Early in the morning of January 16, a piece of news shook the hearts of all Chinese people, and the famous host Zhao Zhongxiang died of illness at the age of 78.
Many of his friends also expressed their condolences on Weibo, and Ma Weidu's teacher wrote particularly movingly.
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Previously, there was also news that Zhao Zhongxiang was ill and hospitalized, Ni Ping and Wang Gang had visited the hospital, and some media had broken out that Zhao Zhongxiang was critically ill. But whether it is his son Zhao Fang or Zhao Zhongxiang's assistant, the reply given is: "rumor-mongering."
▲ Ni Ping's legs and feet are not good, limping to the hospital to visit Zhao Zhongxiang, a reporter has taken a picture of her and Zhao family talking, a serious face, it seems that the situation is not very optimistic.
Of course, most people who see the news of hospitalization and illness will be suspicious, because not long ago, Zhao Zhongxiang was also talked about because of the news of selling words.
Zhao Zhongxiang's calligraphy and paintings, starting at 4,000 yuan, this price has become a delicate and sensitive figure. The angle of discussion was very interesting, and one faction of the camp felt: "Teacher Zhao is not guaranteed in the late festival, and even 4,000 yuan must be put down to earn."
The other camp is indignant - "Write a word and sell it for 4,000 yuan?" Sure enough, the stars make money fast. ”
Bustling and noisy, "four thousand yuan" became the last hot keyword before Zhao Zhongxiang died. Before this sudden drama was finished, the old man at the center of public opinion left so suddenly, making people feel stunned and unable to return to God for a while.
Suddenly remembered 12 years ago, when Zhao Zhongxiang was 66 years old, after six years of over-age service, he finally completed the retirement procedures of CCTV, and he easily went to "Lu Yu Has a Date".
During the meal, he talked about one of his views,—a little romance.
He said:
I think there's a little bit of a difference in normalcy, but it's not too different, which is really romantic.
Yes, Zhao Zhongxiang used the last trace of residual heat in his life to vividly interpret what is called "there is a little difference in normalcy".
In the comments, in the controversy, in the controversy, in the midst of the controversy, in the half-mockery and half-respect, he has completed the whole course of his life, but it is also a strange ending.
I think he should have no regrets, after all, Zhao Zhongxiang's three words have long ceased to be an individual, and what he represents behind him is the collective memory of generations.
In the broadcast hosting industry, everyone honors Zhao Zhongxiang with a sentence of "Teacher Zhao", not because he is old, but because of his seniority.
In 1958, CCTV was established and broadcast the first tv screen to the whole country, announcing the birth of Chinese television. In the same year, CCTV began to select announcers nationwide.
Attending school at Beijing No. 22 Middle School, Zhao Zhongxiang, who loves gymnastics, was selected to become the first male announcer in the history of Chinese television.
▲ CCTV launched the day of the program, this female host is China's first announcer Shen Li.
18-year-old Zhao Zhongxiang is born with an old face, commonly known as being able to "stabilize the stage", low-key and modest, rare is talented, and work carefully and meticulously.
In this way, Zhao Zhongxiang was "born at the right time", caught up with the beginning of Chinese television, and in his hands, one classic column after another was born, and he became a "first person" again and again.
He was the first announcer to appear on News Network:
He was the first speaker to appear on camera at the first Spring Festival Gala in 1983:
Think about it, it has been 37 years since that Spring Festival Gala, and time and space seem to be suddenly intertwined.
The appearance of the hotline at that time has long become a prop that can only appear in historical dramas, and Zhao Zhongxiang will kindly say to the camera: "Audience friends, we have prepared five riddles, please know the answer of the audience friends to write to us, the letter time is until the first day of the first month, we must remember to paste the stamp." ”
He was the first journalist to enter the White House to interview the president of the United States.
▲ Interview with President Carter at the White House in 1979.
At the same time, he has witnessed the departure of many, many old people and the appearance of new people in the history of Chinese television.
At the end of the 1980s, he had a fixed broadcast partner Xing Qianbin.
In the 1990s, he successively partnered with Yang Lan of "Zhengda Variety", and Ni Ping, who has stood on CCTV Spring Festival Gala for nearly 20 years, in these cooperations, he always appears as the best partner, mainly to set off the flexible female host, to keep changing, "you want to say more, you don't want to say that I can also pick up", so the directors love him, who does not love this kind of safe and clever male host.
▲ In 1991, Ni Ping appeared on the stage of the CCTV Spring Festival Gala for the first time.
