LAY Zhang x New Weekly — ON AND OFF STAGE

He stood on the stage, the crowd screamed and cheered with all their hearts.

He walked down the stage, leaving all the hustles. Everything got back to silence.

He made a statement with his motto, “Work hard, harder, and even harder”, to support all those “big promises” that he had made.

He said there’s only one big purpose to life, which is practice to understand and accept yourself. Oftentimes, however, he has to force himself to be one that is well-attended in all aspect.

He said he has been protected too well; as if he’s being covered up with only praising voices around him. He wants to break out of that cover and take a look outside: “What’s good about me? Do you really think I’m that good?”

The proverb that says “standing firm at 30” is like an incantation that constantly pushes people to forge ahead. An unintentional cheer from others that tell him “Cheer up, I have trust in you” might just become a “responsibility” and pressure for him. He encourages himself in his own way, “My dear muscle, dear shoulder, stay with me, we can do this!”

At the age of 30, when he talked about the hesitations and anxiety that come along with dreams, we thought we saw tears in his eyes. But he brushed it off really quick with a smile.

“Keep it up! You got this!”

Fate is intolerant, but this is the attitude that most of us are willing to show others, including Lay.

For most of us, life is nothing but the journey toward the road of “finding yourself”. Virginia Woolf once said, “It is much more important to be oenself than anything else.” But she also said that it is difficult to find yourself, it is even harder to go out toward the world.

Original text: New Weekly — The 90s

Translation: XingTweetTRANS