There is a very literary description: sadness is Zhong Lifeng's expression. But after contacting him, you will find that Zhong Lifeng is not sad at all.
| Author: Chen Juan
In the eyes of many people, Zhong Lifeng is a literary and artistic youth who has persisted for nearly 30 years. Literature, poetry, travel, film, folk songs... The beloved of literary and artistic youth can be found in him. About him, there is a very literary description: sadness is Zhong Lifeng's expression. But after contacting him, you will find that Zhong Lifeng is not sad at all.
Recently, because of the publication of the new book "The Magician and His Woman Gone", the "Global People" reporter and Zhong Lifeng had an in-depth dialogue. In the dialogue, he is sometimes humorous and funny, sometimes old-fashioned, sometimes calm and subtle, sometimes blunt and sincere, truly as people who know him well say, "three points cute, five points romantic, seven points gentle, very shy and full of talent."
· Zhong Lifeng's new work "The Magician and His Woman Are Gone".
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="14" > one trip, changing the trajectory of life</h1>
Seeing Zhong Lifeng was at a music festival site in June. It was an afternoon, it was raining in the small town of Gangnam, and the stage was set up on a flat ground under a hillside, and the hillside was full of people, wearing colorful raincoats. He walked up the stage with his guitar in his arms and threw his hair back, revealing tiger teeth and an iconic smile. After that, he sang "On the Side of the Road", sang "Don't Leave Me with You for the Night", one old song after another. Between songs, he also told the story of when he was singing in the bar.
In the 1990s, Dou Wei, Yu Dong, and old wolves were in full swing, and the atmosphere of Beijing rock and youth spread to the south with the song. Zhong Lifeng was singing in the Hangzhou Song and Dance Troupe, and from time to time he felt that "his soul was shocked by this city with cultural heritage.". One day, he left a note for the regiment and rushed to Beijing. It was 1995 and he was 21 years old.
This rush changed the trajectory of Zhong Lifeng's life.
In Beijing, he worked for music companies and sang folk songs in bars. After that, there are ups and downs in life.
· In the 1990s, Zhong Lifeng sang in Beijing.
In 2006, Zhong Lifeng signed to Song Ke's Taihe Wheat Field, which was defined by the record company as the white of "New Red, White and Blue Records" (Yin Wu, Park Shu, and Ye Bei were the first generation of Wheat Field music "Red, White and Blue"), and Sanlitun hung 50 large light boxes for advertising "Today is Your Birthday, Mom", which was his closest time to the market. Later, he was silent for a long time, terminated his contract with the company, produced his own records, one after another, slowly accumulated fans, had a large number of fans, and became the "most literary singer".
In addition to singing, Zhong Lifeng loves to read and write. He also can't remember the day he bought a stack of 16-karat blank papers and thought of what to write. In 2008, he brought together some of his film memories, essays, assertions, and novels to publish a book called "Sad like a Sexual Encounter," which sold surprisingly well.
· Zhong Lifeng's work "Sad like a sexual encounter".
In the following years, he published books one after another, from "The Man Without a Past" to "At the Intersection of Various Tragedies and Joys", from "Short Song Collection" to "Book Traveler", or life stories, such as friends anecdotes, encounters with strangers; or music, travel, movies and other artistic handwriting.
· Zhong Lifeng's work "Book Traveler".
In the new book, The Magician and His Woman Gone, Zhong Lifeng describes himself as a "roaming movie notebook." He cuts from one image to another, telling the story at the same time, releasing the imagination and eliciting various anecdotes related to the image. Revisiting the film "The Trial", adapted from Kafka's novel of the same name, he thinks of a "movie-like" trip between Kafka and his friends: the two take a train from Prague to Zurich, and meet a beautiful, big-nosed, shy and bold girl on the train. The train shook, the girl's hat fell from the luggage rack, just "wearing" on the head of Kafka's friend, and an adventure began. The three of them talked all the way, had similar interests, planned to get off the train, go to an inn together, and then play together. But after getting out of the car, the girl suddenly became alert and gave up on her companions. Later, Kafka wrote about this "failed sexual encounter" in a letter and told it to a friend.
