In celebration of the one year anniversary of his first book, The Eye of the Storm (which we are currently in the process of translating), Liu Hao Ran held a book signing event at the Page One bookstore in Beijing yesterday.

Apart from being in great spirits and joking around with fans, there was also a brief Q&A session before the signing started. Translation can be found below (keep in mind that he was answering questions in a half joking manner - he was in a really good mood), with more pics from the event! Shoutout to the Cfan who did the transcript. 

Welcome to Chapter 2 of The Eye of the Storm, which is Liu Hao Ran's book that was published in November 2017 in commemoration of his 20th birthday! Chapter 2 focuses on the turning point of Liu Hao Ran's life - when he left his hometown of Pingdingshan, Henan Province to Beijing at the age of 12 to attend the Beijing Dance Academy.

To give you some background to understand why Liu Hao Ran's family decided to let him go to boarding school at such a young age, here's some information on the school itself.

Because how could we not dedicate an entire post to such an accomplishment? The 34th Hundred Flower Awards' list of nominees are out, and Liu Hao Ran becomes the youngest Best Actor nominee in the history of the awards show! This will serve as a Q&A for the awards itself - and relating it all back to Haoran, of course.

But if you don't care about the rest of it, here's the summary: Liu Hao Ran has officially gotten his first Best Actor nomination for a major film award!!

We did a full coverage on pics/performances from the actual awards show over on our Twitter, so make sure you follow us there! 

This is Part 2 of Liu Hao Ran's November 2018 interview with GQ - which essentially is a written transcript of him talking freely about his journey thus far, and how luck (and hard work) has played a huge role. Some of what he touches on was included in the full interview, but there isn't a huge amount of overlap.

Make sure you don't miss Part 1, which is the full interview!  

Well, it's actually happened. With the release of the November 2018 issue of GQ (we heard about this rumor months ago but weren't sure if it'd actually be true because it's so hard to get on GQ), Liu Hao Ran is now just the 14th Chinese male celeb (and the youngest by far) to have had covers on all five of the major men's magazines (GQ, Esquire, Elle Men, L'Officiel Hommes, and Harper's Bazaar Men). 

With the exception of Esquire, which was a group extended cover in December 2016 (let that sink in for a second - he was basically a newbie then!), the other four covers are all solo covers and have come within the span of a year. Not only that, Elle Men, L'Officiel Hommes, and Bazaar Men were shot before Detective Chinatown 2 even came out.

It also should be mentioned here that Daley-V, who is one of the most well-known fashion bloggers on Weibo and is connected to the fashion industry, said in a comment (when the GQ cover was released) that Haoran actually had the chance to complete solo covers for all five this year, but pushed it, presumably due to filming for Novoland: Eagle Flag. Basically saying Esquire solo cover was lined up already. I wish Haoran cared as much about magazine covers as fans and Weibo netizens do, ha, but also props to him for not caring that much about bragging rights. (But guys - if this actually happened and he landed solo covers on all five of the Men's 2+3 within a year that would be even more crazy than this already is.)

I saw a great quote in response to this (him pushing Esquire) from a fan of another actor, who said, "While I'm jealous of his accomplishments, I'm even more jealous of his mind. He really is clear headed." 

Based on what's been said thus far, the photoshoot for GQ took place in Paris back in June 2018 (presumably on the same day as the Men's Uno shoot), though the interview wouldn't take place until months later. That picture of Haoran that went viral in late September, where he was photographed leaving an interview on his bike? That was for GQ.

So the structure of this interview is a bit interesting - there were two articles released, which we didn't realize until after we already translated one, but essentially GQ released a version that was just a transcript of Liu Hao Ran talking, and then an article-based one that includes some of the content from the transcript. We've split this into 2 parts (Part 2 can be found here). 

The long awaited Chapter 1 from Liu Hao Ran's book The Eye of the Storm is here! The chapters are lengthy and have a lot of content to them which meant I needed to be able to devote a huge chunk of time to them, and we just haven't had much time on our hands lately (the ever-present dilemma when we do find a bit of time - sub a vid or translate for a post? Sooo behind on subs though). We'll be translating the rest as well. I have a bet with myself on whether I can finish translating the book before he starts his next project - my money's on him.

