Lin, Lu Xiaoman and other famous ladies and girls were born in that era.
In appearance, they may not be as modern as the "celebrities" who are mass-produced by assembly lines. However, the experience in the special environment of the alternation of old and new, the combination of Chinese and western, and the temperament honed over time have made them a very unique existence.
Even from a modern point of view, their brilliance is hard to hide.
Today, Bian Xiao will tell you the story of Wanying Guo, the last famous woman in the Republic of China. Her ups and downs are not worse than the legends created by Lin and others.
Born in a noble family, with golden branches and jade leaves.
Wanying Guo was born in Sydney, Australia on 1909. She is the seventh child in the family. Because she ranks fourth among girls, everyone also calls her "Miss Guo Si".
At the age of six, Wanying Guo moved to Shanghai with his family. At the invitation of Dr. Sun Yat-sen, her father Guo Biao, uncle Guo Le and other wealthy businessmen in China opened the largest and newest department store in Shanghai-Yong 'an Company.
Yong 'an Department Store was established in Nanjing Road Pedestrian Street, the most prosperous street in Shanghai, which was also called "the first commercial street in China" at that time. It was as prosperous as Causeway Bay in Hong Kong at that time. Yong 'an Department Store was renamed Zhongbaishi Store, also known as Hualian Department Store, and has been a landmark building in Shanghai until now.
Although the Wanying Guo family came to Shanghai for the first time, with the financial resources of the rich, they soon occupied their own place in the bustling Shanghai, and Wanying Guo's mother also came from a prominent family-Ma family. East Asia Hotel, located opposite Yongan Company, is an industry of Ma family.
Not only that, the Ma family also opened the first department store in Shanghai at that time-Shixian Company.
It, Yong 'an and the following four department stores, Xinxin and Daxin, are symbols of Shanghai's prosperity and synonymous with the "ten miles of foreign markets" in the old society.
With so much wealth, Wanying Guo grew up with a golden spoon in her mouth. She is really a charming paradise girl. Even in the complicated and secretive Shanghai beach, she belongs to the top class.
1920, Wanying Guo was sent to the Chinese and Western Girls' School by her father Guo Biao. Influenced by the environmental factors at that time, this school adopted a completely western-style education with a total schooling of ten years, mainly recruiting rich women. For example, Zhang Ailing and Soong Ching Ling all graduated here.
Here, Wanying Guo not only studies science, history and music, but also often consults English books and newspapers in the library. Not only that, she also cultivated a hobby of sports.
In modern times, Wanying Guo will surely be an outstanding woman with all-round development in morality, intelligence, physique and beauty. Unfortunately, her father, Guo Biao, is bound by the old ethics and hopes that she will marry her husband and teach her children as soon as possible.
1928, Wanying Guo, who just graduated from Chinese and western girls' schools, planned to study in the United States, but she was filial and couldn't bear to go against her father's wishes, so she agreed to marry Elbert, the son of her father's friend.
Like Wanying Guo, Elbert was born in a wealthy family and received a western education. To outsiders, they are a match made in heaven.
Refuse a suitable marriage and marry a poor boy for love.
But Wanying Guo knew that he didn't love Elba birds. Apart from her father's expectation, the most important reason why she agreed to marry Elbert was that she was seriously ill with typhoid fever for two months and was too ill to study abroad.
Shortly after their engagement, Elbird's parents invited Wanying Guo to Beijing for recuperation. As the two families are old friends, Wanying Guo was glad to be invited.
However, as soon as she arrived in Beijing, she was attracted by the strong learning atmosphere in yenching university, and her desire for learning was stirring. In spite of everyone's opposition, she resolutely chose to break off her engagement.
After hearing his fiancee's decision, Elbert, who was still studying in the United States at that time, felt ashamed and indignant, resolutely gave up his studies and went to Wanying Guo with a gun. He also said, either get married or kill Wanying Guo, or he will commit suicide.
