In August this year, Aya and Zhou Xun's variety show "Glad to Know You" was launched.
Like "Strange Life", this variety show is also Aya with a preliminary idea, to find the director Zhao Qi.
After that, Aya and Zhou Xun acted as MCs, inviting different celebrity friends to go to different places and visit interesting people from all over the world.
Different from the recorded variety show, "Glad to Know You" is the first "possessive" documentary reality show in China.
"The so-called possessive is live + short video + long video, without editing and post-editing, whether good or bad, all must be presented."
The novel program form and the slow-paced healing variety show make people shine.
When watching the show, a great feeling is that Zhou Xun, who was said to have no sense of variety, suddenly became a talker.
I think that in addition to the fact that the program format fits Zhou Xun's personality, Aya's presence also plays a big role.
When watching the show, you can clearly feel the relaxation and tacit understanding of Aya and Zhou Xun.
Once, a group of people sat together and chatted, and Aya suddenly and quickly put her hand in front of Zhou Xun's eyes, trying to scare her.
Zhou Xun's eyes didn't blink.
"How can you not be afraid?"
"Because I know you're not going to hurt me."
There is no sharp edge, gentle but powerful, which is the common perception of Aya by many people today.
20 years ago, the girl with the funny hairstyle and singing "red bean big red bean taro" unconsciously has a great change in temperament.
Nowadays, when the audience talks about Aya, more adjectives are elegant, intellectual, gentle, and connotative.
From the "ugly duckling" of the past to the "big heroine" of today, this road, Aya spent 20 years.
01
Swapping favors for gregariousness
Many people have heard a little about Aya's past as an "ugly duckling".
One of the most famous is probably during the "Seven Fairies" group at Huagang Art School.
Xiao S once said that when she was a student, Aya was a "funny clown" who could be casually joked about and shouted to buy breakfast.
When she was young, Aya was not tall and ordinary-looking, but she had the dream of being an entertainer, and her mother once advised her, "You are not the one who eats that bowl of rice."
But Aya has her own ideas, and being an entertainer is her ideal.
After being admitted to the beautiful Huagang Art School, because of his acquaintance with Xiao S, he joined the sister group centered on Big S.
Aya, who was featureless, was the least existential person in the group at that time.
As a result, she took the initiative to become a funny person in the group, and even her smile was full of exaggeration, "You look at every photo of me at that time, and my mouth is crooked when I laugh." ”
When you are young, in order to fit in, many people will unconsciously please those who are popular.
In the book "All the Tears That Have Been Shed Will Turn into Diamonds," Aya tells a story of her own.
One day, Big S said that he would eat buns the next morning, and Aya began to be nervous, because the bun shop was very famous, and it was not necessarily possible to buy it by queuing up early.
The next day, Aya got up early to go to the bun shop to queue, but unfortunately bad luck, when two people arrived at her, the bun sold out.
She immediately ran to the nearby breakfast shop, soy milk, quiches, rice balls, radish cakes each came one, hoping that Big S would see one of them.
Then Aya gasped and ran to school, waiting for Big S to enter the classroom, trembling and placing the steaming breakfast on Big S's desk.
Big S glanced lightly at the food on the table, "What is this?" ”
Aya quickly explained to her that she couldn't buy buns, and highly recommended that the breakfast in front of her was hot and delicious.
Unexpectedly, Big S didn't even look at it, directly picked up the breakfast bag, threw it vigorously behind him, and the breakfast bag "whizzed" into the trash can.
At that time, Aya tried her best to suppress her aggrieved self, "I flattened my mouth and tried not to let the tears fall." ”
Humble and flattering was Aya's early way of maintaining this friendship.
02
Growth under "bullying" friendships
The mode of getting along between friends may be difficult to change after it is initially fixed.
Last year, in "We Are True Friends", Big S's "bullying friendship" with Aya made many people uncomfortable.
Once, the four sisters sat together and talked about the foundation of a sponsor, and everyone said that they felt that this one was very advanced, and Aya exaggerated S "Your face is very advanced".
Big S, who accepted this compliment, replied with a natural reply, "Aya, you are the least advanced of us."
Also chasing stars, when Big S shed tears for idol Takuya Kimura, friends were touched by her.
But as soon as Aya began to talk about idol Andy Lau, Big S covered his head and shouted: "Shut up", and Little S also said: "I don't want to hear it." ”
Helpless, Aya had to talk to the staff about her cooperation with her idol.
After Aya finished speaking, Big S also came up with a sentence: "Andy Lau does not need someone like her to publicize, it is really unlucky to be liked by her." ”
These naturally belittled and ridiculed, although there are factors in the effect of the program, but obviously, the way of getting along as a student has been extended to the present.
Fortunately, Aya has not become more and more inferior in these suppressions, but has been growing.
She describes big S this way:
"Big S is like a rose, and if you don't know her, you may sometimes think she's prickly, but if you know her, you'll find out, because some people are like that."
So know how to appreciate such a friend, because when you know her inner soft beauty, you will love it. ”
In the book, Aya also expresses her own view of friendship:
As long as she's a good person in nature, as long as you understand her alternative way of being nice to people, you'll tolerate her temper a little bit.
Because, good people don't necessarily have good tempers.
Compared to her arrogant friends who have remained unchanged for decades, Aya is like a big sister who has grown up.
She will no longer hold back tears for her friend's attitude, nor do she have to deliberately pretend to be ugly, and now in the face of her friend's poisonous tongue, she only smiles and does not speak.
