China News Service, Beijing, January 13th, Title: Fei Xiang: Take the initiative to bend destiny into a curve
"China News Weekly" reporter Ni Wei
"Uncle is here!" Before the staff could finish speaking, Fei Xiang bowed and walked into the briefing. Seemingly narrow room. He was wearing clean white pants, white shoes and a gray casual suit. Even though there was no shooting scheduled for that day, he was still neatly dressed and had his hair styled, but he looked slightly tired. "Sorry," he said softly in a hoarse voice, "I have a cold."
He is a person who often creates contrasts, a spokesman for the new world and an intruder in the old world. But at heart, he was a graceful, slow, old-fashioned man. The staff calls him uncle, and netizens call him daddy. Fei Xiang, the man who fascinated all living beings in 1987, became famous again in 2023 and changed his identity as a gentle uncle.
▲Fei Xiang. Photo courtesy of China Philanthropist Magazine
In the movie "Fengshen Part 1", Fei Xiang plays the role of Shang Wang Yin Shou. From summer to autumn, he completed a record-breaking road show with the film crew. Along with the road show, new hot searches and memes continued to appear on the Internet, with people using "Business Speak" to poke fun at Fei Xiang's Chinese accent. His clear and casual words in the past have also been "archaeologically" discovered, and in this anxious era, they soothe people's hearts with a kind of calmness.
"There must be an ending, and it is best to end beautifully."
In the year 2023, Fei Xiang is a celebrity who is "competed for".
It all started with that phone call in 2018. Director Wu Ershan called from Beijing and asked Fei Xiang to read the script. He opened the mailbox and found three scripts for "The Gods Trilogy" inside. He read it in one breath, and an idea became more and more obvious: he wanted to play Yin Shou.
When he called Wu Ershan back, Wu Ershan was already training new actors in Qingdao and said to him, you can play Yin Shou. Hit the bullseye.
"I immediately told the director that I was willing."
This was a "big decision" because the trilogy would take at least five years from filming to post-production. But the decision was straightforward.
2018 was originally when Fei Xiang was preparing to take a break. Since 1998, one of his important tasks every year is touring in China, which lasted until 2016. He suddenly announced to the team: "By the Spring Festival of 2018, uncle's performances will be stopped."
▲July 2015 On the 10th, the "Eternal God" Fei Xiang came to Jinan dressed in black to sing, and his song "A Fire in Winter" ignited the audience's enthusiasm. Photographed by Zhang Yong
"At that time, my voice was okay, and my appearance was okay, and I would not come out and scare the audience. But I couldn't go on like this forever." He recalled his decision at the time, "But there must always be something An ending, preferably a beautiful ending.”
Every appearance of Fei Xiang is perfect. In 1982, he released his first album "Wandering" in Taiwan, China, and quickly became popular. After the cross-strait opening of family visits, Fei Xiang felt that he could send comfortable-sounding and high-quality pop music to the mainland, so he selected some pop songs and recorded and released "Songs Across the Four Seas" in Guangzhou, including "A Fire in Winter" Representative works such as "Clouds in Hometown", "Annoying Autumn Wind" and "Linger" have sold more than one million copies. Then, he received an invitation from the Spring Festival Gala director team.
On New Year's Eve in 1987, he appeared on the Spring Festival Gala stage dressed in red and broke into thousands of households.
Fei Xiang, who has mixed genes, long flowing hair, and relaxed sunshine, looks like a visitor from another world when he appears in front of the camera. When he hugged and kissed his grandma who lived in Beijing in the audience, he became a distant relative of all Chinese people. In this way, on that New Year's Eve, he was accepted as an icon and a messenger, and as a symbol, he was anchored in the collective memory of the 1980s.
The turning of the gears of destiny cannot be separated from his own initiative. It was entirely his own idea to enter the mainland, release records, and spread pop music. When recording "Songs Across the Four Seas" in Guangzhou, he was the producer himself. There was no advanced equipment in the mainland, so he shipped it from Hong Kong himself.
“The combination of this person, this time, and the performance of this song made it successful.How do I personally feel about my position at that time? My responsibility is to serve as a bridge between the two sides of the Taiwan Strait. "
" Put aside the two words Fei Xiang, what am I? "
In Qingdao, what awaits Fei Xiang is another kind of old-school life.
Fei Xiang filmed for a year and a half in a huge filming base specially built for "The Trilogy of the Gods" by the sea. In addition to acting, he also It is necessary to develop a body as strong as Superman to satisfy people's imagination of King Shang.
Every major scene in "The Trilogy of the Gods" must be rehearsed the day before filming, and everyone discusses how to act. In Being on a "money-burning" crew every day is quite luxurious, and it's definitely an old-school way of filming. Now Hollywood can't do it like this.
"I like this old-school method very much. If the crew has budget pressure, the first thing they will cut off is rehearsal time. ‘Quick, quick, put your clothes on quickly’ and the shooting started. But the real creation is actually when there are sparks during the performance. "In this crew of
, there is the slowness that he loves.
▲On August 22, 1998, Fei Xiang (left) re-sung "Clouds of Hometown" at a large-scale disaster relief benefit party and was warmly welcomed by the audience. Photo by Wang Linan
became popular overnight during the Spring Festival Gala Later, after touring to sold-out venues in mainland China for three consecutive years, and becoming popular in Southeast Asia for nearly ten years, a burst of panic struck him. He felt that everything was like a dream, and he didn’t know why the times chose him. “Who am I? ? How good my acting ability is, how good my singing skills are... no one will tell me the truth. "The soaring speed brought more and more confusion," Put aside the two words Fei Xiang, what am I? "
Fei Xiang decided to leave it all. At the age of 28, he returned to the United States, found a singing teacher who taught opera, learned to sing from scratch, and then lined up in the corridor of the music company with his resume, waiting for an interview.