After seeing Elbert's crazy and paranoid side, Wanying Guo won't let herself fall into a fire pit. No matter how the other party keeps her, or even threatens her, she won't change her mind.
She doesn't like him, and more importantly, she feels that their thoughts are not at the same level.
She said that she hated each other saying to herself that American stockings were strong or not. Although this reason seems absurd, we can get a glimpse of Wanying Guo's life. She is a little princess who grew up with a golden spoon. The rarity of this world may be just an ordinary object in her eyes.
Matter has never been divided in her life for a moment. Her ideal marriage has never been a trivial dispute such as daily necessities, soy sauce, vinegar and tea. It is never influenced by money, not full of fireworks, but full of fantastic romance, romance and fun.
Fortunately, Guo Fu is open-minded and the two families are old friends, so in the end, Wanying Guo escaped unscathed and succeeded in regaining his freedom.
Later, she was admitted to the Department of Psychology in yenching university.
After going to college, she is still the girl with a wide range of interests. She is still keen on sports and once served as the captain of the women's tennis team in North China.
In Beijing, Wanying Guo met her future husband Wu Yuxiang. Wu Yuxiang's mother's grandmother is Lin Zexu's daughter, and he is a descendant of serious Lin Zexu. From this perspective, the Wu family is also a powerful family. It's a pity that when I was in Wu Yuxiang, the Lins had come down in the world. Although they are descendants of famous stars, the Wu family can only be regarded as a poor scholar. Not as good as the Guo family at all.
Not to mention, Wu Yuxiang is a teenager in Wanying Guo. This marriage with the wrong family and the wrong age was not optimistic from the beginning. But you can't hold Wanying Guo like this.
Wu Yuxiang, who is knowledgeable and humorous, happens to be the ideal type in Wanying Guo's mind.
1934, the Guo family hosted hundreds of people to marry the 25-year-old. At that time, Wanying Guo thought she was married to love. In the wedding photos, she wears a sweet smile, just like a princess coming out of a fairy tale.
Unfortunately, contrary to expectations, Wanying Guo, who had a smooth life, failed to live an imaginary fairy tale life.
Shortly after marriage, Wu Yuxiang fell in love with a young widow, an old acquaintance of Wanying Guo, who met and played cards every week.
In the most popular internet terminology, it is: "He loved me only briefly."
Different from many people, in the face of her husband's infidelity, Wanying Guo not only didn't cry, make trouble or hang himself, but knocked on San Xiao's door very calmly and took her husband home.
Finally, Wanying Guo chose to forgive each other.
But this incident also gave her a deep sense of crisis. She realized that she could no longer stay at home and be an idle wife. Romanticism can't save their love, let alone her family.
So, she and her best friend Zhang Jingying, who was born in France and grew up in the United States, co-founded a "Ginny" fashion company, specializing in making some fashionable evening dresses.
Zhang Jingying is the design and technical consultant, and Wanying Guo is the business director. Every time a new product comes on the market, they hold fashion shows everywhere.
In modern times, the sisters are the hottest fashion bloggers.
(Zhang Jingying)
The husband is in prison, and it's bad luck.
Seeing that the days are getting better day by day, the Pacific War broke out in 194 1.
Affected by the war environment, Wanying Guo's economy went from bad to worse. But as the head of the family, Wu Yuxiang, who should be the protagonist at this time, is a man full of romantic fantasies in his bones. Therefore, after the financial resources were greatly reduced, instead of trying his best to get rid of the current predicament, he became addicted to gambling and other bad habits and began to immerse himself in the dream of getting rich overnight.
Although he graduated from MIT high flyers, this wise mind didn't wake him up when he was in a quagmire, but it also got him deeper and deeper until he lost all his money.
Even when Wanying Guo gave birth to his son in childbirth, he turned a blind eye and gambled at the club all night.
Wanying Guo, who lingered on the edge of life and death, didn't realize this, but continued to tolerate her husband's going out for fun.