In the book, such stories abound. Benjamin's love for the Chinese actor Huang Liushuang, Beauvoir's love for the "wall", the secret lip print on Rilke's poetry collection... There are Hitchcock, Bertolucci, Ozu Yasujiro, there are also Yang Dechang, Hou Xiaoxian, etc., all kinds of film, music, literature, art masters in Zhong Lifeng's pen staggered, rhyme anecdotes come at hand, true and false, "like sneaking into a movie theater, making a gentle dream", some readers commented.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="87" > dive into dreams that have passed or even yet arrived</h1>
Globetrotters: Can you talk about the origins of writing The Magician and His Woman Gone?
Zhong Lifeng: I have always been a movie fan, the joy of watching movies is cultivated through reading, all the writers, poets, singers and artists I like, have involved different types of movies in their works. In the first years of my time in Beijing, there were some "underground pirate disc shops" in Beijing, where I could find many classic and unpopular movies, just like visiting a bookstore, and I often went to "dig for treasure" like a dish. Some of the directors and actors written in "The Magician and His Woman Are Gone" met in that era.
When watching movies, I am often attracted to some seemingly inconspicuous details, "insignificant" sentences, a silence, a flicker... It is precisely the clue buried by the director. In these fast-moving images, I often connect with what I have felt in a book, a song, a painting in the past, and it feels wonderful, like some kind of "secret" between the viewer and the director. After watching the movie, I will record these experiences, feelings, and associations in the book, and then revise and sort them out. These detailed things are very chewy in my opinion. So, even though it's a movie book, it's not a film review or an introduction to what these movies are all about. It is a wandering movie-watching notebook, opening the book like diving into a dream that has passed or even arrived.
Universal People: What was the earliest experience of watching movies? What kind of existence is cinema for you?
Zhong Lifeng: When I was 7 years old, I watched the domestic movie "Outpost in the Birch Forest", which was an open field in the countryside barn, with a gentle breeze and stars. Strangely, what comes to mind again and again is not a handsome, beautiful male and female protagonist, nor a humane police dog, but a supporting role that is not important. Because of his appearance, I felt confused and ignorant, and I also felt the fragility, disillusionment, and impermanence of emotions. The supporting character is (as if) an artist, melancholy and emaciated. He learned that the heroine had a boyfriend who was a soldier in the army, and the reason why she wanted to break up with her boyfriend and fall in love with herself was that she felt that her boyfriend had no future. He calmly terminated his love affair with the heroine. At that time, I saw that on the sunny boulevard, the supporting actor pushed the bicycle and the heroine said: Take care, goodbye... At the age of 7, I gushed out a wave of wordless sadness and felt that the supporting actor was cruel. Years later, I saw the famous German-American Hollywood director Douglas Seck say that many times the supporting characters are hidden protagonists.
Cinemas, on the other hand, can only exist in memory now. After reading this movie notebook, I knew that I hadn't been to the cinema for a long, long time.
Globetrotters: What do you think of your writing?
Zhong Lifeng: I think that through the accumulation of writing experience, it will be more concise and fluent than before. This is the same as human growth, some of the characteristics of human growth, because intentionally or unintentionally remove some of their excess loads and unbearableness, so that they are refreshed and free of delusions. At first, I didn't think about how I, as a musician, could start writing literature again. Later, I felt that it was normal, and slowly found that many of my favorite singers, directors, and actors were excellent writers.
When I write, I basically don't think that I am a musician, but the rhythm and rhythm of music will subtly enter it. And what about literal expression? For me, groping in words is like walking in the dark night, restless and exciting, lost and belonging, like a shadow.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="89" > need to read and write after singing</h1>
Universal People: To the music and the words, you say: It's your breath, the word inhale, the song. Why is this definition made?
Zhong Lifeng: Singing is actually very liberating and squandering one's feelings. For example, after experiencing a solo performance, I couldn't relax for several days, and my heart was extremely lost and empty, and I felt that everything was hollowed out. So, I said: Singing.
Through words, reading or writing, the empty heart will gradually be enriched and filled, and the words have a function of absorption. So I said: word suck. In fact, this is also what Chinese call yin and yang, that is, everything must have a balance. This cannot be done. After singing, you need to read and write, as if the busyness of the day will end, and the gentleness of the night will follow.
