Late Chinese actress Zhu Yuanyuan speaks at the 2nd Global Times "My Reading Life" book-sharing event, which was held on April 20, 2024 in Beijing. Photo: Global Times

To everyone's shock, in the morning of Wednesday, sad news came that Zhu Yuanyuan, a Chinese actress who was loved by audience of different age groups, passed away at the age of 51 following a fight against cancer that lasted for half a decade. The news was shared by her husband, fellow actor Xin Baiqing, via an obituary.

In the obituary, Xin noted how Zhu "shared her love for life by bringing laughter and warmth to everyone around her." As a Global Times reporter who met Zhu through work, I deeply resonated with Xin's words. In April 2024, Zhu attended the Global Times' second "My Reading Life" book-sharing event as a key speaker, as she was particularly deft at sculpting stage roles from literary classics like the Four Generations under One Roof.

I remember that she impressed those in attendance, including myself, with her erudite speech, demure bearing and her smile. Looking back now, her demeanor at the time gave no indication whatsoever that she was battling cancer, and attendees only saw her passion for reading and acting. This positivity indeed is what her husband described in the obituary when he said that Zhu faced life's puzzles with "unwavering confidence."   

Positively untangling life's puzzles through reading was also one of the themes in Zhu's speech at the event. Had I not heard Zhu share her reading insights, I would never have realized just how profoundly "literary cultivation" acted as the foundational essence of an actress's self-discipline. I remember she said that in her early acting career, reading felt like a compulsory task to help her pass her school exams. Without reading, she couldn't select appropriate excerpts from books to adapt for her performing assignments. 

"It simply means you couldn't complete the coursework," said Zhu. 

Her dedication to reading nurtured her career and polished her acting skills, helping her decode the characters. She told the Global Times that only through literary novels, was she able to accurately grasp a character's "physical mannerisms and thought processes," and more profoundly, "their destinies and nuanced emotions contextualized in bigger social and cultural landscapes." 

Over the years, her diligence turned her from a rookie school girl into a national first-class actress at the National Theatre of China. I imagine such a transformation empowered her to take on various challenging roles in worldwide classics like Shakespear's The Tragedy of King Richard the Third. In Four Generations under One Roof, Zhu played the role of "Yunmei," an ordinary yet resilient woman who strives for a better life during wartime. 

Interpreting roles rooted in literature showed Zhu's talent, and her acting career was most prominent with down-to-earth performances that are closer to ordinary people's lives. Zhu acted in the film A Little Red Flower, a movie that also has the theme of fighting cancer. In film, she is the mother of a boy (played by Jackson Yee). Maybe due to her personal experience, Zhu's performance touched numerous moviegoers. Many of them discussed how this role moved them on Sina Weibo after learning she had passed away. 

"She's my favorite actress because she was always so natural and genuine. I guess she must have spent countless hours observing the lives of ordinary people," posted one moviegoer on Weibo. 

Illustration: Chen Xia/GT

Focusing on stories of everyday life was indeed Zhu's focus. At the 2024 book-sharing event, she shared how she was touched by reality drama A Lifelong Journey. She noted that she was so moved that she read the original novel written by ­Liang Xiaosheng. 

"When the TV adaptation of A Lifelong Journey became a sensation, I seized the moment of peak enthusiasm to read Liang Xiaosheng's original novel. The constraints of screen storytelling could never fully contain such an epic narrative; I craved those profound, richly textured details only the written word could provide," Zhu noted. 

Zhu used to share with the Global Times that after becoming a mother, the focus of her life shifted more toward caring for her child. Yet despite the busy nature of her life, she never abandoned reading, and found her own way to pass this love of literature on to younger generations. At that time, she said that as a member of a parent committee, she would help organize short plays and interactive activities for school kids to foster their love for reading. 

After Zhu's passing, an outpouring of grief emerged not only from netizens but also from fellow artists like Huang Xiaoming, Feng Yuanzheng, and Yao Chen, who shared heartfelt tributes through posting on Sina Weibo. In actor Huang Xiaoming's post, he revealed that even while working together on set, Zhu never disclosed her battle with cancer. 

The resilience in Zhu touches me. I guess she chose the silence because her curiosity about the world outweighed her focus on herself. Or perhaps she understood life's most profound truth: that we are fated to bid farewell to everything we hold dear. And the only way to defy this inevitability is to "Live every minute, every second in present" as she has said in the film A Little Red Flower. 

The author is a reporter with the Global Times. life@globaltimes.com.cn