Li Xianglan

(1920.2.12-)

Original name: Yamaguchi Shuko

Birthplace: Saga Prefecture, Japan, born in Shenyang< /p>

Identity: A famous singer in the 1930s and 1940s

Life:

Born in a family of Sinologists in Japan, his grandfather was a Sinologist and his father was influenced by him He went to China to study in his early years and later worked for the "Manchuria Railway" Company.

The blood-red memory left in Yamaguchi Yoshiko's mind as a teenager will be unforgettable for her life - in 1932, she saw with her own eyes several kidnapped Chinese people who were shot dead and bloody by Japanese military police on the spot. Later she learned that it was related to the Pingdingshan Massacre - an incident in which 3,000 Chinese civilians were massacred by the Japanese army. During the Pingdingshan incident, because her father was detained for "collaborating with the enemy", Yamaguchi Shuko's family moved to Shenyang afterwards. When she was 13 years old, Yamaguchi Shuko recognized her father's Chinese classmate Li Jichun, the then president of the pro-Japanese Shenyang Bank, as her adoptive father. She also got a nice name - Li Xianglan.

Destiny sometimes changes inadvertently. Such was the encounter between Li Xianglan and the Belarusian girl Liuba. That acquaintance gave Li Xianglan the opportunity to learn vocal music from a Russian vocalist, and her musical talent was discovered. During this period, Japan began to play "New Manchurian Songs" on the radio in order to promote its tolerant policies of "Japan-Manchu Amity" and "Concord among the Five Nationalities." Li Xianglan, who knew both Japanese and Beijing dialect, was promoted as a "girl singer" Get on stage. When she was 14 years old, Li Xianglan went to Beijing to study. In 1937, the film company "Manying" funded by the "Manchu Railway" company was established, and Li Xianglan was hired as a full-time actor. Her first starring movie "Honeymoon Express" established her status as a "Chinese girl movie star who understands Japanese". Later she performed in "China Nights", "The Oath of Hot Sand" and "The Song of Bailan" and other "Mainland" films. Three works." In 1943, the name Li Xianglan became a sensation due to her participation in "Eternal Fragrance".

Yamaguchi Yoshiko's "Li Xianglan Era" coincided with Japan's invasion of China. Fujiwara Sakuya, one of the authors of "Li Xianglan" said, "She was teased by fate in the crack between her motherland Japan and her motherland China, and she spent a very troubled youth." In this regard, Yamaguchi Yoshiko said that there were two things that made her She will never forget it, and she still feels sad when she thinks about it.

In October 1938, 18-year-old Li Xianglan returned to Japan for the first time as a representative of the "Japan-Manchuria Goodwill". She was so excited that she never expected that when she was about to get off the ship after checking her passport, she heard the official saying fiercely "Are you still a Japanese? Don't you feel ashamed that a first-class citizen wears Chinese clothes?" Yamaguchi Shuko said: "I was confused at the time and didn't understand why the Japanese said that. For this reason, I Very distressed." Later in Tokyo, when she sang Chinese songs in Chinese clothes, she was met with abuse from time to time during the applause. This made her disillusioned with her motherland, Japan. She felt sad, "It's not that the Japanese mistook me as a Chinese and discriminated against me, but that the Japanese in my motherland insulted China, the country of my birth, my mother's country." ."

In 1943, Li Xianglan participated in the historical drama "Eternal Fragrance", which described Lin Zexu's ban on opium. In the play, she played a sugar seller who told about the harm of opium and sang "The Sugar Song" 》. After a press conference in Peking, a young reporter caught up with her and asked: "Li Xianglan, aren't you Chinese? Why did you perform movies that insult China like "China Nights" and "Song of the White Orchid"? Are you Chinese?" Where did the pride go?" Faced with the accusation, she apologized and said, "I was young and ignorant at the time, and I regret it now. I will never do that again." Unexpectedly, this statement caused a round of applause. She recalled: "In fact, they already knew that I was Japanese at that time, and they just hoped that I could apologize."

