Since leaving home at the age of 17, Yao Chen seems to have been on the road - from his hometown to his hometown, from the mirror to the screen, from the trainee Yao Chen to the singer Yao Chen, so non-stop for six years.
And Chongqing, as the starting point of his dream, is also experiencing drastic changes at the same time.
Whether it is Yao Chen, who is constantly growing upwards and surpassing himself on this road, or Chongqing, which is constantly innovating and developing rapidly, it is being seen by more and more people and is inevitably labeled. These labels are not enough to understand the whole picture of a city or a person, but they are undeniably part of Chongqing and Yao Chen.
Yao Chen, who has just entered the seventh year and celebrated his 24th birthday, was invited by ELLE, the world fashion garden, to return to his hometown of Chongqing. We hope to walk into Chongqing in our memories with Yao Chen, and also look at ourselves when we came, relive the small things that have become the fulcrum of his life in his hometown and other places, and take the courage of twenty-four years to set off again.
Chongqing in March is the standard fog capital, and preparations for filming begin before dawn to catch up with daylight. The sun did not hurry to climb up the buildings, and before they could reach the top, the entrance was lively.
Yao Chen jumped down the steps step by step - this is an open-air sports field next to the middle school, adjacent to Nanshan, in addition to community fitness equipment, there is a small but clever basketball court, and two table tennis tables. Before we could introduce, Yao Chen was already playing with the boy on the basketball court. Such a scene was rehearsed repeatedly in Yao Chen's student days, and he began to attend boarding school from elementary school, and he was in school six days a week, and the sports field was a happy station under closed management.
Yao Chen's memories of Chongqing also unfolded: walking along the lake near the school, he would pass a small terrace overlooking the entire school playground. At nine o'clock in the morning, students in red uniforms will gather here, waiting for the horn to sound "In the sea of people, there is you and me...", and the recess exercises will begin. In Yao Chen's impression, it was a set of boxing moves. Walking from the lake to the street, the restaurant near the school Yao Chen can still count the treasures: there is a noodle shop across the road that is very authentic, almost their second canteen; here turn left is the bean flower shop, used to bet with friends, lose will come here more than who eats bean blossoms, he can eat up to 8 bowls, friends are even more powerful, can eat 15 bowls.
Top: Moncler Genius
Ring: Blackhead
These delicacies are the most worried about Yao Chen when he goes overseas. I still remember the first month of going overseas, Yao Chen went to the same store every day to eat dumplings, on the one hand, because of the language barrier and unfamiliar environment, on the other hand, because the dumplings in that shop had a taste of home. After that, with the cultivation of language foundation and the gradual acquaintance between friends, everyone will often eat together, such as everyone calling takeaway in the dormitory during the New Year, but because of the regulations, they cannot go out, they will tie the basket with a rope and hang the takeaway from the window. Or after the end of the usual monthly examination, Yao Chen and a dozen friends would sneak into other people's schools in the dark of night, play football in two teams, and watch the sky light up little by little while playing. After the kick, the group returned to the dormitory with fried chicken, milk Sprite and local uncommon watermelon, and then took out their hometown specialties (Yao Chen would make fried rice for everyone), took a cold shower, shared the food, and plunged into the next month at dawn.
If you think about it, the life of trainees and campus life are no different, in the monotonous life of three points and one line, sports and food are one of the few flavorings, but overseas, it has become an excellent way to communicate across borders. At that time, Yao Chen grew rapidly in his hometown, and at the same time, in his hometown of Chongqing, countless high-rise buildings grew like weeds in the city, and the special landform that was once considered unsuitable for human habitation became the unique urban style that tourists have been looking for under the hot wind of film and television and cyberpunk. But this happy station under the protection of Nanshan and the Yellow Oak Tree, and the clean and pure of that year, are still archived in Yao Chen's memory and have not changed.
