The year 1972 was a crucial year in deciding Shi Zhongqin's fate.
This year, the ballet movie "The White-haired Girl", which was made by Shanghai Film Studio, began to be screened repeatedly on a large scale throughout the country, and Shi Zhongqin's name, together with the White-haired Girl, was firmly remembered by hundreds of millions of Chinese viewers, and for many, this memory continues to this day, Shi Zhongqin is the White-haired Girl, and the White-haired Girl is Shi Zhongqin.
This year, Shi Zhongqin also became a participant and witness of the famous "ballet diplomacy" in the historical process of Sino-Japanese diplomatic relations. She performed with the Shanghai Ballet in Tokyo in the ballet "The White-haired Girl", which was a great success, and "the ice that once existed in the relationship between the two countries began to melt under the delicate toe-tapping of Shi Zhongqin".
From the 1945 Yan'an Lu Xun Academy of Fine Arts collectively created the opera "White Haired Girl", until 1972, China has appeared in a number of versions of the "White Haired Girl", in addition to the opera version, as well as the film version of the feature film version, the Peking Opera version, the ballet version, and so forth, and with it, there are a number of versions of the "White Haired Girl" players, and even a role corresponds to more than one role at the same time. One of them even corresponds to more than one character at the same time, but among them, Shi Zhongqin has the greatest influence. Shi's version of "The White Haired Girl" is one of the famous "Eight Model Plays", which was shown thousands of times in China during the Cultural Revolution. From an ordinary dancer to the most famous "White-haired Girl", Shi Zhongqin said she was "very lucky", which is true.
In 1965, Shi Zhongqin, who was the same age as the script for "The White-haired Girl," was attending the Shanghai Dance School, where she took part in the school's production of the ballet "The White-haired Girl.
In those "revolutionary times", the first thing that counted for an actor's ability to become a leading role was the family composition. Therefore, despite Shi Zhongqin's good looks and outstanding dancing skills, she could only perform on stage and dance some mass scenes, such as jumping on the red tasseled spears, because of her bourgeois origins, her roots were not right, and her seedlings were not red.
Shi Zhongqin's chance came by chance, but it was closely related to the historical background of the times. At that time, the literary world rehearsal adaptation or new modern theater has become a political trend, Beijing's dance school is the "Red Detachment of Women" on the ballet stage, Shanghai naturally can not be left behind, so the conception of rehearsal ballet version of the "White-haired Girl", and in accordance with the creation of the policy of the literary and artistic to serve the political service, "White-haired Girl" for "refinement". "Finishing", such as listening to the dockworkers, with the dance form specially designed for Yang Bailao to pick up the stretcher three times to fight the bully landlord Huang Shiren, and finally due to physical exhaustion was killed after the plot; for example, but also designed the stage image of the White Furry Woman "four changes", as the years go by, the hair slowly changes, and the hair is not as good as it used to be.
With the age span, the hair slowly turns gray and white.
As a result, Shi Zhongqin was chosen as one of the four changes, and appeared alone on stage for "a little more than a minute".
Later, Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi, after watching the new ballet version of "The White Haired Girl", highly evaluated the "four changes". Premier Zhou said with a smile: "Shanghai is lovely and brave to create." Chen Yi said: "in the ballet with singing, as well as the White Hairy Woman's four changes, are creative, I see three, four and then processed, it can be famous worldwide!
After the "Four Changes", there were solo dances, and Shi Zhongqin had more and more opportunities to perform. After the start of the Cultural Revolution, the original first star of the White Hair Woman (A role) Gu Manmei because of health reasons do not want to dance again, and B role Yu Qingyun a person to dance more than one and busy, the organization had to cast a gaze on the bad birth of Shi Zhongqin, Shi Zhongqin later recalled: "In 1969, I was still in the Canton Fair performances, the afternoon rest in the room, there are the rebels came to me, said, now give you a task, I'm not sure if you are a good dancer, but you are a great dancer, and you will not be able to do it. said, now give you a task, because of various reasons, to tell you to jump up and go to rehearsal 'White Hair Maiden'!"
This jump changed Shi Zhongqin's "whole destiny", and from then on, she became the "White-haired Girl".
In fact, the ballet "White-haired Girl" premiered at the sixth "Shanghai Spring" in 1965, caused a national sensation, and was appreciated by Zhou Enlai and Chen Yi. Since then, Zhou Enlai has watched the play 16 times.
On the evening of April 24, 1967, Jiang Qing accompanied Chairman Mao Zedong to watch for the first time the performance of the ballet "The White Haired Girl", which was created through the crystallization of many wisdom. After the performance, Chairman Mao gave a four-word praise, "The White Haired Girl is good."
Shortly four words of praise, so that every member of the creative staff of the troupe are excited; also because of this sentence, Jiang Qing put the "White Haori Daughter" together with her selection of another seven modern theater, included in the first batch of the so-called "eight model plays" set up within. Repeatedly revised and rehearsed, and then after many times to Japan, to North Korea, the side of the performance, plus in the spring and fall of each year in Guangzhou International Foreign Trade Fair as a hospitality for foreign guests to visit and in the many festivals of the public performance, "The White Haired Girl" performance level has reached the point of pure perfection. At this time, Jiang Qing ordered it to be made into a movie to "highlight the achievements" and "expand the results".
So, in 1970, Shi Zhongqin, who was already a "senior sister" actress, brought young actress Mao Huifang to put "White-haired Girl" and "Xier" on film. The play was first produced in 1970 by Shanghai Television and Shanghai Film Studio, which made 11 black-and-white TV screen reproductions on an experimental basis. The following year, directed by the famous film director Sang Arc of Shanghai Film Studio, the play was filmed as a stage art film, which has since spread all over the world.
During the Cultural Revolution, the ballet film "The White Haired Girl" was an important "political achievement" for Jiang Qing, which made it a highlight of the program every year on the anniversary of the "Speech at the Yan'an Literary and Artistic Symposium". But if these political factors are stripped to see, "White-haired Girl" in the art also has a lot of points, which can be seen from it after the end of the Cultural Revolution to show the holding of artistic vitality. It is said that the ballet art film "Mountain Girl" made in Romania later on completely followed the style and style of the title treatment of "The White-haired Girl". Like all the year's "model theater" star, Shi Zhongqin's life because of the "White-haired Girl" and had a huge change, she has a special "plate clothing", "like a military uniform," "like a military uniform," "like a military uniform," "like a military uniform," she said. She had a special "plate uniform", "like a military uniform, but without collar and shoulder insignia", and a "plate car", responsible for transportation to and from performances, when that kind of car was basically used to receive foreign guests in Shanghai. She was also given a nutritional allowance of 12 yuan a month, compared to her salary of 34 yuan at the time. She also received countless letters from the public - including love letters, of course. But in those days, Shi Zhongqin couldn't be bothered to talk about marriage, nor was she allowed to; in the troupe, actors needed special permission to marry before age 32.
Shi Zhongqin reached the pinnacle of her glory in 1978, when she was elected a member of the Standing Committee of the Fifth National People's Congress.
Shi Zhongqin got married in the 1970s and gave birth to a child many years later, to a cinematographer at the Shanghai Film Studio. After giving birth, Shi Zhongqin returned to the stage and danced in such famous plays as Swan Lake and Thunderstorm before ending her career as an actress after the age of 40. After retiring, Shi Zhongqin worked as a teacher at a privately-run ballet school (Yaxin Arts).
(Note: The first time in the world that The White Haired Girl was brought to the ballet stage was by Japan's Matsuyama Ballet, and the ballet The White Haired Girl was first staged on February 12, 1955, at the Hibiya Guild Hall in Tokyo.)