Harper’s Bazaar Men December Cover figure | Lay Zhang: Break through
The day before the magazine cover shoot, he has just finished a full day of drama filming. It has been more than half a month since he returned to his hometown, Changsha. But on that night, he finally got time to go for dinner with two or three staff members for the very first time. When he returned, he went straight to sifting through trainee applications that were sent through the signup system and to the mailbox of his newly established entertainment company. After midnight, he began to study economics and management courses online.
In the past few years, his appearance to the public is striving, upward, and even tensed. But in recent years, Lay, with increasing identities, has shown to become more free, relaxed and peaceful. Lay, “the break-through person”, is preparing for the next challenges with a whole new attitude.
Chromosome
Chromosome Entertainment Group is a new company that was established by Lay Zhang on his birthday. The preparation for this has been long and well, this represents an addition role that he’s taking on, an enterprise manager. This new company is dedicated to creating the most powerful star making center of domestic entertainment business. It is also dedicated to establishing an iconic growing environment, the cleanest and most transparent, without any deception and “hidden rules”.
I sat down with him for the interview and called him “Boss Zhang”. Lay quickly waved his hand and said, “I can’t afford it, I can’t afford it”. He admits to recent “anxiety”, “It turns out that going from an artist in the studio to an enterprise manager. There are too many aspects to consider and learn”.
After announcing the trainee project, Beijing became the first city for the audition, and his hometown Changsha followed up immediately. We met him in Changsha by the end of October, he was glad to tell us “There are a few kids that are quite good”. He has three requirements for the trainees who submitted their application online: firstly, send more photos to themselves from different angles; secondly, attach videos of them dancing and singing, “You have to know clearly what you really like, it’s very important.” “And another one is, don’t wear makeup and also don’t use any camera filter to take these photos.” Because of this requirement, Lay trended on social medias again. His voice is quite clear, he hopes that everyone can accept their true faces first, before giving themselves to company to help them becoming qualified idols.
This company is upholding “True and Sincerity” as its principle, “I hope that I can create an extremely clear entertainment company.” In 2020, “the purest careerist” became the favorite word that Lay’s fans use to describe him. This is the entertainment industry environment that he wants to create. He always feels that he is carrying an important responsibility. This responsibility is the exact same feeling that the company felt, when his mom took him to them at the age of 17.
This time, every trainee and their families who came to the interview received a letter from Lay’s mom. In the letter, Lay’s mom shared her experience from the moment Lay became a trainee and left for Korea until the moment. It’s heartfelt and touching.
Lay took on the new journey alone when he was 17 years old. At that time, he had no way to look back. All the possibilities were in the unknown future. They only thing that he could do was to work hard. “That’s reason why I like the idiom ‘to fight a battle with one’s back facing a river’*.” One thing that is to his relief is that the trainees in this generation always have a way back; they will have their ‘Plan B’. But Lay still hopes that trainees don’t just look at ‘idol’ as a job, but to ‘work their passion to the extreme excellency.’
*The idiom means that to fight like there’s no way back, the battle is to win or to die, rooted from the Battle of Jingxing.
“Some of the kids who came here for the interview are quite good on most aspects, but they might not be passionate enough about the career. They only think about if they want to be an idol or not. I would feel uncertain with these trainees, because the only way for you to overcome all the difficulties is your passion for this career.”
The name “Chromosome” happened by chance when he was designing his studio’s logo. His initial ‘X’ and ‘Y’ inspired him. There are ‘X’ and ‘Y’ chromosomes. He hopes to preserve and pass on that ‘True and Sincerity’ DNA of human being. “If I could build a company, it must be called as Chromosome.” The name arises at that time.
Dance! Dance! Dance!
In Lay’s mind, he has his very own scale for the term “artist”: You need to endure the pain that others can’t, and you need to use your own self-discipline in exchange for the evaluation that the public has for artists. For over ten years, he has been asking himself to follow that standard, and so the public could often catch on him when he’s tensed up. “In my opinion, it is okay for artist to ‘be themselves’. But when you’re being yourself, you also need to take into consideration your identity. Your job as an artist, each and every step that you take, has to be self-disciplined.” This perhaps is the principle that he has been following along as an artist himself in so many years. “Yes, it is a self-consciousness, an unwritten rule.”, he grinned after saying that.
