On February 5, 2024, the Beijing Federation of Literary and Art Circles released an obituary, and writer Chen Rong died of illness on February 4 at the age of 88.
If you only say Chen Rong's name, maybe many young netizens will feel unfamiliar, if you talk about Liang Zuo and Liang Tian, or "Comedy Star" and "People to Middle Age", I believe you may think of this famous female writer.
1. "I Love My Home".
Many viewers know that several of the main characters of the classic sitcom "I Love My Home" are based on Chen Rong's family.
The prototype of the old man is Chen Rong's husband Fan Rongkang, his original name is Liang Da, and his position and rank in reality are much higher than the old man in the play.
The prototypes of Jia Zhiguo and Jia Zhixin are the two brothers Liang Zuo and Liang Tian, and Jia Xiaofan's prototype is naturally Liang Huan, which means that Liang Tian played himself in the play.
The only regret is Chen Rong, maybe Liang Zuo didn't dare to ridicule his mother, maybe Chen Rong's fate in the first half of his life was bumpy, and there was no main character based on Chen Rong in "I Love My Family".
Fan Rongkang served as the deputy editor-in-chief of "People's **", and Chen Rong graduated from the Beijing Institute of Russian Language, the predecessor of Beijing University of Foreign Chinese, and worked in Chinese Minmin Radio and Beijing Municipal Education Bureau, and later became a famous writer.
Liang Zuo and Liang Huan are both high-achieving students who graduated from the Chinese Department of Peking University, and Liang Tian, the only one who is not so outstanding in terms of academic qualifications, has also written ** and scripts, and then became a film and television actor, and can be regarded as a member of the literary and artistic circles.
The question is, are Liang Zuo, Liang Tian and Liang Huan more influenced by their father or their mother? Judging from their career direction as screenwriters and actors, they may still be more influenced by Chen Rong.
2. "People to Middle Age".
Although Chen Rong is a famous writer, she did not start writing until she was nearly forty years old, the first novella ** is "Wan Nian Qing", the first novella ** is "Forever Spring", and the famous work is "People to Middle Age", which was all the rage in the eighties of the last century.
There is a saying that a writer's best work is generally written about himself, and Lu Wenting, the ophthalmologist in "People to Middle Age", of course, also has a prototype in life, that is, Chen Rong himself.
Lu Wenting worked as a doctor in the hospital after graduation, got married and had children and had a successful career, but the intense work, small living space, and busy housework brought her a lot of pressure, and she fell ill in overwork.
Chen Rong entered the radio station after graduation, often needed to work overtime until late at night, and took care of the children and housework after getting married, because of the high pressure of work and high consumption and high mental tension, her weight did not even exceed 80 pounds, and she fainted next to the typewriter many times, and once she even fainted at the bus stop.
After being transferred to the education department, Chen Rong's physical condition was still not good, and she fainted in class, and finally had to take a sick break at home, and her body finally recovered, and she began to write officially after that.
Lu Wenting comes from Chen Rong's real experience and real feelings, so we can understand why "People in Middle Age" makes readers empathize.
"People to Middle Age" was quickly adapted into a movie of the same name, Chen Rong himself served as the screenwriter, Pan Hong and Da Shichang starred, and it also quickly became a hit movie of the year, and won the Best Feature Film Award at the Chinese Film Golden Rooster Award and the Best Feature Film Award at the Hundred Flowers Award for Popular Films and the Outstanding Film Award from the Ministry of Culture.
3. "Reverie in the Tiger's Mouth".
In 1986, Chen Rong wrote a short story ** "Minus Ten Years Old", because it was a black comedy**, she felt that it could be adapted into cross talk, so she called Jiang Kun, the cross talk star at the time.
Jiang Kun was very interested in the creativity of this ** as soon as he heard it, and he was at the bottleneck of creation at that time, and he was quickly invited to Chen Rong's house, and he also brought Chen Peisi, who had just become a colleague, to go with him.
Unexpectedly, Jiang Kun and Chen Peisi's visit to Chen Rong this time became an important turning point in the Chinese comedy industry.
After Jiang Kun and Chen Peisi arrived at Chen Rong's house, "Subtract Ten Years Old" didn't talk much, Chen Rong's eldest son Liang Zuo caught Jiang Kun and actively recommended several of his short stories to Jiang Kun**, including about catching rats, as well as the old lady and the young man getting married, and the young man chatting with the tiger in the tiger cave.
In the follow-up, everyone knew that Jiang Kun and Liang Zuo started to cooperate from the story of the young man falling into the tiger cave, and created the classic cross talk "Reverie in the Tiger's Mouth", which changed Liang Zuo's fate since then, and he changed from a teacher to a comedy master.
Chen Rong's youngest son Liang Tian circled around Chen Peisi on this day, actively introducing his love and perception of movies to him, and Chen Peisi promised to arrange a role for Liang Tian in future movies.
Of course, everyone later saw the hemp pole in "Two Sons Open a Shop".
It can be said that this family gathering arranged by Chen Rong not only changed the lives of his two sons, but also directly changed the history of my country's comedy industry.
Fourth, "Comedy Star".
If "People to Middle Age" is a classic work written by Chen Rong to himself, then "Comedy Star" is a classic comedy written by Chen Rong to his youngest son Liang Tian.
Liang Zi in "Comedy Star" is a young man with a dream of film, he gave up his stable job in order to be able to appear in movies, and worked in various miscellaneous roles in the film crew without regrets, and finally got the opportunity to make a splash.
Although his father and mother have a high social status, it is not smooth sailing for Liang Tian to become a movie star in real life, after he transferred from the army, he first worked in his mother's unit, responsible for serving tea and pouring water and delivering newspapers, and also used to be a trick in a movie, but unfortunately it was cut out before the release.
It can be said that "Comedy Star" is actually equivalent to Liang Tian's personal autobiographical movie, except that the screenwriter is his mother Chen Rong, and the starring role is Liang Tian himself.
Although "Comedy Star" did not become a hit movie like "People in Middle Age", the film is still a remarkable classic, and some of its episodes have been borrowed by Stephen Chow's "The King of Comedy".
"Comedy Star" released in 1992 and "The King of Comedy" released in 1999 have many similarities in terms of theme and subject matter, as well as creativity and details.
The two male protagonists love movies very much, even to the point of madness, and have played tricks and suffered from white eyes and unfair treatment, and finally made a breakthrough through hard work and serendipity.
Both male protagonists have met a neurotic director and an assistant director on the set.
Both male protagonists have had a "real-time acting" test in the film, and the performance content is very similar.
Both male protagonists have met a "master" who is similar to a life mentor, one is an acting teacher played by Ge You, and the other is an undercover agent played by Wu Mengda.
Some people on the Internet say that "Comedy Star" is the mainland version of "The King of Comedy", but in fact, if you compare it according to the time before and after, "The King of Comedy" should be the Hong Kong version of "Comedy Star".
Chen Rong is not only a famous female writer, in addition to creating many classics in her life, the development of the Chinese comedy industry is also indispensable for her contributions.