Under the catalysis of this sense of intimacy, this shooting ended half an hour earlier than the original plan, and looking at the rich time, Yao Chen took advantage of the gap between the staff to pack up the equipment, the cat went to the other side of the sports field and played table tennis with the aunt of the morning exercise, and the two of you nagged in Chongqing dialect without a word... The sun continues to rise, and those days when the sun rises and sets at the speed of light make Chongqing high-rise buildings grow and paint the rings of the yellow oak tree, but at this moment, this playful teenager seems to have no trace.
Coat: All Saints
Shirt: Victor Li
Bottoms: Lanvin X Gallery Department
Belt: Sankuanz
Shoes: Both
Necklaces, earrings: Blackhead
Over the years, Yao Chen felt more and more like a spiritual Jiangsu person, but in the impression of the school teacher, this was not the case at all. Yao Chen, who left his parents very early to come to boarding school, in addition to the limitations of physical scope, mental discipline is actually not much. He was always unable to do something mischievous in the class, and he sat in all four corners of the classroom until the last time he revisited the campus, when the teacher was still impressed.
When we stepped on what he called the "secret roof" that overlooked the school, he suddenly shouted in the direction of the playground, causing many students on the green ground to look back. After a quick look, he took out his mobile phone from his pocket, photographed the teaching building with the word "outside" not far away, and counted the floors as he patted it, trying to show us more accurately which classroom he had sat in in all four corners. Just as we were about to leave, the laughter on the playground was gradually overshadowed by the roar from far and near, and the body was mostly obscured by thick clouds, and only the flickering signal lights could be faintly seen disappearing in the direction of the skyline, leaving the trail clouds very clear.
"I used to have a very straight personality and a quick temper, but now I am more gentle." These are all slowly converging after he went overseas for many years. "Because there are strict rules and regulations there, you have to take all your branches and leaves." You have to be within that range of activities, within the scope of the rules, try to let yourself grow. ”
Coat: Victor Li
耳饰：Stylist’s own
The reason for these changes is, on the one hand, because Yao Chen met an Australian overseas, the captain of his former team, and under the influence of his personality, Yao Chen learned to be patient, learned to self-pressure and relax, and also learned some ways to control emotions. On the other hand, after he became the captain himself, he was more able to put himself in the shoes of the team members and take care of everyone's thoughts and psychological states.
Now Yao Chen seems to have harvested some fruits, these fruits are not only the rise in attention, high-quality works, parents' understanding and support, are the best feedback for the time that has been worked hard. But more importantly, he retrieved some of the pruned foliage. These branches and leaves, perhaps the directness of the Chongqing people's personality, once unkind or afraid to express him, began to try to express his thoughts in full; perhaps some hidden self, because he already had too many ideas coming out of the unified package; perhaps from Yao Chen's own attention, he often imagined that he was the cheering audience offstage, what kind of performance Yao Chen would like offstage, and what kind of response would Yao Chen give on the stage? These are suggestions from fans or friends, how should Yao Chen adopt them to do better? What it was, Yao Chen himself couldn't say clearly, just as he couldn't remember which floor of the building in the distance was on the third floor of the teaching building.
On the way to the exit again, we came across a barbed wire fence that blocked the entrance to a wooden bridge that led nowhere, and could only be seen through the mesh that green vines were growing savagely on the bridge.
Asked what were the more impressive moments in today's shooting, Yao Chen's answer was somewhat surprising. I thought it would be a bike ride, an oceanarium, or a skate park, because that's what can be associated with "adventure."
Yao Chen's desire for "adventure" seems to be innate, and since he was a child, he liked skateboarding, and he also liked to watch geography channels, like "Animal World" and "Amazon Adventure". "I think that would make my life different from everyone's." I can experience the life that everyone has, and I can experience the life that everyone can't experience, so that I feel that I am not living in vain. So when Yao Chen, who was skating in the square in the third grade, saw the dazzling whirling and incredible floor movements of the B-Boy on the street, he was completely captivated, and after watching it for several days in a row, he decided to become one of them. Yao Chen couldn't remember how he mingled with everyone at that time, he only remembered that he would also carry a speaker and find a shopping mall with transparent glass as a mirror to practice. It wasn't until I started playing games later that I actually entered the dance studio.
