In 2013, in the talk show "On the Big Man", director Yang Jie mentioned the role selection of "White Bone Spirit":
In order to find a suitable actor for the white bone spirit, he experienced many twists and turns during the filming of "Journey to the West", and it was not until Yang Chunxia was found that this problem was solved.
Yang Chunxia once said in her early years: "I can't forgive Yang Jie, the director of "Journey to the West". ”
She has even stopped ** "Journey to the West", and avoids any topic involving "white bone spirits".
Why Yang Chunxia is so resentful of Yang Jie, instead of being grateful to her, it is a "Journey to the West" that has made many actors successful.
Even after the death of director Yang Jie, the relationship between the two has not been eased.
What kind of story is hidden between them?
Yang Chunxia was born in Shanghai in 1943, the son of a machine factory worker and an accountant mother.
From an early age, her parents were aware of their daughter's excellent voice and beautiful posture, so they wanted Yang Chunxia to learn opera, hoping that she would become a famous actress and succeed in the future.
At the age of 12, Yang Chunxia was successfully admitted to the Shanghai Opera School, fully realizing her parents' expectations.
After a lot of hard work, she was able to worship Zhu Chuanming and Fang Chuanyun to learn the performing art of Kunqu Opera.
Yang Chunxia switched to Peking Opera in 1959 under the tutelage of Peking Opera masters Yan Huizhu and Yang Wannong, descendants of the Mei School.
In this way, she not only mastered the performance skills of Kunqu Opera, but also successfully mastered the acting skills of Peking Opera.
When Yang Chunxia was in school, she starred in the movie "Dream in the Garden" directed by Mei Lanfang with her solid basic skills, in which she played the role of a flower god.
Yang Chunxia was fortunate to have the opportunity to get up close and personal with the master, and at the same time, her excellent performance skills also won the appreciation of Mr. Mei Lanfang.
What's even more fortunate is that she became Mr. Mei Lanfang's stand-in and played an important role in helping him make moves and lights.
Through close contact with Mr. Mei Lanfang's performance, Yang Chunxia realized that acting is not simply a deductive action, but a truly vivid presentation of the role.
She has benefited a lot from this and will be able to play more in future stage performances.
After graduating from the Shanghai Opera School, Yang Chunxia joined the Shanghai Youth Jingkun Opera Troupe in 1961 and began her opera career.
Yang Chunxia has performed with the troupe in Hong Kong and Western Europe. Her image on the stage is vivid, her voice is sweet and moving, and she has been unanimously praised by the audience every time she performs.
After several years of careful performance and training, Yang Chunxia has become a well-known actor in Shanghai.
In 1971, Yang Chunxia was transferred to the Beijing Peking Opera Troupe and was invited to participate in the rehearsal performance of "Cuckoo Mountain", and played the role of the protagonist Ke Xiang.
She felt a little apprehensive because she felt that if she could successfully act in this play, her career would flourish.
However, she couldn't help but wonder in her heart: There are so many outstanding talents in Beijing, why did you choose me to play the role?What if I mess up?
Yang Chunxia came to Beijing with trepidation, but now that she had arrived, she was determined to complete the task excellently.
After she arrived, she humbly asked her colleagues for advice, and in order to show the most realistic image of the person, Yang Chunxia even went to Jinggangshan to live for a while.
Despite the difficult living conditions, Yang Chunxia did not back down. During that time, she ate and lived with the peasants, worked in the fields together, and actively sought out the old revolutionaries to understand the situation at that time.
She has a firm belief and aspires to become the "Ke Xiang" of the year.
After Yang Chunxia returned to Beijing, she had to face a huge problem.
Although she deeply felt the life of the characters at that time, what she had always learned was the role of Dan in opera.
She is good at playing the delicate woman of ancient times, and Ke Xiang is a revolutionary, and there is a big contrast between the two.
When Yang Chunxia encountered difficulties, the crew found Shanghai Wusheng Wang Guiqing to relieve her.
She was born in the Danjiao family, and later began to learn martial arts performances, until she practiced a skilled figure, Yang Chunxia dared to perform on stage.
Yang Chunxia became famous for her role in the play "Cuckoo Mountain", and her hairstyle in the play was known as "Ke Xiangtou", which caused countless young men and women to imitate.
Yang Chunxia must wear sunglasses to cover her face every time she goes out, because as soon as she leaves the house, she will be surrounded by many fans, which shows how well-known she is.
At this time, Yang Chunxia was invited by director Yang Jie to participate in the filming of the TV series "Journey to the West".
She was very happy when she heard the news, because "Journey to the West" is one of the four famous novels and is loved by many audiences, and she thinks this is a rare opportunity.