Liu Hao Ran's eleventh magazine cover this year comes on the November 2018 issue of L'Officiel (first appearance; do not confuse with L'Officiel Hommes - a fashion magazine for men - which he was the cover star twice), which is also the first cover with short-haired Haoran that we've seen in many, many months.

Most of the interviews that we've had this year (magazine-wise) have come during Haoran's busy periods, or right after Novoland: Eagle Flag wrapped up. This is probably the first one where some time had passed after filming ended, so you get a more introspective and relaxed Haoran here, who has obviously had some time to think about things.

Personal two cents: he sounds like he's coming to terms with what it means to be an actor and trying to find ways to make it easier for himself so he doesn't struggle every time he wraps up a role. Part of that means he's starting to lose the rose-tinted glasses that he's had about being an actor, and that could be a good thing - one of the reasons why we love him is that he's such an old and traditional soul (at least when it comes to his acting approach), but it's important that he realizes that the entertainment world he's in is very, very different now and he may need to change his approach in order to allow himself to be more comfortable. Otherwise, it's like what he mentioned in the Cosmopolitan interview - he'll use himself up too quickly. 

This interview is a bit different in tone from what we've seen in the past,because while Haoran does talk about acting, it's more focused on how the profession can affect the actor in real life. There are some parts that may seem a bit confusing (we had so many conversations trying to dissect certain sections of this - someone help us with the spinach quote please), but if you keep in mind that the overarching theme of this interview is that life is life, no matter what field you may be in, it might help. Apologies for the multiple translation notes - it's just hard sometimes to keep the original meaning and tone even if you're translating all the words correctly, so I just wanted to make things clear.

For Liu Hao Ran's birthday, OK! Magazine did a special feature and accompanying cover photoshoot for their weekly issue (second week of October). This was the photoshoot that he went to Japan for back in August (right after he wrapped up filming for Novoland: Eagle Flag) and might be be the last cover (chronologically, I mean - Cosmopolitan came out before this one, but we're still working on that post) where we see him with long hair. 

"Might" being the keyword. Word on the street is that Haoran's got three more magazines lined up for the next couple of months including one that might drop in a couple of weeks (wait for the gushing that's gonna come from me if/when it does because if rumors are correct it's a huge feat), and we aren't quite sure when they were taken, so there could still be more long haired Haoran coming. 

I'm actually pretty surprised on how much I like this photoshoot - it has a very vintage vibe to it (perhaps because of the hair)? A fashion blogger that I follow on Weibo said that Haoran looked like the young master of a mafia family - in a good way, haha. 

This is a pretty straightforward (and short) Q&A - a nice break from the long articles we've been getting - but don't worry, we'll be back to that for the L'Officiel feature, ha.

Liu Hao Ran's 20th year - aka Oct 2017 through Oct 2018 - was not only significant because it meant he was officially out of his teenage years, but also because of the implications it had for his career. In the C-ent industry, an actor's potential future-wise is judged on a variety of factors, including their stashed works, and it was clear that Liu Hao Ran had quite a list of big, highly anticipated to-be-aired projects for 2017 and early 2018.

Elle China recently celebrated their 30th anniversary, and when Liu Hao Ran posted a congratulatory message (well, his studio did, since he's isolated in military training), fans thought that there might be a chance that he might have an interview portion in the 30th anniversary issue of the magazine. And they were right! Liu Hao Ran has quite a close relationship with Elle China editor-in-chief Xiao Xue (she appeared in his birthday video last year), so it's not a total surprise.

Aside from Liu Hao Ran's recent interview with Men's Uno, he also had short features in Men's Uno Young (he was the cover star for August 2018) and in the September 2018 issue of Harper's Bazaar. Because these were not released electronically, I didn't realize that they existed until I saw some HQ scans from C-fans. Both are relatively short, but are rather nice pieces, which is why we wanted to share them.

The Harper's Bazaar one may sound like it's written by a fan, but promise it's not, ha.