If you take these previous attempts as a small fight, going overseas must be called a desperate bet. Before going, he thought he could get rid of the same life, but when he went there, he found that every day was nothing more than learning languages, learning to sing, learning to dance, and personal space time was infinitely compressed, often only late at night. "I felt like I was in the elevator all the time, but I didn't know which floor the elevator would stop, and when the elevator door opened, it was a dark corridor again. Because the place we want to go to is the top, but we don't know who will give up halfway through on which day. "When the interests that could have been freely picked up or put down became exercises on the exam papers, the freshness was squeezed into the elevator, and the so-called adventures lost their meaning of renewal, and all that was left was pressure or pressure." In fact, at that time, there was no good way to adjust, and it was more likely to be hard to carry the past. ”
That's when he found the music. He found himself fully immersed when he put on his headphones. Some of the lyrics are like telling a story that makes him forget a lot of things, and some of the lyrics resonate and show the process of "getting out of sadness", which is another kind of healing. These healing moments that forget everything, for the pause of this continuous journey, not only give Yao Chen time to enjoy the scenery along the way, but also to identify his way to start again.
Now, Yao Chen has too many moments to forget everything: the moment when he feels the wind rubbing against his skin while riding; the moment when he feels absolute silence when diving; the moment when he hits the ball in ice hockey... In the eyes of outsiders, it is an unusual "adventurous life", but in Yao Chen's eyes, these are the moments when he really settles in life, those moments that discover the beauty of life and enjoy it, just like his answer -
A moment was under the river light rail, I accidentally saw a shop sign, written "because I like, so meet", when I saw it, the sun just sprinkled on the river, I felt a little romantic;
Another moment was when I was watching the sunset by the river, and I happened to meet a couple there to take wedding photos, which was also the romance I captured with my eyes today. It made me feel that Chongqing not only has the old city (because most of the places we go today are the old city) that makes me miss it, and it also adds some casual romance to my impression.
In Yao Chen's view, 24 years old is a new beginning in the true sense of the career, he will use his new state to build Yao Chen's musical style, about this style, he gave three keywords: blood, selflessness, energy. They all come from Yao Chen in the past: the blood is lost and recovered in non-barbaric growth, forgetting that I learned by chance when practicing from survival to life, and the energy comes from the hometown in the heart - in Yao Chen's heart, the hometown does not simply refer to the city of Chongqing. Just like this shooting, although he returned to Chongqing, for Yao Chen, most of the time of this journey was more like a business trip, and it was also the same when he came back many times. Because many parts of the city have changed, different from what I remember.
But every time he comes back, eats with his old friends in Chongqing, talks about the past, what he is doing now, or imagines the future, these daily things will also make him feel that Chongqing is home. "I think it's a very relaxed state when I'm with them, and everyone's memories are left in the most innocent period, when we were all defenseless." No matter where Yao Chen is, my friend's phrase "there is time to come back more, we are all here" has been heard, and it has always been in my heart.
What I have always been in my heart is the aquarium that I went to with my parents ten years ago. After living independently, Yao Chen has been to many places, seen a lot of seas, and obtained a diving license. Although the memory of the aquarium has been blurred, the tolerance and freedom of the sea have gradually deepened in his heart as Yao Chen grows. Just like when he insisted on choosing his own path despite his parents' objections, although his parents did not understand, they still silently supported and could not help but miss. If he chooses to be part of the sea, Yao Chen wants to be a dolphin, and he feels that the dolphins in the sea are free.
Even if he can't be a dolphin, Yao Chen has his own sea. It's a place surrounded by life and love. "Home is like this, whenever I want to come back, I can come back at any time." Because of this, Yao Chen, who still wants to see more places, always has the courage to start again.