Behind humility and tolerance is a strong heart that has long been cultivated.
I began to understand Cai Kangyong's comment about Aya:
"I know that Aya's open-mindedness and resilience to life are definitely not comparable to those dolls that shatter when they are touched. I'm sure she agrees with the laughter of life with tears. ”
03
A career is on the rise
Although many people are unfair to Aya, the friendship of unilateral bullying will certainly not last long.
The friendship that has lasted for more than 20 years depends not only on unilateral tolerance, but also on mutual support and help.
Aya once said that Sister S is her nobleman, and this is indeed true.
After graduating from art school, compared to the popularity of big and small S, Aya is too ordinary.
In 1996, Big S recommended Aya to the producer to be the location host of "I Guess I Guess I Guess Guess", and Aya officially stepped into the Taiwan entertainment industry.
Three years later, Aya released a solo album and became popular in Taiwan with "File Ice March".
By 2001, Aya's official partner Wu Zongxian hosted "I Guess", one of the most powerful variety shows of the year.
Career development is smooth, but gradually, Aya feels that she has entered a bottleneck, "I know very well, staying in this environment, I will not have any new sparks."
So, in 2006, at the peak of her career, Aya chose to give up everything and study in the United States alone.
In the rapidly changing entertainment industry, it is obviously not easy to make such a decision, and her mother advised her that "the entertainment industry is very realistic, and when you come back, who will remember you?" ”
Wu Zongxian also reminded her that once she left this environment, it was not easy to return to her original position.
But Aya is determined that she doesn't want to continue working simply to make money, and she believes that being able to develop a different self is responsible for the audience and herself.
Therefore, she resolutely left the entertainment industry and began a 15-month study tour in a foreign country.
This long trip also became a key turning point in her life.
04
A good life, not afraid to start over
After returning from the United States, the audience suddenly found that the crazy girl who used to be ugly and exaggerated and funny had become different.
She is still funny, but more relaxed, and adds an intellectual temperament.
In 2008, the second year that Aya returned to Taiwan, she and Wu Zongxian won the Taiwan Golden Bell Award for Best Host of Variety Show, and her career returned to the peak.
But just as the audience gradually got used to this "new Aya", she bid farewell to "I Guess" again and turned inland.
In fact, as early as August 2007, in "Kangxi Lai", Aya said:
"Don't just be funny over there, or just talk about body shape or something, you want to do a show with content and fun."
So it's not hard to understand why she will retreat again when the momentum is just right, looking for new developments.
In 2010, Aya began to do shows, dramas, singing, publishing books in the mainland...
Obviously, this year Aya has been trying to transform, but for an entertainer known for his funny, the road to transformation is difficult.
After coming to the mainland, the tepid development for many years was ridiculed by the media as "the cause of the North Drift for many years has not improved."
Until 18 years, "Strange Life" initiated and produced by Aya came out, and she gave everyone a surprise.
This variety show, which scored a high score of 8.9 on Douban, made her transformation a great success.
The 10 years of groping for transformation, which she called "a process of exploring herself," said she had spent a lot of effort to understand what she wanted and what she wanted to do.
In order to become a program producer and realize her inner vision, she silently insisted for 10 years.
05
Only by clarifying the heart can we straighten out life
Park Shu once asked Aya: "When I first knew that you sang 'Red Bean Big Red Bean', how did you become what you are now?" ”
Aya said: "At that time, I was young and thought that there was only one way to live, but later I found out that this was not the case.
Life is this life, if you don't use a way that you think is best, try it, you will not know what the future will be. ”
Many people have the same question, why did Aya, who was born funny, transform into intellectual and gentle, but did not let people disagree at all?
I think that apart from the long 10-year transition period, a key factor is that the transformational Aya is real and natural.
Perhaps Aya is the most real side of her now.
It's not so much that she's transformed successfully, but that she's finally showing her true self.
In an interview, Aya said this:
One day I figured out that if I kept comparing myself to others, I would really exhaust myself. If I am always envious of others, in the lack of self-confidence, these things are helpful to my life, then I am not confident to death.
But these things don't help me, and not only that, but they bind me and make my world smaller and smaller.
I believe this is Aya's truest realization, because you will find that those who can stick to a goal for many years are often people who have already sorted out their hearts.
As the writer Li Na once said:
"Only by straightening out your own life, no longer self-consumption and entanglement, and truly reaching peace and quiet in your heart, can you spend most of your energy on professionalism."
Only those who are simple and firm in their hearts have the energy to pursue the vastness of their careers. ”
Yes, a person who is always entangled in external evaluation, desperately wants to get recognition from the outside world, and whose self-perception is still vague, who has time to listen to the inner voice?
When female artists of the same age are entangled in changes in appearance, encounter acting difficulties, and worry about the midlife crisis, Aya has embarked on a road that is destined to become wider and wider.
The Dictionary of Lifelong Growth entry 299: Self-Management says:
People who are good at self-management, his life is a spiraling upward, continuous improvement ring, and people who are not good at self-management will go with the flow like duckweed.
From the "ugly duckling" to the "big heroine", Aya used her own personal experience to tell us that finding herself and becoming herself is the source of strength to realize all the ideals of life.
Finally, I would like to share with you a quote from Goethe:
"Whoever wants to play with life will achieve nothing, who cannot dominate himself, and will always be a slave."
Encourage you.