Lu Yu first entered CCTV that year, and Zhang Xiaohai, then deputy director of the Literature and Art Department of the CCTV Literature and Art Center, begged Zhao Zhongxiang to personally take the eye and eat a light meal at the Inner Mongolia Hotel near guangyuan as a simple interview.
Many years later, Lu Yu asked Teacher Zhao in person: What did you say at that time?
Zhao Zhongxiang said: I didn't say no at the time.
Lu Yu laughed and said, "That didn't work!"
Zhao Zhongxiang founded "Animal World" and "Man and Nature" in 1981, which became his most famous iconic symbols, so that many years after his retirement, even if he was on the show, he had to come up with several commentaries of "Animal World".
Zhao Zhongxiang's hosting style has had obvious personal characteristics since then, especially with "Animal World", his dubbing has a gentle passion that people have never seen before, which is very comforting, but at that time, because it was not according to common sense, sentence breaking and ventilation were self-unified, making people feel the law, which was a scene that had never appeared in traditional broadcast teaching.
From being used as a "negative teaching material" to "suitable for all ages", Zhao Zhongxiang spent a full decade.
In the beginning, my peers, including local teachers and academic teachers, would think what you call this broken sentence, what tone, what flavor, isn't this an evil way? As far as broadcasting is concerned, this is actually a heresy.
So, when everyone recognizes it, now, I don't know if they still think so. At least they don't say I'm heretical anymore. But I have been on this road for almost 8 to 10 years, and the process is very painful, because no one says hello, and even when the teacher says to the students in class, you don't want to learn from him, and I have become a negative model.
▲In May 1996, Zhao Zhongxiang (left) and Shui Junyi (right) won the "Second Golden Microphone Award". Source: Triptych Life Weekly.
Zhao Zhongxiang has been cautious all his life and treats business extremely seriously. He had prided himself on "never adding or subtracting an extra word to the host's words" over the years.
Everything has a beginning and an end, even if you leave the biggest stage of the Spring Festival Gala, you must have a proper and decent ending.
In 2000, the white-haired Zhao Zhongxiang and Ni Ping co-starred in the skit "Tea Tasting" as their parting work.
In the sketch, two people talk and laugh. Ni Ping said: Old Zhao, if you want to say that this Spring Festival gala does not have us, what else is there to see?
Zhao Zhongxiang nodded: "Yes! Thirty years!
After retirement, Zhao Zhongxiang and Ni Ping often get together to taste tea, we don't know, there should be no probability, because Ni Ping's most common spit sentence is "Old Zhao is too picky." ”
Ni Ping changed from "sensational goddess" to "poisonous tongue grandmother", and most of the content of her spit was about Zhao Zhongxiang. Unexpectedly, the "generation of grandmasters in the broadcasting industry" grew old and became a celebrity living in Ni Ping's spit.
Ni Ping said the story of Zhao Zhongxiang going to learn to drive and eating sixty pounds of fritters in the early shop at the entrance of the driving school; she said the story of him buying roast chicken for a dollar at the restaurant in front of CCTV; she said that eating cabbage stewed crispy meat can be added to the soup for free, and Teacher Zhao drank six bowls of soup in one breath; she also said the story of Zhao Zhongxiang selling paintings everywhere and not painting without giving money.
Therefore, compared with the image of high morality and respect on the stage, since the last shift of the Spring Festival Gala in 2000, Zhao Zhongxiang has gradually returned to semi-retreat, and Zhao Zhongxiang after the retreat is no longer so high, and his "grounding gas" has surprised many viewers and cannot adapt for a while.
The first was the violent scandal of that year.
In 2004, Rao Ying, a health care doctor at CCTV, first wrote three long articles in her blog, recounting her and Zhao Zhongxiang's extramarital affair, and exposing various details.
▲Rao Ying and Zhao Zhongxiang took a group photo.
Subsequently, Rao Ying went on the TV, entered the broadcast room, criticized Zhao Zhongxiang, and played the earth-shattering recording, at that time, the on-site reporter was still a fledgling Xie Na.
Looking at it now, this is a dog blood story that evolved from an extramarital affair to "forced marriage to fail, broken jars and broken", but Zhao Zhongxiang, who has been protected and respected in the system all his life, obviously did not anticipate the lethality of public opinion. He was angry, ignored, and even wrote a confession of 10,000 words in his new book, "Whispers on the Lakeside.".
But until now, the biggest groove in his life is still this matter.
Even after his death, many netizens still ridiculed him with "tight grandpa".
Objectively speaking, countless pickled things are staged every minute and every second in this world, and the inferiority of human beings has never dissipated, and there are so many secrets, desires, lies, and dirtiness. Why is It that Zhao Zhongxiang has been repeatedly "Ling Chi"?
