[TRANS] Exclusive Interview With Wu Yifan: Do They Only Like Me For My Face?
(I only translated the part where he talked about his stint in Korea.)
“Truthfully, I went to Korea only to make a living, or in other words, to survive.” Wu Yifan taking the initiative to talk about his experience undoubtedly made us surprised.
“Raising children in the west is basically about giving them freedom to do what they want. After you are done with high school, go out and do things. No matter how affluent our family is, we won’t give you a single cent. My mother raised me based on this principle.” Wu Yifan said that he was always “nagged” at by his mother when he turned eighteen. “Look how good this family’s son is… all of this was ingrained in me which caused ‘a mountain of stress’. I would be frustrated and say ‘Don’t talk about this’ but I would remember that a boy must become independent at eighteen.”
Then was the old story of how he accompanied his friend to an interview and got selected himself. Wu Yifan went to Korea as the company offered free food and lodging which would ease his mother’s economic burden. Korea has a holistic star-making system and he was one of the screws [in the system]. From Vancouver, an aging city, to the fast-paced Seoul, he first experienced the ruthlessness and harshness of competition in a society.
“A lot of people set out determined that they want to be a star. I was different in that I wasn’t a childhood star and had practically zero understanding of acting as a career. Other than occasionally singing in the KTV with friends, I was completely befuddled by dancing, not to say acting.” In the first two years, Wu Yifan did not even know what he was doing other than mechanically practising, singing, dancing. “I repeatedly told myself that no matter what I couldn’t give up. I didn’t have a good academic record and wouldn’t it be embarrassing if I gave up halfway and returned to Vancouver?”
“Around the second year, I began to desire going on stage and showing what I can do to the audience. Slowly I began to understand acting and how to be an artiste… at that time I gradually realised I wanted to be a star.”
In 2012, 22-year-old Wu Yifan made his debut with a group EXO. The year after their debut the group officially released an album <XOXO> where its sales exceeded a million copies. EXO swept all kinds of awards in the 2013 year end award ceremonies. Everything went unbelievably well.
Wu Yifan was not defensive of his “materialistic desires” when he was younger: “I didn’t know anything at that time, I just wanted to be an idol, I just wanted to stand on stage, with a bunch of fans liking me, wasn’t that good? But the happiness only lasted for around a year before I realised something was wrong. Life was too bleak.”
“I felt that what they liked was ‘Wu Yifan, handsome, handsome, handsome…’” Wu Yifan repeated this three times, knocking into the air. “When being ‘handsome’ is the only label I had it made me frustrated, do you understand?”
Reporters followed this hot star for a day and could understand how it felt like being the centre of attention. The moment Wu Yifan walked out of the airport fans booked seven vehicles, each squeezing ten people in and following him like a shadow. A memorable fan was a fanboy who appeared in all four roadshows and who screamed his name at the same moment in all four shows.
“At that time the fan letters I received mostly went ‘Wu Yifan, I support you, I like you, you are really handsome’. I was thinking, did they only like me for my face?” Wu Yifan calmly recounted. “The situation back then did not allow me to make my own music and only allowed me to showcase my voice through rap; I was also not particularly good at perfectly synchronised dances of high difficulty level. I have a tall build and am not as agile as others. I am better at hiphop and street dances that the blacks do.”
“I had to find something of my own and finally I decided to start through fashion. I could not choreograph my own dances, I could not pick, produce or sing my own songs, but at least I could wear my own clothes?” Wu Yifan started to pay attention to “airport fashion”, showcasing his clothes coordination in a public place where he did not have to stand in a line with his group.
A year after paying attention to his airport fashion, Wu Yifan finally received another fan letter. That fan wrote, “I especially like you for your fashion.”
“Finally it wasn’t about how handsome I looked.” Wu Yifan gave a smile of relief. “After that I finally felt like I had one more layer to myself.”
“After returning to China I can write my own lyrics and melodies, I can perform my own songs, I can produce, and gradually improve to become a musician. At the same time, I took an interest in performing sometime after debut and I am still slowly experimenting in that area. I hope I will have more labels to myself, like music, movies, fashion. I will not give up any of the three. It will be hard to balance all three, and will be exhausting, but I feel it is worth it. I am now at a time where I should work hard at my career, and I must persevere no matter how tiring it gets. This is my promise to everyone who likes me.”
Trans cr; subzero
Original article cr; The Paper
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