· In November 2013, Zhong Lifeng took his newly published "At the Intersection of Various Tragedies and Joys" and held a concert in Rizhao, Shandong Province.
Globetrotters: So, what does film, music, and literature mean to you?
Zhong Lifeng: For example, music is the wife, literature is the lover of luxury, both love, but the way of love is different. Now, speaking of movies again, well, movies are both wives and lovers.
Global People: As a creator with a strong literary atmosphere, how to soberly and accurately establish your own style?
Zhong Lifeng: This is like fate, no one can understand. My parents named me "Zhong Lifeng", and the meaning of this name is obvious. But when I arrived in Beijing and experienced a period of life, I felt strongly that I had to "modify" myself. Because my personality and pursuit are obviously not the "peak" of the purpose, but the "wind" that no one has ever seen but feels all the time, so I changed my name, so little by little, my fate, breath, and style slowly formed. Wind, also a song and a story, is the wind of the "wind", "elegance" and "praise" of the Book of Poetry.
Global People: Compared to folk singers and poets and singers, do you say that you are more accepting of the title of writer singer?
Zhong Lifeng: Writing songs and essays is a kind of daily life for me, and when I have feelings, or I have something in my heart that I want to reveal, I will record it with songs or words. As for what to call, it doesn't matter.
<h1 class="pgc-h-arrow-right" data-track="91" > erased their past</h1>
Globetrotters: Around 2015, you were plagued by depression, how did that experience affect you?
Zhong Lifeng: In life, everyone will encounter various setbacks, spiritual or realistic. Sometimes I will talk to my friends around me about these sufferings and confusions, in fact, it is difficult for others to understand the "discomfort" of the parties.
I have a good friend who used to be in a much worse condition than I was. For a week I couldn't sleep. His wife could do nothing and watched as he raised one arm and shook mechanically like a cat. The wife asked him what was wrong with you? He said, it's okay, let it (arm) move on its own. This, sad and funny. Now he's much better, and he often tells me: Action! No matter what, a person must act, do things, and don't let yourself stop!
· In 2019, Zhong Lifeng walked the streets of Shanghai.
Globetrotters: What motivates us today? You said, "I think the reason why we people continue to do it is because we have broken through ourselves and erased our past", "Erasing the past" is not easy, how do you do it?
Zhong Lifeng: Not writing, maybe my best state. I wish I were just a relaxed listener, a reader. But, you know, I haven't reached that level yet—the realm of not writing. Pranayama is surging in my heart, and I can only compose it, otherwise I will block myself and there will be problems. But the true wise man, he himself is absolutely transparent and cheerful, just like Zhuangzi said, "No dreams to people.".
A writer must erase himself again and again, otherwise he is self-nostalgic and self-addicted. The two domestic musicians I admire the most, Dou Wei and Zhang Chu, are examples of this. Therefore, their artistic creation, their mentality, their vision, are all young. I would like to mention Kafka's words again: "Whoever can maintain the ability to discover beauty will not grow old." "How can you keep finding beauty?" Only erase the past again and again, and keep the freshest vision.
· Every time he went to a city, Zhong Lifeng would visit the local bookstore. Pictured here in May 2021, he is in a bookstore in Guangzhou.
Universal People: You said that in addition to writing and music, you want to be the male number one of an art film, if you can choose, which director's male number one do you want to be? Why?
Zhong Lifeng: I most want to be an actor in Antonioni or Yasujiro Ozu, who have passed away. Some great directors, like great writers, have already fixed the whole atmosphere and tone before the actors come on. At this time, the actor enters the scene, he does not even have to think about anything, just follow the director's instructions, say a word, throw away a book, spit out two and a half smoke rings, change a hairstyle... Naturally, it lives.
Global People: How is daily life arranged? What were you doing before the interview?
Zhong Lifeng: Every day, like everyone, is to live a life. Before that, I had just written a song with only a few lyrics to chant repeatedly: Today passed so slowly, yesterday was so short. Yesterday passed so quickly, and today is so long. Tomorrow it has arrived, and today is not over yet...