At the end of the day, it's because he's so famous.
Ni Ping once complained, the same as the "national voice", people Mei Lanfang never drink other people's water, everywhere with their own cup, Teacher Zhao is good, a lifetime of drinking other people's water.
Yes, as a "national voice", taking advantage of others is already intolerable, let alone engaging in extramarital love?
Zhao Zhongxiang later saw this matter very clearly——
When your name can't be cut off from this organization, for example, you are a front-line staff member of CCTV, and even if I am a news announcer and news anchor of CCTV, I will think of my social image outside, which is still connected with CCTV.
If the contrast is too big, or my personal personality is too strong, is it contrary to the style of my CCTV subject. At such times, it is impossible for me not to think about this issue, and I feel that it is a responsible performance.
A generation of grandmasters, folded in the peach news full of dog blood, this contrast of quite black humor, in fact, there is a deep helplessness.
CCTV has fulfilled the brilliance of his life, and CCTV has also given him the weight that his life cannot bear. In the final analysis, all beings are equal, and the happiness that everyone gets is similar to suffering.
But Zhao Zhongxiang obviously suffered a great blow, although he wore the aura of "celebrity", but with a salary, his income could not be compared with other celebrities, but he had to pay such a heavy price.
In the years since, he has often subconsciously repulsed the media and the public, never revealing himself too much, and when interviewed by reporters, he said something like tai chi, grandiose, and sometimes even more angry.
When he had an autobiography that he once said that he would donate the royalties to the Hope Project, and then the book sold out, a southern reporter asked him if he had donated, and he was immediately angry and wanted to kick the young female reporter out, saying that she did not understand politeness, and later it was the host of Guangdong Television.
At the time of the scandal, he had the deepest exclamation of the reporters of The Triad: "I am personally a vulnerable group, and the actual celebrity is a weak person!" “
Zhao Zhongxiang after "Rao Yingmen" is obviously much more low-key, if it were not for the news of selling words, everyone might gradually forget this generation of famous mouths.
There is a special APP on the mobile phone, you can book a variety of celebrity calligraphy or blessing videos online, Zhao Zhongxiang's stall is the most complete, as small as a lucky word, as large as a plaque, clearly marked price, complete variety, and even spend money to go to his family's living room for a group photo.
In the customer video released by the mobile phone, Teacher Zhao smiled and kindly read the blessing: "I wish so-and-so little fairy girl day happy and always beautiful, and your husband and daughter will always love you." ”
Yes, as Mr. Ma Weidu said, Zhao Zhongxiang was originally such a pragmatic person, and after he retired, he appeared in the eyes of everyone again with such an extremely pragmatic appearance.
Zhao Zhongxiang is of course pragmatic, just like Ni Ping gave him a comment, one is "cutting the door", the other is "accumulating wealth".
So pragmatic, because the identity of CCTV celebrity has faded, Zhao Zhongxiang in life is an ordinary Beijing man who is not compromised, he is even a "little man", without big ambitions, he wants to live a plain, small and beautiful home life.
He had a wife, a son, a daughter-in-law who was right at home, and gave birth to his only grandson.
▲ Zhao Zhongxiang and his wife Zhang Meizhu.
▲ Zhao Zhongxiang's son and daughter-in-law. The son's name is Zhao Fang, who is currently engaged in the IT industry, and the daughter-in-law was introduced by Ni Ping.
Zhao Zhongxiang was extremely fond of this only grandson, took care of everything in his life, and said that all his property should be left to him.
I don't like to go out in my spare time, I like to cook at home, and I do a good job - "I make home-cooked food that is higher than the average restaurant level." "There's nothing to walk the dog, write a book manuscript, go to Panjiayuan to pick up leaks, and there are a lot of antiques under the bed."
And, of course, there's the constant sale of paintings to make money.
▲ Zhao Zhongxiang is good at painting donkeys, and this "Endeavor Jia Wu" also entered the auction and sold for a high price of 120,000.
Of course, Zhao Zhongxiang is not short of money, and he seems to be using the "selling paintings" thing to prove his vitality - no matter what, Whether I am young or old, I always do not lack the stage, and I am always living vigorously.
He once said: "Human beings are actually section by section, like polyps", "The old withers, the new is growing", "As long as you survive, you have to work hard." ”
The sunflowers and trees are easy to spring, the tea is still warm, and the wall clock ticks, which is also a poetic life.
Therefore, I think that Zhao Zhongxiang is more cute after he is old.
