At 3 o’clock in the morning on November 23, 1968, Shangguan Yunzhu, desperate, jumped off the building and committed suicide. (Image source: Public Domain/Watch China Synthesis)
At 3 o’clock in the morning on November 23, 1968, I was completely devastated.Shangguan YunzhuCommit suicide by jumping off a building. According to insiders, this is becauseJiang QingShangguan Yunzhu was jealous because she danced with Mao. At the same time,Mao ZedongAfter meeting Shangguan Yunzhu six times in a row, Jiang Qing suspected that her husband Mao Zedong had a special relationship with Shangguan Yunzhu. Jiang Qing asked her to explain the problem. In fact, Jiang Qing asked her to explain whether there was any special relationship between her and Mao. Because of this, Jiang Qing was ready to Shangguan Yunzhu was put to death.
Shangguan Yunzhu (March 2, 1920 – November 23, 1968), whose original name was Wei Junluo, had the courtesy name Chaoqun and was the fifth in the family. His nickname was Yadi, also known as Wei Yajun. Famous Chinese film performing artist. She visited almost every performance group in Shanghai, large and small, and participated in performances even if she was not paid. He is famous in the film industry for creating characters with different personalities in classic business cards such as “A River Flows East”, “The Crow and the Sparrow”, “Beautiful People”, “Hope in the World”, and “Lights of a Thousand Houses”.
On January 10, 1956, Shangguan Yunzhu walked into the Sino-Soviet Friendship Building with a note written by the then mayor Chen Yi, “Comrade Shangguan Yunzhu, please come for a visit” and was received by Mao Zedong.
Prior to this, in 1952, the CCP launched the “Three Antis” campaign. Someone exposed Shangguan Yunzhu’s husband Cheng Shuyao for embezzling funds from the Lanxin Theater. In order to get out of trouble as soon as possible, Shangguan Yunzhu took out 800 US dollars and two rings from his home. Send it to the theater and refund it as “stolen money”. Although this incident was later proven to be a false accusation, he was completely labeled as a “corruption criminal”. Because her husband Cheng Shuyao was implicated, Shangguan Yunzhu was also investigated over and over again, and she felt very depressed and depressed. While dancing with Mao Zedong, Shangguan Yunzhu told Mao his grievances and personal experiences. Soon, Shangguan Yunzhu starred in “The Storm of Little White Flag” and visited the Czech Republic with the Chinese film delegation. Shangguan Yunzhu was originally listed as a “rightist” by the factory, but in a twists and turns, he became a “target of protection.”
Starting from September 1968, the “Shangguan Yunzhu Task Force” directly controlled by Jiang Qing and the “Shangguan Yunzhu Special Task Force” secretly established by Lin Biao successively forced Shangguan Yunzhu to write more detailed accounts of his time with Mao Zedong and others. confession materials. However, everything that can be written has been written, and Shangguan Yunzhu searched his brain and guts, but he really couldn’t write any material that satisfied the “task force”.
On November 22, 1968, Shangguan Yunzhu was interrogated again by the task force. Shangguan Yunzhu had nothing to say to the intimidation of the interrogators. The interrogators slapped her hard, punched and kicked her. After torturing her for more than two hours, they kicked Shangguan Yunzhu out of the door and gave her an ultimatum that she would have to wait until the next day. Explain, otherwise you will be responsible for the consequences.
At 3 o’clock in the morning on November 23, 1968, Shangguan Yunzhu, desperate, jumped off the building and committed suicide.
According to insiders, Jiang Qing was jealous because Shangguan Yunzhu accompanied Mao to dance. At the same time, Mao Zedong met Shangguan Yunzhu six times in a row. Jiang Qing suspected that her husband Mao Zedong had a special relationship with Shangguan Yunzhu, so Jiang Qing asked her to explain the problem. In fact, it was to explain whether there was any special relationship between her and Mao, because Jiang Qing was ready to put Shangguan Yunzhu to death. Obviously, Jiang Qing achieved her goal. From this point of view, Jiang Qing’s murder of Shangguan was the same as Lu Zhi’s murder of Mrs. Qi. However, Jiang Qing used political means to take advantage of the lawless opportunities of the “Cultural Revolution”. The “task force” was nothing more than a cover and a tool. That’s all. During the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing had masterfully used the CCP’s political movements and political struggles to manipulate and persecute people.
