselves happily, but during this period, a special storm hit, and many people were affected.
Zhu Xijuan's family is no exception. In those years, she only filmed one film and had no other acting opportunities.
It was not until the mid-1970s that everything gradually returned to normal.
But at this time, Zhu Xijuan has gone from the golden years of her 20s to the middle age of her 40s. For an actor, this is such a heartbreaking thing.
But even in this situation, Zhu Xijuan did not feel sorry for herself. She quickly got into work, making movies and attending film festivals abroad. Soon, a discovery gave her the idea of transformation.
5
Once, Zhu Xijuan discovered that although Italian movies were well shot, their box office was not very satisfactory. After some research, she found that this was because the movies were impacted by TV series.
She is forward-looking and believes that this phenomenon will appear in China sooner or later. And our group of filmmakers are no longer young, so why not give the opportunity to young people with dreams.
But if you don’t make movies, what will you do?
Sometimes fate is really strange. Here Zhu Xijuan is thinking about changing her career, but over there God brings an opportunity to her door.
In 1983, Zhu Xijuan’s husband Hou Fengmin and his friends attended a job fair in Shenzhen to introduce talents. Unexpectedly, the leaders at the meeting knew that Hou Fengmin was Zhu Xijuan's husband and visited her personally that night.
They persuaded Zhu Xijuan to work at Shenzhen TV station , which made Zhu Xijuan who was looking for a career change opportunity very tempted. Due to time constraints, Zhu Xijuan and her husband only discussed it for one night before making the decision to move out of Shanghai.
But when she arrived in Shenzhen, Zhu Xijuan was dumbfounded. It turned out that the so-called TV station was just a 4-story iron building, and it was in a very remote place.
After a brief period of confusion, Zhu Xijuan returned to her capable working state. Her idea at the time was that since she was here, she had to do something good.
In fact, Zhu Xijuan did a good job, and later she became the deputy director of Shenzhen TV Station.
During the years when she was in charge of the station, the art center under the TV station could win a Feitian Award every year. One year, they even won three Feitian Awards in one year.
In 1992, Zhu Xijuan retired after her success. Since she was interested in movies, she turned down many jobs that came to her and went abroad to reunite with her daughter and her family, while also learning about film production.
A few years later, despite her daughter's persuasion to stay, she returned to China with her husband and started her own film and television company.
Although Zhu Xijuan has entered her old age at this time, she has become more and more active in the field of film and television dramas.
She not only participated in many works, but also took the lead in filming documentaries telling the stories of 22 major movie stars.
This old man seems to have been busy with her career all her life, but in fact, her life is also colorful in private.
6
In life, Zhu Xijuan insists on exercising, loves traveling, and growing flowers. She arranges her little life clearly.
Zhu Xijuan once said frankly, I will not take care of my children. We elderly people have our own social circles and our own lives. When we were young, we were tied to children and work. Now we want to live a freer life.
At the same time, she also said that the elderly should take better care of themselves and not become a burden to their children.
For example, Zhu Xijuan and Hou Fengmin have been dependent on each other all their lives, and all household chores are shared between them.
When we get old and frail, we may not be able to do some heavy household chores.
Ordinary people would think that it would be better to hire a nanny. But Hou Fengmin said that suddenly having a nanny at home was like a third party.
Zhu Xijuan also agreed with her husband's words, so the old couple thought of another way and chose a nursing home of their choice.
At first, when their children learned about the old couple’s idea, they were a little unable to accept it. Zhu Xijuan and his wife convinced their two children and took them to have an in-depth understanding of the situation in the nursing home.
Their children saw the impeccable facilities of the nursing home and were relieved of their concerns.
Now Zhu Xijuan and Hou Fengmin have already passed their golden wedding . Perhaps in the hearts of these old people, whether they live with their children is not the most important thing. As long as the family is together, it is the happiest thing.
