She is known as the last socialite in Shanghai, the first batch of female students of Fudan University, known as the school flower of Fudan, with outstanding appearance and superior background, and is also known as the last eldest lady of Shanghai. She is the wife of a graceful diplomat and an elegant and generous United Nations protocol officer. She was born in troubled times, lost her husband twice, and lost her daughter in her later years, but she lived to be 112 years old, and she still wore makeup, cheongsam, perfume, and danced elegantly at the age of 100. Her appearance amazed the entire ** era, she is the daughter of the celebrity Yan Youyun.
Yan Youyun was born in 1905 in a prominent family of wealthy merchants in Tianjin, and his grandfather Yan Xinhou was a famous industrialist, calligrapher and painter in the late Qing Dynasty, and a pioneer of modern Chinese enterprises. His father, Yan Zijun, inherited his father's business and became a well-known wealthy businessman at that time, with a large commercial industry throughout the country. Therefore, Yan Youyun, who is a rich third generation, lived a rich life without worrying about food and clothing in her childhood.
As the youngest daughter in the family, Yan Youyun is deeply favored by her parents, and her parents are also open-minded, insist on equality between men and women, and can enjoy superior educational conditions as a daughter. Her parents once hired two university teachers to serve as tutors for Yan Youyun. Under the guidance of famous teachers, Yan Youyun not only read poetry and books since childhood, but also proficient in English, with outstanding appearance and intelligence.
Yan Youyun was admitted to Tianjin Zhongxi Girls' School at the age of 14 to study Xi, and later with excellent results, she was admitted to Fudan University in 1927 at the age of 22, becoming the first batch of female students of Fudan University.
When she was studying at Fudan University, Yan Youyun, as a socialite with a prominent family, wore different clothes every day and drove a car to class, becoming the only girl in Fudan University to drive a car to class.
Because of her sweet and beautiful appearance, fashionable dress, and stunning crowds, she was recognized as the school flower of Fudan without suspense, and became a girl who was admired and concerned by boys. Although Yan Youyun and Bai Fumei, female college students, and school tyrants are all in one, many boys don't know the name of this beautiful and beautiful young lady. It's just that because her license plate number is 84, the students of Fudan University also call her Miss 84, and her beauty also makes many boys wait at the gate of the university every day, just to witness Miss 84.
Among Yan Youyun's admirers, Yang Guanglu, a young and promising diplomat who returned from studying in the United States, won the heart of her girl. Yang Guanglu is five years old and Yan Youyun is five years old, but he looks like a talent and has a good demeanor. Although he is a young master of a wealthy merchant in Hangzhou Silk Village, he has not been a gentleman who does not do his job, he has been diligent and studious, graduated from Tsinghua University in his early years, and was sent to the United States to study, and then returned to China to work in the world.
Yan Youyun just likes his maturity and stability, and Yang Guanglu also likes Yan Youyun, a rich lady, who is talented and outstanding, so the two quickly fell in love.
Since both families are illustrious and well-matched, this love is also approved by both families.
On September 6, 1929, Yang Guanglu and Yan Youyun got married, and held a luxurious wedding attended by thousands of people at the Majestic Hotel in Shanghai. The wedding of Caizi's family once shocked the entire Shanghai Tang.
After getting married, Yan Youyun began to live the life of a diplomat's wife. She often traveled around the world with her husband, assisted her husband in entertaining foreign friends, and the two gave birth to three lovely and intelligent daughters in a loving life, and the family of five lived happily. However, there are unforeseen circumstances, and changes in the world will befall everyone equally.
In 1938, Yang Guanglu became the Chinese Consul General in Manila, when the Anti-Japanese War broke out, Yang Guanglu's task was to mobilize overseas Chinese in Nanyang to raise funds to support the domestic anti-Japanese salvation. As the wife of a diplomat, although she is a mother of three children, she is not leisurely. Out of patriotic enthusiasm, she also used her communication skills to publicize the anti-Japanese resistance and called on overseas Chinese to raise funds for the anti-Japanese resistance. In this way, thanks to the efforts of Yang Guanglu and his wife, in just three years, 12 million pesos of anti-Japanese funds were raised from more than 100,000 overseas Chinese in Manila. At the exchange rate at the time, it was equivalent to $5 million, which was a significant amount.
Moreover, Yan Youyun also actively cooperated with her husband's work and became the leader of the anti-Japanese national salvation movement in the local women's circle, organizing women to raise funds for the anti-Japanese resistance in factories, shops, and streets, and leading local women to make more than one million medical relief kits for the anti-Japanese war, as well as a large number of cotton clothes and quilts, which were sent to China to support the anti-Japanese war.
Soon after, the Pacific War broke out, and in 1942, the Japanese army occupied Manila, and some people suggested that Yang Guanglu take his family to Australia for refuge, but Yang Guanglu refused with righteous words, on the grounds that he represented the country and shouldered the mission of protecting 100,000 overseas Chinese, and must not escape first.