He even joined the Screen Actors Guild He didn’t even have a union card, so he couldn’t seek a role on Broadway. It happened that the musical “Miss Saigon” was going to be filmed on Broadway, and actors were recruited from the society. At that time, there were more than 80,000 musical theater actors with union cards in New York. I learned that I The moment he passed the exam, he believed for the first time that he could really sing. Although it was only a small role, with no name and no solo.
After the fourth part, he came to the fore. The musical "Phantom of the Opera" Andrew Lloyd Webber, the author of "Cats" and "Cats" planned to organize a world tour of concerts of his works. Fei Xiang was selected as one of the four lead singers, singing duet with big-name actors such as Sarah Brightman. In 2001, in Fei Xiang's Driven by this, the Broadway musical landed in China.
Returning from the stage to the world allowed him to regain gravity. He paused the straight line of his rise, took the initiative to bend his destiny into a curve, and gained calmness and stretch in the delay.
He watched movies , what you watch is always people. "Fengshen Part 1" is famous for its luxurious audio-visual effects, but when faced with dazzling technology, he said: "I am an old-school audience, and my age is also there. I mainly look at people, and I'm quite satisfied with my performance. You can see the characters changing. "
His thoughts on the character of Yin Shou also touch on psychological and historical depth. "Yin Shou is a high-functioning, anti-social personality. Fei Xiang used standard psychological concepts to position his characters. He thought of some tyrants in history, "They are very focused and know very well what they want. There are very few people who are so focused, so they will easily make you believe it." , make you tempted." He said: "But they are particularly scary. ”
▲On July 18, 2023, the Shanghai premiere of the movie "Fengshen Part 1" was held at Shanghai Cinemas to attract the attention of movie fans. Photographed by Chen Yuyu
Fei Xiang hopes that young people can see Yin Shou's personality after watching this movie The terrible ambition behind the charm. "Young people are easily led by people who are very charming and seem to know their goals very well. Young people must have the ability to judge. "I hope they can put themselves in Ji Fa's position and find yourself," he said. "
"I am lucky to be liked by you"
At the beginning of the movie road show, Fei Xiang was the only person familiar to the audience."Teacher Xuejian (played by Li Xuejian as Ji Chang in the movie) is not feeling well and cannot stay with us all the time. As for Huang Bo (played by Jiang Ziya), you know, he has several new movies in the summer, so I can only be in it." He Explain humbly. He has exerted a sense of responsibility that goes far beyond that of a leading actor, and has become a spiritual patriarch and a daddy.
After watching the final version of "Fengshen Part 1", Fei Xiang seriously told Wu Ershan that there was one thing that was not good enough: English subtitles. So the big star became a conscientious translator. He worked day and night at his desk and revised line by line, changing at least 70% of the English subtitles.
When he is not working in China or accompanying his mother in Shanghai, Fei Xiang lives in London and New York. He deeply felt that the West still had too little understanding of China and was very anxious. He feels that "Fengshen Part 1" is an excellent opportunity to promote Chinese movies and Chinese culture.
▲On September 18, 2023 local time, "Fengshen Part 1" held its British premiere in London. Actor Fei Xiang (middle) and art director Ye Jintian (right) shared their creative stories at the premiere. Photo by Ouyang Kaiyu
He told the producer that this movie must go overseas, and I will give you all my time, either in Chinese or English. So throughout the second half of the year, he frequently traveled to various countries for business trips to "Fengshen Part 1", including Venice, Tokyo, Singapore... and also returned to London and New York where he lived. He used his international experience to perfectly control the scene time and time again.
In this "old money style" man, the sense of responsibility has always been a part of his personal temperament. After becoming famous after the Spring Festival Gala, he stayed in mainland China to release records and go on tour. In his own words, it was also to meet the expectations of all parties: to let fans see it, to let the record company make money, and to let him represent the compatriots whose blood is thicker than water. The love continues.
Now, he once again puts himself in such a position that once he returns to China, he will start working mode.
He is the one who always satisfies everyone. Sometimes, he would lead his fans to the side of the stage and say, "Come on, let the host continue hosting. The two of us will take a photo and take a selfie. You can show it to your mother when you go home." He said: "I am lucky to be liked by you."
Behind the sunshine is a young man who was once sad. When he was a boy, his sister passed away due to illness and his parents' marriage broke up, which left him with great trauma. The impermanence of things made him realize that people will eventually be separated. This makes one wonder whether the memories of loneliness and injury made him value warmth even more.
"You ask me how to become gentle, I don't know." He thought and said very slowly: "I can't guide others, I can only speak from my personal point of view. I think the most important thing is, Try to put yourself in the shoes of others and consider things. The self is very important, but you must also consider the whole situation objectively. Western culture is very self-centered, while Chinese tradition is to live for others throughout your life, because the two cultures have always been in my life. It affects me alternately, this is my perspective. If you think from other people’s perspective, then you will be more able to live in the truest and kindest way. This is a big topic, and it’s too much for me to say this. It's easy..."
The interview has timed out. Fei Xiang did not rush or show any signs of sleepiness, but his voice became deeper due to fatigue. After answering the last question, he greeted a few more warmly, then bowed and walked out of the room. From the beginning to the end, he allowed appropriateness to permeate every moment, and the air became softer for it. As night fell, he finished another day's work. (End)
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