“I noticed that kids these days really like to ‘be themselves’.” He also ‘gave in’ under this condition， “First of all, let these kids be themselves. stay true to their colors. And on that basis, we’ll let them take on an additional identity as an artist.” Gradually, he’s becoming gentler.
“That’s not to say my self-identity has become stronger, the perception I have for myself hasn’t changed much. On the contrary, it seems like the overall environment of public opinion has gotten a little bit better after “Street Dance of China 3” this year.” He used ‘smartphone’ as the metaphor for the filter that the public had for him previously — When you turn on the camera of your smartphone, a beautifying filter is instantly added. Most people will think that “I look so good; the phone really knows me.” But the reality is, this filtered camera can’t capture the real you.
In the third season of “Street Dance of China”, Lay has taken on the mission to surpass himself.
He started the opening show with his latest single, “LIT”. This title track of his new album is his “self-portrait”: “Standing at the next level, prepared to own my title, turn a blind eye to the dirt, Lit (lotus flower) grows and blossoms out of the mud, the path I still walk, never turning back.” Establishing an entertainment company is his “next level”, he also “owns his new title”, he is still walking on the path of his dream, and he will never turn back once he started.
When he was 17, he would sleep 5 hours every day in the company, 5 minutes each for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Then the rest of the days would be for practicing. He liked to turn off the lights and cover his eyes, that way he can focus on the dance steps and nothing else. During the pandemic this year, he often practiced Krump for over 6 hours in his studio.
This is also the reason why he can always stand out in the public — He can always introduce new content: new albums, new dance type, appearing on variety shows as teachers, as well as a qualified actor.
He’s grown on doing things himself, most of his music are composed, arranged, produced by himself and he also participates in dance choreography. At the same time, he’s spending much more time to polish his works. He’s no longer trapping himself between techniques and rules but adding more of his life reflection as well as the appreciation for artistry instead.
Rather, he’s even more sincere this way.
There’re bright strengths, but also weaknesses. He’s no longer avoiding his limitations to become the “flawless” celebrity in people’s eyes. Huang Bo said in a show that he’s too “hungry for success”; Huang Lei told him that “you’ll lose other precious things in life being too hard-working’. He took these all in. He’s being more open, more willing to show his sincerity. Lay is more free and more comfortable, and so the public can feel his changes even stronger, allowing him to get more recognition and respect from professionals in different fields.
Q: You chose to group your trainees into four categories: Black Tortoise, Vermillion Bird, Azure Dragon, and White Tiger. What are your standards for those? Do you hope that they can be all-rounded?
Lay: Because for the kids in this company, “I am” their minimum standard. They need to exceed me, be better than I am, in order to become our trainees. They don’t need to be all-rounded, but I hope that they can have outstanding talents.
Q: As the cover figure for December issue, how would you summarize your 2020?
Lay: It’s been a transition period.
Q: How would you describe this transition period?
Lay: I only had one dream when I was young. I wanted to just be an artist, a singer. I’ve never thought that I would start a company to train trainees in the future. This was beyond my original plan. This is now the second phase of my life.
Q: How do you schedule your work time as a dancer, singer, and actor?
Lay: I actually just do anything when my schedule is available. I’m filming recently, working with Honglei Ge once again. So happy about that. And the drama is called “Crime Crackdown”. I’m also joining a variety called “Dance Smash”, which is recorded in Changsha. Looking forward to having some “storm” every day in my life. I’ll put these “storm” inside me first, and I’ll share them with you later on. (Both the drama and the variety show has “storm (风暴)” in their Chinese name).
Q: Is it that fun to be an “actor”?
Lay: I just wrapped up the filming for “Challenges in Midlife” earlier, it was also very fun. I thought about it. I think that being an actor allows be to experience the life of many different people, and that is really interesting.
Original content by Harper’s Bazaar Men China December issue.
Translation by XTweetTRANS.
