Jay on the cover of Esquire Magazine. I'm not sure if this was August 2010 since this was posted August at the blog where I saw this but surely this was last year. Love the photos!
You’d think that Jay Chou would show some interest when Bono, John Lennon and Bob Dylan are mentioned. He takes a look at the three biographies the reporters brought but doesn’t even turn the covers. If he’s asked about his musical influences, he’d much rather talk about Jacky Cheung and his signature song, Wen Bie.
Having been in the music industry for 10 years, Jay Chou now understands a certain fact better than he ever did before. Similar to the words Jacky Cheung, the words Jay Chou make up a brand, a product. As with Jacky Cheung, Jay Chou is also an artiste.
‘I once thought of myself as an artist that no one appreciated, I wasn’t cool at all. Now I’m an artiste, everyone likes me, they say I’m cool, I kind of enjoy it. Artistes are now more commercialised, there’s nothing wrong about that.’
These past few days, Jay’s schedule has been like this : attended an endorsed brand’s event in Beijing, got interviewed and had a photoshoot, promoting his concert through TV shows, going through rehearsals at the stadium, held concert, went back to Taipei the 2nd day after the concert ended. Compared to a few years before, Jay’s schedule is actually quite relaxed. The reason for this : he owns his own record company; thus, he’s able to control his own work schedule.
After a while, Jay changes into a sequin encrusted suit. He sits, surrounded by origami penguins while his picture was taken. He looks as cool as he did 10 years ago when he first sang Xing Qing. In fact, he looks even more stylish than he did back then. Jay remarks that he’s old.
‘I have a strong awareness of troubles and difficulties. I don’t want to wait till I’m 40 to realise I’m old. Getting a secondary job is the right thing. I’m afraid of growing old. Lately I’ve started to feel it, I can’t jump around as I used to in my concerts, coughing after a few songs. I was a little plump during the filming of The Green Hornet, it wasn’t as easy to lose the weight like I used to in the past, I need to get in shape. Once I passed the 30 year old mark, I started thinking I wasn’t young anymore.’
Over these past 10 years, Jay Chou has released many albums, filmed quite a number of films, founded a record company, opened an antique shop, a restaurant and a clothing store. Instead of saying he did it out of passion, you could say he did it out of fear. Jay even says he’s a businessman cum artiste.
He wrote a song by the title of Superman Can’t Fly, saying ‘I started as a songwriter, good people are represented by their work, once released the album must be No. 1, if a movie is filmed, it must do well at the box office, I can only say being Superman is tough. If Superman can fly, I’d like to rest in the skies and look at the world below.’
When the photographer asks him to step on the origami penguins, he rejects the request, ‘I don’t want people to think I abuse animals.’ Jay thinks of himself as Superman and knows that the world is looking up at him. When others look at him, he can’t make a mistake, he can’t fall or show his Achilles’ heel.
This means that he must lead an accelerated lifestyle, using 1 year to do what 3 years take. At the end of this year, he’ll start publicising and promoting The Green Hornet, he’s off to Europe and the United States then he’s returning to Asia. When he’s not in Asia, he lets his guard down as he is regarded as a normal person in other regions. He likes playing computer games. In the virtual world, no one waves glow sticks at a username, anyone can use the name ‘Jay Chou’, even a dog can use the name Jay Chou and this allows him to relax and play the game without reservations.
[Note for those who were confused : Fans wave tubes that glow in the dark at their favourite artistes during concerts.]
Source: Baidu