The small flame in her heart was burning, but it was suddenly extinguished by a basin of cold water in front of her.
When filming "Journey to the West", director Yang Jie faced many difficulties. The crew was on a tight budget, and even had only one camera during filming.
Yang Jie believes that these are all small problems that can be solved, and what really troubles her is the problem of choosing actors.
Because the ideology of the society at that time was not enlightened enough, many people were reluctant to play the opposite role.
And "Journey to the West" has created many images of demons and monsters, which makes it more difficult to find suitable actors.
At the time, playing these roles was seen as playing the bad guys, and if played too realistically, it might even attract abuse from some irrational people.
With these factors in mind, Yang Jie designed many monster characters in the film to wear wigs to perform, such as the Golden Horn King.
How can these female characters, such as the white bone spirit, spider spirit, etc., wear a hood?Monsters like them attract the four masters and apprentices by virtue of their appearance, so they not only need real faces, but also look beautiful and meticulous.
Before accepting to play the role of the White Bone Spirit, Liu Xiaoqing had already agreed to the role.
However, after confirming her appearance, she made an additional request: she hoped to be able to take on the performance work of the other three roles.
Yang Jie rejected Liu Xiaoqing's request, because this would not only deceive Tang Seng in the plot, but also constitute a deceptive behavior to the audience.
The filming time is coming, Yang Jie is in a hurry, thinking of Yang Chunxia who once worked with her, and feels that she is outstanding in appearance and very in line with the image of the character.
When she learned that she had the opportunity to star in "Journey to the West", Yang Chunxia was very happy, but hearing that she was going to play the white bone spirit made her angry.
She expressed bluntly: "Why did you let me play the white bone spirit?"With so many good characters, am I like a bone spirit?”
Another thing that Yang Chunxia worries about is the villain character of the White Bone Spirit, which the audience may hate deeply, and she worries that it will affect her future acting career.
After a long period of hard persuasion, director Yang Jie finally persuaded Yang Chunxia, although she made an additional request - that is, the role of the king of the daughter country should also be played by her.
Because she thinks that the king of the daughter country is a gentle and considerate character, and behaves dignified and generous in the play, although she plays the role of the white bone spirit, she can repair her image in the eyes of the audience through this role.
Yang Jie said to Yang Chunxia, in order not to delay the progress of the crew, as long as you can shoot the part of the white bone spirit perfectly, I will let you be in charge of the role of the daughter king.
After listening to the director's explanation, Yang Chunxia devoted herself to playing the role of the white bone spirit.
Yang Chunxia's role as the white bone spirit in the TV series is deeply engraved in the hearts of the audience and has become the shadow of a generation's childhood, which fully verifies her outstanding acting talent.
And the TV series that was broadcast left a deep impression on the audience about her role.
After Yang Chunxia finished filming the scene of the white bone spirit, she waited in the crew to receive a notice to shoot the role of the king of her daughter's country.
However, Yang Jie was so busy and upset during the filming process that she didn't remember what she promised Yang Chunxia before.
She thought carefully afterwards, how could there be a plot where the white bone spirit came back from the dead and became the king of the daughter country?
Obviously, this will cause great disgust in the minds of the audience and may have an impact on the quality of the show as a whole.
Yang Jie had already decided in her heart that Zhu Lin was the best candidate, and she felt that Zhu Lin's voice and appearance fully met the requirements of that role, so besides.
Therefore, Yang Chunxia felt that she had been deceived, and she thought that Yang Jie no longer cared about her after she succeeded.
She left the crew in a fit of rage, and has never had any contact with Yang Jie since then.
The "shadow" of the white bone spirit has been hanging over Yang Chunxia for a long time.
When she was walking through the streets, the children would scream when they saw her: "Look, that's a bone spirit, run!."During that time, she always felt like someone was pointing fingers behind her back.
For some time, many stage plays and operas have not been performed by Yang Chunxia, and she blames this on the 'white bone spirit'. ”
She believes that her acting career was ruined by playing this role, and people also seem to generally think that she is also a bad person in real life.
Although the crew of "Journey to the West" later had many dinners and participated in the show, Yang Chunxia never showed up. She didn't want to hear or talk about all the things about the "white bone spirit" anymore.
Seeing this, people may wonder: As the director of "Journey to the West", does Yang Jie ignore the career development of the actor and simply complete the filming?
Director Yang Jie has actually always been a person who pursues perfection. She firmly believes that the work trumps everything in her heart, and she is fully committed to making "Journey to the West" very good.
In order to ensure the high quality of the shooting, Yang Jie personally selected the actors at that time, and comforted the entire crew in the case of tight funds, taking on the pressure.