Shangguan Yunzhu’s son Wei Ran, in the article “In the Red Dust of the Endless Past – My Mother Shangguan Yunzhu”, described the political persecution and death-seeking scenes that his mother experienced during her lifetime:
In 1966, my mother, who was participating in the “Four Clean-ups” campaign in rural Jiangxi Province, contracted breast cancer and returned to Shanghai for surgery. The surgery was successful and she recovered quickly. At this time, “Stage Sisters” has been characterized as a “negative teaching material that beautifies the black line of literature and art in the 1930s” and has been severely criticized. My mother, director Xie Jin, and the prototype of the film’s heroine Zhu Chunhua, Yuan Xuefen, etc. have been implicated. Fortunately, a doctor intervened at that time, and she was kept in the hospital and was not involved in that dangerous political wave prematurely.
But two months later, the mother suddenly fainted again. The examination results showed that the diseased tissue had transferred to the brain. Next, she underwent another major operation. After waking up from a coma for more than ten hours, she hardly recognized anyone. It wasn’t until a month later that my mother wrote me her first letter, telling me that she had recognized 300 words.
At this time, the situation outside became more dangerous. “Stage Sisters” and “Early Spring in February” in which she participated became two “big poisonous weeds” in the literary and art world, and her mother was kicked out of the hospital limping. Her home at the intersection of Jianguo West Road and Gao’an Road didn’t feel like a home at all. The walls of the first to fourth floors were all covered with her mother’s name, with red crosses all over it. The door of Room 29 was also smashed like a honeycomb, filled with black holes from top to bottom.
The next two years were dark years for my mother. Not long after she was discharged from the hospital, she was forced to go to work in a film studio. The so-called “work” actually meant that she had to report to the bullpen every day. At that time, her body was far from returning to a healthy state. There I studied, worked, wrote explanations, and received criticism.
In the early 1950s, my mother, along with other people in the literary and artistic circles, was interviewed by Mao Zedong several times. This protected her from the fate of the “rightists”, but when the “Cultural Revolution” came, this became one of her biggest crimes. . The day before the accident, on November 22, 1968, my mother was summoned again. Two outsiders and the rebels in the factory took turns questioning her, asking her to admit that she had joined the spy organization and that Mao Zedong used Mao Zedong to interview her to carry out conspiracy. When the mother refused to admit it, they took off her shoes and slapped her face with the leather soles… When they returned to the “cow shed”, the mother’s face was swollen, her mouth was bleeding, her eyes were dull, and her body was shaking constantly. Huang Zongying and Wang Danfeng, who were both locked in the “cow shed”, saw her being beaten like this and immediately brought hot water to comfort her, but her mother never said a word and just kept shaking.
When I returned home that night, my mother was ordered by the rebels to write an explanation. Perhaps she was really afraid of another humiliation and suffering to come. At the darkest moment before dawn, she jumped out of the fourth-floor window… Her mother’s body landed heavily on a vegetable farmer’s basket in the small market downstairs. Here, the fashion-conscious mother even told the people who gathered around her house number—perhaps at that moment, she still had an instinctive desire to survive, but by the time someone brought a yellow croaker truck to take her to the hospital, she had already There was no hope. Later, someone told me that people at the vegetable market just used rubber hoses to wash away the blood on the vegetable leaves and continued to sell them to people who came to buy vegetables. I was not that surprised. In that era of material scarcity, such behavior was not so difficult to understand; what’s more, people at that time seemed to be accustomed to all kinds of abnormal deaths.
In the years since my mother passed away, I have thought of this cruel scene countless times. I believe that the moment my mother jumped, her heart must have been filled with utter despair. At that time, she didn’t know the whereabouts of my brother and me. Her sister, who was pursuing revolution, went to the Shanghai Film Studio to put up big-character posters for her, and the man next to her didn’t shield her from the wind and rain. In my opinion, many people who committed suicide during the “Cultural Revolution” were not just humiliated by the outside world, interrupted in their careers, or had a bleak future. The indifference and misfortune of their families was also one of the reasons that prompted them to bid farewell to the world. There is no warmth and light in the mother’s heart. What else can she choose besides death?
That year, my mother was only 48 years old.
From the bejeweled “traitor lady” to the traditional virtuous housewife Youlan; from the image of “social butterfly” and “rich lady” that seems to have been finalized on the screen, to a female protagonist who has gone through many difficulties and dangers. Shangguan Yunzhu has played different screen images throughout her life. Everyone has their own appearance, but their personalities are distinct and real. Wei Ran said, “I didn’t have much idea of my mother’s status in the film industry. It wasn’t until these years when I saw countless viewers still remembering her and praising her that I gradually realized what a great artist my mother was. “Actually, my mother is very short, only about 1.5 meters tall. But Shen Fu said that your mother can hold down the stage as soon as she comes on stage. Other actors don’t have this feeling, and it doesn’t matter if they are tall.”
Editor in charge: Fu Longshan Source: Look at China
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