Recalling the past, Yamaguchi Yoshiko said: "In that war era, in order to survive, I did I worked hard to learn to sing." She said she felt guilty for those films that had served militarism and discriminated against the Chinese. Unable to bear the heavy pressure of "Li Xianglan" status, she resigned from "Manying" in 1944 and lived in Shanghai. When Japan was defeated in 1945, Li Xianglan was tried by a military court on suspicion of "traitor", but she was spared because she revealed her Japanese identity. She apologized for appearing in films such as "China Nights" in which she acted in the name of a Chinese, saying, "Although I was young, I was ignorant." In February 1946, she was released and returned to China.

Yamaguchi Shuko said goodbye to "Li Xianglan" and entered the film industry after returning to China. During this period, she even thought about going to Hollywood to develop her career, but gave up for some reasons. In 1958, Yamaguchi Yoshiko fell in love with diplomat Ohtaka Hiroshi. After marriage, she changed her surname to Ohtaka, quit the entertainment industry and became a diplomat's wife. In 1969, the 50-year-old Otaka Yoshiko realized her dream of being a journalist and became a host on Fuji TV. She also went to war fronts in Vietnam, Cambodia, the Middle East and other war fronts, and interviewed Arafat, Mandela and other influential figures. In 1974, Otaka Moshiko, who frequently appeared on television, was persuaded by Prime Minister Tanaka Kakuei to run for office and became a member of the Senate for 18 years...

In 1975, Otaka was already a member of the Diet. Shuzi visited Pyongyang and was warmly entertained by President Liao Chengzhi when passing through Beijing. In 1978, she once again visited Beijing, Shanghai, Harbin, Changchun and other places where she had left the footprints of her youth. In August of the same year, she watched the live broadcast of the signing of the Treaty of Peace and Friendship between China and Japan with tears in her eyes.

When talking about this experience, Yamaguchi Yoshiko opened the picture album and showed me a photo of Mr. Deng Xiaoping and her at Tanaka Kakuei’s home when he visited Japan in 1978. When she turned to Arafat's photo, she lamented, "Arafat was great, but it's a pity that he passed away." She became happy when she saw photos of herself in the album with Chinese actors such as Zhou Xuan and Bai Yang when she was young. She recalled her visit to China in 1978 as the head of the Japanese environmental delegation. She mentioned that when she revisited the Changchun Film Studio, she, the "goldfish beauty", was attracted by the "classical beauty" Zheng Xiaojun, the "voluptuous beauty" Bai Mei, Welcomed by colleagues such as "lively beauty" Xia Peijie and "eternal youth" Puke. She said: "I have two relatives, Chinese and Japanese. China is the country of my mother who raised me, and Japan is the country of my father. China is my hometown, so when you go to China, you should say 'back' to China."

I hope that "Father's Country" and "Mother's Country" can live in harmony

In 1992, Yamaguchi Yoshiko retired from the Senate. After her husband passed away three years ago, she chose to live alone. During this period, she still served as the vice chairman of the "Asian Women's Fund" (the chairman is former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama). She hopes to use this to prompt the Japanese government to apologize and compensate the war victims and "comfort women" who served in the military. Next year marks the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. She revealed to reporters that a Japanese TV station plans to make a TV film based on her experience. The script is currently being conceived, and she hopes to have a big-eyed actor who understands both Chinese and Japanese play the role.

As for the current "cold" Japan-China relations, Yamaguchi Yoshiko said that there are some frictions between Japan and China, but this should be faced squarely and not allowed to accumulate. When talking about the original intention of accepting the interview, she expressed that she hoped that young people in China would understand her fate, so as to promote the development of relations between Japan and China. "China and Japan are my 'mother's country' and 'father's country'. The last thing I want is to see problems in the friendly relations between the two countries. Premier Zhou Enlai said that we should learn from history and face the future. The Japanese should use their own conscience After reckoning with the past, the young people of the two countries should use a new and broad perspective to seriously consider how to live in harmony in the future."

Representative works: "Tuberose", "I wish we met before we were married", "When I was a child", "Song of selling sugar", "Song of quitting smoking", "Haiyan", "When will you come again", "Suzhou" Nocturne" etc.