How to say it, people in the system will always have a clear sense of boundaries, they know what to do, what not to do, what to say, what not to say.
When Zhao Zhongxiang still had a program on his body, he was also cautious and cautious, and he absolutely did not accept the untimely performance, and he could not give more money.
Over time, there will be a cookie-cutter "sense of silence," which is a protective color that instinctively tells you where it's safe and where it's dangerous.
But what about Zhao Zhongxiang?
He actually lived a little differently, a bit like a blooming flower, but slightly strange shaped, it had its own protective color and low-key posture, but it could not suppress the surging vitality in the core, opening awkwardly, but full of life and fullness.
As Ma Weidu said, "Don't watch Teacher Zhao's TV chewing words and dripping water, he can be completely different in life, Beijing vernacular and even dirty words are particularly slippery, making people listen to it very painfully and look at him with astonishment." ”
In private, he is particularly able to "live in vain", obviously he is very happy to "let go of himself", he participates in variety shows, plays with Ni Ping to make fun of poor mouths, recites poetry in Russian, sings Peking Opera, and even hosts funny news with Zhang Jiahui.
He was very willing to give up the name of "high moral respect" and played a real and unreserved Zhao Zhongxiang himself in the last ten years of his life.
So, after watching his life, is Zhao Zhongxiang a great person?
Less.
He has his flaws, his weaknesses, he loves money, he's cautious, and he's involved in gossip. When he went to "Lu Yu Has a Date", he said slightly restrainedly, "I am afraid that you will not be happy to see me." ”
So is he a bad guy?
Not even more so.
He has successfully completed every job, is a person that leaders and colleagues can count on, reliable in work, loves family and children in life. He even has a big love, because he hosts "Animal World" and has instinctive kindness to wild animals, refusing to watch monkey plays in variety shows.
Is he a romantic?
Half of it is, half of it is not, "put down the body and make four thousand dollars" is pragmatic, but enjoying the small pleasures and small pleasures that are everywhere in life is again, all he wants is to be a little romantic in the normal state of safety, which is already remarkable for people who have come from that era.
All his romance is in his voice, he will listen to the recording of his predecessor Xia Qing and shed tears; he participated in the rescue of a vulture because of the filming of "Animal World", until many years later, he will still "look up at the blue sky" and fantasize about its figure, these are his romances...
Yes, all these constitute a complex Zhao Zhongxiang, and we cannot define him in one or two sentences. But I still want to say that thanks to him, he has accompanied generations of people with his strong or tender voice, and has become the background of our lives.
In his time, many of the shining stars had dimmed, and the confession that resounded on both sides of the river was now twenty years ago.
In the enthusiastic conversation with Lu Yu many years ago, he once said sadly: "There is no feast in the world", and now that I think about it, there is a sad feeling of foreknowledge life in advance, and it seems to show the gradual departure of an era.
In 2006, the China Television Artists Art Association once selected an award called "25 Stars of Chinese Television Hosts in 25 Years", and Zhao Zhongxiang won the award.
Thank you to the audience for allowing me to play like an athlete!
I think it seems to be a high-level summary of his life, in his own words, "like a cockroach with a full tail."
Looking at the stars of the same era, there is indeed no one who has been as brilliant as he has been for fifty years, living in front of the public since the age of 16, has not retired from the scene, from serious illness to death, only a few months, the news is hidden to death, and he has not suffered too long.
In the words of my friend radio DJ Yang Fan, "Teacher Zhao is in my heart the style that a rock star should have, the business is good, the life is gorgeous, the work is also done, the play is also played, no matter what you guys say, Lao Tzu has lived a better life than you." ”。
Yes, the fight has also been spelled, the play has also been played, the mistake has been missed, the good is better, everything has been tried, the hard life has been lived, the tiger's head, the leopard's tail, the tight and the sharp so, people in this life, not so full of tails to come over?
▲ This is Teacher Zhao's impressions when he was clear last year, the text is really good, especially the brain to make up for it with his affectionate voice to read out, people are particularly sad, this is his kind of Zhao Zhongxiang-style romance.
Well, we can only watch, see everything that was once fresh and intense, see the laughter, tears, incomprehension and touching we have had, watch the growth of a generation in those years, see a not so great, but also absolutely worthy of respect, a lifetime of living within the normal, but never old-fashioned, the pursuit of the deep inside of his own romantic Zhao Zhongxiang.
The human world has a metabolism, and the exchanges have become ancient and modern.
Mo Dao's road ahead is ignorant of himself, who in the world does not know the king, all the way good, Teacher Zhao!