Later, a number of diplomats, including Yang Guanglu, were arrested by the Japanese army, when the Japanese army asked Yang Guanglu to hand over the funds raised as the military expenses of the Japanese army, Yang Guanglu adhered to the national righteousness, decisively refused this ** request, and finally Yang Guanglu and seven Chinese diplomats were secretly executed by the Japanese army because they did not surrender to the Japanese army.
When Yang Guanglu sacrificed her life for the country, she was only 42 years old, and overnight, Yan Youyun's world was turned upside down, but she didn't have time to indulge in grief, as the wife of the consul general, she took on the heavy responsibility of taking care of eight families. In order to appease the emotions of the family members of the Chinese consulate, Yan Youyun naturally took the lead and organized the children of these families together to become a big family of twenty or thirty people.
Although she used to be a young lady who didn't touch the spring water with her fingers, but the celebrity on the beach completely retreated from the shell of the eldest lady at this time, and there was no living supply, so she took other diplomats' wives and children to grow vegetables, raise chickens, dig wells, and make soap. Due to the continuous war, Yan Youyun and her family are always facing moving, indefinite escape and panic mixed with anger, all of which need her to support. This former Shanghai socialite suddenly became an all-powerful prison hero.
After the victory of the Anti-Japanese War in 1945, they left this sad place, he took his three children to New York, in order to support the family, 40-year-old Yan Youyun was recommended by a friend, and got a job as a protocol officer in the United Nations, responsible for receiving dignitaries from all over the world, which was the first job in her life.
Many people can't believe that this pampered eldest lady can go to work, but she has not been late for a day since she started work, but has shined. From receiving incoming ambassadors and arranging for them to present their credentials, to receiving heads of state attending the United Nations General Assembly. All the official protocols of the United Nations are involved, no matter how big or small, and the slightest disclosure and discrepancy is not allowed. However, Yan Youyun's optimistic and hearty personality, careful and thoughtful thinking, and ability to organize and coordinate have been vividly brought into play.
A colleague of hers once said: In the past, the atmosphere at the United Nations was very heavy, and since the beginning of the year, the workplace was often full of sunshine, friendliness and vitality.
After 14 years, Yan Youyun has become an outstanding female diplomat. Not only did she achieve great success in her career, but she also raised all three of her daughters into outstanding talents and built happy families on their own. When she was working, she often met with her former husband's subordinate and diplomat Gu Weijun, and she was also taken care of a lot by her.
Gu Weijun is known as the first diplomat, and he once fought at the Paris Peace Conference, saying no to the Western powers for the first time on behalf of China, rewriting the history of the weak country without diplomacy in old China.
In 1959, Gu Weijun and his wife Huang Huilan divorced, and in September of the same year, 54-year-old Yan Youyun and 71-year-old Gu Weijun registered their marriage. This marriage has caused a lot of talk from the beginning, but neither of them is commented on in the unexpected world. After getting married, the cold diplomat, who has always been unsmiling, began to write love letters to his silver-haired wife. As an old man, he plays the activities that young people are passionate about, skiing, skating, swimming, sunbathing, and traveling around the world together.
Yan Youyun also faithfully fulfilled her promise, she said: I like to take care of Gu Weijun wholeheartedly, making him healthier, more comfortable and happier, and I believe that under my care, Gu Weijun will live a more nourishing life.
This virtuous wife, who would get up on time at three o'clock in the morning every day to give her husband hot milk, became Gu Weijun's only love of his life. Compared with the first three utilitarian marriages, Gu Weijun did not get real happiness. And Yan Youyun's appearance and this belated happiness made him experience the sweetness and warmth of love for the first time.
Under Yan Youyun's careful care, Gu Weijun lived to be 97 years old, and that year, Yan Youyun was 80 years old, and she became a widow again. After that, she walked through the long years of 32 years alone. In the past 32 years, she has experienced the sadness of white-haired people sending black-haired people several times, and constantly saying goodbye to her beloved relatives and friends. Finally, at the age of 98, she also suffered from bowel cancer, and when everyone thought that the old man was afraid of being crushed by a series of bad luck, they did not expect that she fought bravely against cancer and the operation was successful.
September 25, 2005 was Yan Youyun's 100th birthday banquet. No one could have imagined that this old man, dressed in beautiful clothes, high heels, and delicate makeup, was over 100 years old and had just undergone surgery. On the day of the birthday banquet, she also danced with the chief surgeon, with a straight waist and beautiful dance steps. She seems to be using this dance to declare to life and pay tribute to fate. And such an elegant old man, in such a ceremonial occasion, she told everyone present the secret of her longevity, it was his first speech in the 100-year-old feast, and he said slowly on the stage: I only have one secret of longevity, that is, don't dwell on the past. These seven words alone have benefited us a lot. Yan Youyun's life has experienced all kinds of ups and downs, fate has demonstrated to her many times, but she has never compromised, and fought back with an optimistic attitude.
In May 2017, Yan Youyun finished her life without hurry at the age of 112. I hope that we can also live freely, not dwell on the past, and always look forward.