In my last post, I wrote about Haruma Miura, a Japanese actor who committed suicide. I felt very sad about his death, so I did this drawing.
想过离开以这种方式存在 I once thought of leaving and to exist in absence
是因为 那些旁白 那些姿态 那些伤害 It was because of those narratives, those stances, and those inflicted pains
不想离开 I don’t want to leave
The above lyrics are from Hua Chenyu’s song, I really want to love this world.
Hua Chenyu said, “Hope everyone can pay more attention to the friends around them, and also correctly understand depression. When you are alone and lost, I hope this song can give you some courage, open the door, love this world, and let yourself be loved.”
.
.
This is not easy. But it keeps happening which makes me so upset and frustrated. I feel powerless sometimes… but I hope that this song will reach some of you out there, wherever you are.
I’ve been feeling quite jaded with society lately re: panic buying due to the coronavirus. I.e. fights at the stores, stocking up baby wipes because hand sanitizers are sold out and leaving nothing behind for families with babies. I’ve lost some faith in humanity because of those people who resell toilet paper, face masks, and hand sanitizers. When I read the news, it feels like an animal world. Every man for himself.
I’ve always been interested in human nature. I have a Psychology degree but I thought it wasn’t enough. I’ve examined portrayals of human nature depicted in novels, plays, textbooks, manga, dramas, films, music and video games. I think that I was secretly hoping to find something that said, humans are not selfish. You can believe in people.
Unfortunately, the recent news has not helped hahaha. Instead, I felt more pessimistic than I already was!
Then I came across two songs by Chinese artists I love. The first is my favourite singer, Hua Chenyu. I’ve written about him multiple times. The second is Wang Yibo, who starred in my favourite Chinese drama, The Untamed. Their songs inspire hope and give comfort for everybody around the world regarding the recent events. Their songs are on Spotify.
Hua Chenyu 华晨宇 – You Have To Believe This Is Not The Last Day 你要相信，这不是最后一天
This is a powerful song. Hua Hua writes about believing that this is not the last day and that better days will come. [English translation lyric YouTube video link here]
Wang Yibo 王一搏 – We Stay Together 因为我们在一起
Yibo has a calming singing voice and he makes you feel less anxious about everything. [English translation lyric YouTube video here]
Thanks Hua Hua and Yibo for using your talents and influence to instil hope in people (like me).
Some of these are from the Chinese TV show, 天籁之战 The Next. Hua Chenyu was a contestant in Season 2 (2016). Each contestant has to arrange a song in only 24 hours and their opponent chooses the song for them. These are my favourite arrangements.
1. 我的滑板鞋2016 (My Skateboard Shoes 2016)
This is from The Next. This is Hua Hua’s most watched video on YouTube. The reason is probably because the original is… uh-
Hua Hua
Original
That’s a big difference, right? Hua Hua kept the lyrics the same but changed everything else. He doesn’t sleep when he arranges songs because he is committed to his work. This arrangement is the song that introduced me to Hua Hua!
2. 齐天大圣 (Journey to the West 1986 opening)
This is from The Next. Hua Hua’s opponent chose the Journey to the West opening and it’s an old song from 1986. There are actually no lyrics so Hua Hua changed the song completely with rap.
Journey to the West (also known as Monkey King or Monkey) dates back to 1592! It inspired Dragonball and a lot of other early anime titles. I think Hua Hua’s version is a great way to get younger audiences interested in these older stories.
Hua Hua
Original
3. 爸，我回來了 (Dad, I’m Home)
This is from the Next and I chose this video with English subtitles (instead of the original channel) because Hua Hua takes the song and tells a story with it. Jay Chou raps and sings in the original, but Hua Hua does something different here. It’s extremely emotional. Hua Hua’s relationship with his father is good, but this is the song that his opponent chose for him.
Hua Hua
Original
4. 双节棍 (Nunchucks)
This is from Singer 2018 and I blogged about this song before. The original singer is Jay Chou but I like Hua Hua’s version better. He adds Chinese opera and makes a lot of changes to the song.
Hua Hua
Original
I chose these arrangements because they are very different from the original songs. I love all of Hua Hua’s arrangements and if you compare his versions with the originals, I’m sure you will agree that he is talented at everything he does. 24 hours is a very short time to arrange a song! Don’t you agree?
My posts about Hua Hua are getting views so I figured that many people around the world are interested in learning more about him.
This is one of my favourite videos of him because he is talking about anime in these scenes. There are English subtitles. ^^ His favourite anime is One Piece. MY FAVOURITE ANIME IS ONE PIECE-
*calms down*
Some of the other anime he likes are Assassination Classroom, Tokyo Ghoul, Naruto, Dragonball, One Punch Man, Attack on Titan, Gintama, and Pokemon. His favourite character in Naruto is Orochimaru. He has a lot of figurines at home and really likes Kaneki. He also has a Chopper plush, Chopper hat, Kaneki’s mask, Dragonball pouch and other things!
When asked if he would rather be King of the Pirates or hokage, he answered King of the Pirates. He explains in the video that pirates have more freedom, while the hokage has responsibilities of taking care of the village. This reminded me of Luffy’s quote when he was talking about being a pirate versus being a hero.
Hero? No! We’re pirates! I love heroes, but I don’t wanna be one! Do you know what heroes are? Say there is a chunk of meat. Pirates will have a banquet and eat it, but heroes will share it with other people. I want all the meat!”
Hua Chenyu 华晨宇 is a famous Chinese singer. Most of the information online about him are in Chinese, so I decided to write a post in English for non-Chinese speakers (and for everybody to know about him). He is currently my favourite singer.
Nickname: Hua Hua 花花 (means ‘flower’)
Fans’ name: Huo Xing Ren 火星人 (Martian)
After he posted photos with the monkey on his Weibo, the toy ran out of stock.
I first learned about him through a Facebook video that was shared on my homepage. It was him performing the song, My Skateboard Shoes 我的滑板鞋. I thought his rapping was impressive. Afterwards I decided to find more music by him and found the song, Ashes from Firework 烟火里的尘埃. He has a very powerful voice, especially when he performs live.
I like that his music is comprised of different genres, such as pop, alternative rock, folk and classical music. The fact that he is capable of singing to this wide range of music shows that he is talented.
My favourite song by him is Quasimodo’s Gift 卡西莫多的礼物. Quasimodo is a fictional character from the novel, The Hunchback of Notre-Dame. Everyone calls Quasimodo “hideous” because of his deformities, and as a result he experiences deep loneliness. In the song, Hua Chenyu sings “Quasimodo’s gift is to enjoy the loneliness” 卡西莫多的礼物 享受孤独. This is my favourite part because he helped me realize that loneliness is not necessarily a bad thing. Often times, we associate ‘lonely’ with negative feelings but to be able to enjoy it is actually quite nice. I can relate to aloneness very well from my personal life, and the moment you begin to enjoy is really an eye-opening experience. Practicing self-love, and finding your own interests and passions are just a couple of reasons why this is important.
Hua Chenyu is someone I consider authentic. Authenticity is something I look for because a lot of artists create content for the sake of being more popular. Hua Chenyu does not care about that (he even has a song called, I Don’t Care 我管你).
Despite being famous, he is an introvert and that’s why his first album was dedicated to the topic of loneliness. He also has some quirks which differentiates him from other celebrities. He does not try to hide who he really is. Hua Chenyu promotes the idea of being true to yourself, even if others do not like it.
Wretched and Divine 