(Wanying Guo family of four)
As we all know, gambling is a bottomless pit. In this way, the well-fed family soon could not afford the rent. In desperation, Wanying Guo had to move back to her family with her family.
But Wanying Guo also knows that this is not a long-term solution, so in addition to running a clothing store, she also found a job to pull advertisements for newspapers.
After being honed in hard years, Wu Yuxian suddenly woke up. He started a new company, dealing in medical equipment with Germany. With the gradual improvement of business, the life of the family is getting better and better.
1949 On the eve of the founding of New China, the Guo family moved overseas. Guo's father wanted to take him with him, but she firmly refused and just sent the child abroad.
It was this decision that changed the trajectory of her later life.
(Guo's last family photo in the 1950s)
1957, Wu Yuxiang was put in prison, all his family's property was confiscated, and even Wanying Guo's wedding dress was turned over. 1960, Wanying Guo and others reported that Wu Yuxiang died in prison. Finally, she only saw a haggard body.
Since then, bad luck has followed. Wanying Guo not only needs to raise two children by herself, but also needs to pay her husband's debts. Because she is the daughter of a capitalist, she was forced to be sent to labor reform.
She is a beautiful young lady, but she has to pick up a hammer to build roads and go to the vegetable market to deal with frozen Chinese cabbage. Her hands, which had never touched the spring water, were scarred by the cold. She was also arranged to dig fish ponds, be sent to the farm to feed pigs, brush dung buckets, and even sleep in duck sheds, crowded with dozens of people.
Although life is so hard, Wanying Guo is optimistic and even maintains her delicate image. When selling things in the vegetable market, she will wear cheongsam and leather shoes, and even carry a vegetable basket. She is also a beautiful woman who doesn't show off. When brushing the dung bucket, she was still wearing her beloved cheongsam and was not crushed by these hardships.
Not only that, she will also use the briquette stove as an oven to steam St. Petersburg-style cakes.
Without excellent tea sets and high-quality tea leaves, she used enamel pots and drank homemade afternoon tea.
Even if you are reading a book, you should prepare a small tweezers for turning pages.
No matter how the world changes, she can live a good life humbly. This is not only because of her rich family's blood flowing in her bones, but also because of her optimistic temperament and sincere love for life.
Meet love again and focus on your career.
197 1 year, Wanying Guo left Chongming Island Farm and lived a normal life.
At that time, Wanying Guo was sent to the Foreign Trade Staff Amateur University to teach English, where she met her colleague Molly. They fell in love and got married soon.
Molly, who graduated from Oxford University, is knowledgeable and humorous, which is just the type that Wanying Guo likes. They get along well and often travel together and get together with old friends.
After Molly died of cancer, her children who were far away wanted to take Wanying Guo to live abroad or go back to China to take care of her, but Wanying Guo declined their kindness and chose to live alone.
Although I can't guess what Wanying Guo thinks, she has proved to the world with her own actions that she can live a colorful life by herself.
After that, she entered the Shanghai Institute of Silicate and continued her previous career-teaching English.
(Wanying Guo teaches English in Shanghai, 1982)
At that time, Wanying Guo was over 70 years old, but she still kept the habit of drinking afternoon tea, insisting that as long as she received guests, she had to make up and change clothes.
Even though her hair was almost gray at that time, she was still meticulous and untidy.
1998, 89-year-old Wanying Guo probably had a premonition that her life was coming to an end, so after going to the toilet, she cleaned herself up, then went to bed, closed her eyes and ended her life peacefully in her sleep.
In her will, she said that she would donate her body to the Shanghai Scarlet Letter Society without leaving any ashes.
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From Wanying Guo, we can not only see the gentleness and thoughtfulness of women in the old times, but also see the figure of women in the new era born under the impact of free and open thinking.
The most commendable thing is that in those difficult years, she always remained elegant and noble, and did not bow to the rough fate.
Have to say, Wanying Guo, she is worthy of the title of "the last celebrity of the Republic of China".