Yang Jie mentioned that at that time, even the role of Tang Seng had undergone three changes, and the first actor left filming halfway to switch to other film and television works.
The second actor chose to go back to university to attend classes during filming. It wasn't until the third one that the crew finished the final shooting.
In this play, the actor of Sha Seng not only played more than 10 roles, but the entire filming took four years to complete, so you can imagine how difficult the filming was.
"Journey to the West" premiered in 1986, and the ratings have remained high, even exceeding the ratings of the Spring Festival Gala that year.
To this day, "Journey to the West" is still a must-broadcast TV series every winter and summer vacation, and has had a profound impact on generations of people.
Therefore, educate them not to be blinded by money and fame, Yang Jie was afraid that the four masters and apprentices would no longer be able to film steadily after they became famous, so they were also a hot mess at that time.
The young actors didn't care about this, and they didn't agree with Yang Jie's statement. They began to accept commercial performances and advertisements everywhere, and even tried to squeeze Yang Jie out of the crew at one point.
The crew was invited to Singapore to perform "Journey to the West", and Yang Jie was delighted because it meant that Chinese culture would have the opportunity to go to the international stage. Therefore, she agreed to the invitation without hesitation.
This time, the "Overseas Performance Group" not only had four masters and apprentices, but also other actors.
When the out-of-town actors were waiting for departure in the guest house, Yang Jie suddenly received a leave notice from Zhang Jinlai, Ma Dehua, and Yan Huaili.
Among them, Yan Huaili took leave due to illness, while the other two took leave due to things.
Yang Jie didn't think much about it, so she agreed.
Unexpectedly, these three people hid from Yang Jie and secretly went to Jinan to perform with Xu Shaohua, and they didn't really have anything to do.
Yang Jie seriously criticized the behavior of the three after they returned, not because they were leaving, but because they should not let the rest of the guest house wait for them, and they should go together when there is a performance.
For special reasons, the monkey, pig and ape took over the "overseas performance group", causing director Yang Jie to lose control for a while.
Years later, Yang Jie published an autobiography that also mentioned people close to her, and Xu Jingqing, who initially pulled the strings, was also excluded from the team.
In the end, only the four masters and apprentices showed up in Singapore;Therefore, Yang Jie has not read "Journey to the West" for ten years;And the four masters and apprentices, like Yang Chunxia, no longer have contact with Yang Jie.
It wasn't until eight years later that Yang Jie began to produce the sequel to "Journey to the West", and the "Master and Apprentice Four" apologized to Yang Jie at this time. Out of consideration for the overall situation, Yang Jie forgave them for their reckless behavior when they were young.
Although Yang Jie has achieved the pinnacle of her career with "Journey to the West", she has never forgotten the deception of Yang Chunxia.
Although she never explained this matter to Yang Chunxia in person, she once confessed on the show: "I have always been honest, but I lied that time, "Journey to the West" is an eternal pain for me, and I haven't watched it again in ten years." ”
Director Yang Jie has been dead for more than four years, but she never heard Yang Chunxia forgive her when she was alive, so she passed away with the regrets of the two.
With the death of director Yang Jie, the contradiction between the two has also come to an end.
Time flies, and now Yang Chunxia is no longer burdened by the stigma of "white bone essence" back then.
Now that the audience sees her past performances, they are full of praise for her acting skills, and no one will think that she is a bad person because she has played the white bone spirit.
Many years ago, Yang Chunxia gave up her acting career on the screen and rededicated herself to Peking Opera, which she originally loved.
In 2018, Yang Chunxia was awarded the title of inheritor of national intangible cultural heritage, and was recognized for her outstanding contribution to the inheritance of drama.
She embarked on the road of Peking Opera education, with the desire to discover more Peking Opera talents, hoping to let the younger generation deeply appreciate the charm of Peking Opera and inherit traditional Chinese culture.
In an interview, Yang Chunxia once said: "The things about me and Director Yang have been passed around, and it sounds like the two of us have fought and become enemies. Actually, it wasn't like that, but then the two of us lost contact, and I didn't want to have anything to do with the bones anymore. ”
Yang Chunxia's answer seemed to consciously downplay the contradiction between the two. After decades of precipitation, it can be believed that Yang Chunxia has understood the approach of director Yang Jie back then.
Although her career has been affected to a certain extent by starring as "The Bone Spirit", she is now widely recognized for her outstanding performance.
Yang Chunxia, now 79 years old, is still fully committed to her beloved Peking Opera career, although she is enjoying the joy of family.
Instead of holding back in the face of life's challenges, we should be brave enough to meet them because life is what it is.