Right after the new Novoland: Eagle Flag trailer was released, Linmon Pictures CEO Su Xiao conducted a small, brief interview with Dushe on the production process and what they have changed about the drama to ensure that it might appeal to audiences more. I didn't translate the entire interview, but in essence, it seems that Linmon considers this more than just another project - this is also a way for them to make their mark on dramaland, to create history and realize the dreams and ambitions of the top notch production team members. 

Liu Hao Ran has finally, finally wrapped up filming for Novoland: Eagle Flag! It's been an incredibly long and difficult journey for the entire cast and crew (288 days!!!) but it's finally done!

In celebration of the completion of filming, we are doing a deep, deep dive into everything Novoland (apologies in advance for the sheer length of this post) - from the background of the creation of the Novoland Universe, to the original novels, to the pre-production and casting process, to the story itself, the characters, thoughts of netizens and books fans, and what to expect moving forward.

We are getting closer and closer to the completion of filming for Novoland: Eagle Flag, which also means that rumors are really starting to pick up now in terms of what Liu Hao Ran's next project will be. C-ent is a complicated landscape to navigate when it comes to project rumors, because what you get is a weird blend of false+true rumors, and they're all leaked with specific goals in mind. 

Most likely we're not going to know what Liu Hao Ran's next project is until he actually starts filming - his team is notoriously good at keeping things quiet. But since we're hitting rumor season, it might be fun to look at how Liu Hao Ran's projects are decided upon, how the rumor cycle worked with his previous projects, and how to be able to tell if rumors are blatantly fake. I'll also share a couple of rumors circling that may not come true but are at least semi-believable, and some rumors from the past. 

We are traveling back in time, via a May 2016 interview that Liu Hao Ran did with The Paper. If you haven't seen the news yet, Liu Hao Ran's 2016 webdrama With You has been picked up by Shenzhen TV for its summer primetime slot after already making it on air a couple of months ago via Zhejiang TV. Although Shenzhen TV is considered to be a second tier satellite TV station, it's still the first time a webdrama has been aired in the primetime slot. Not to mention - this is a webdrama from two years ago. 

At the end of January 2018, Liu Hao Ran filmed a photoshoot for Bazaar Men and was featured on the cover of their March issue. Which means we got an interview along with it. Because Liu Hao Ran has had six magazine features in the first half of 2018 alone (and with the exception of the VogueMe interview which was conducted in March, the rest of the interviews were all done in December 2017/January 2018), the content of them aren't going to differ very much since they all center around his recent acting experiences.

We continue to get more Liu Hao Ran content out of Paris from Chinese media outlets - this time from Sohu and iFeng Fashion. Both media outlets released both a video and an article containing the interview, so I thought that I would provide both english subs and a written translation. We should be getting at least two more interviews in the next couple of days...stay tuned! 

As always, you can find updates and short translations on our Twitter, and follow our Youtube account for the most up to date subbed videos.

Liu Hao Ran has spent the past week in Paris on the invitation of Louis Vuitton to attend their show for Men's Fashion Week (for the second time). Although we only really got to see him when he left China and the day of the Louis Vuitton show, there should be a lot of content coming out in the next couple of weeks and even months (fans in France saw him doing different photoshoots and strolling around Paris). 

It was his first "official" appearance since February and we wanted to make sure it was documented, so this is mostly a picture recap/compilation plus the translation of the Haibao interview near the bottom of this post. You can also find more pictures and news that came out over the last few days over on our Twitter account. Unless it's something big, we will usually have updates (including short translations) over on Twitter instead of here.

Next date to look at - June 28. Zhihu announced that there will be something special with new brand ambassador Liu Hao Ran, though it's unclear right now what that will be.

And yes, we are keeping an eye on rumors of Liu Hao Ran's next project. His team is ridiculously good at keeping things secret, but Novoland: Eagle Flag should be wrapping up very soon (something Liu Hao Ran also confirmed in the Haibao interview) and there is a lot of curiosity - not just among fans - on what his next project will be. As soon as we see anything that sounds even decently reliable, we will share. The only thing we know at the moment for certain is that Detective Chinatown 3 has officially been slotted for Chinese New Year's in 2020, so filming will take up some time on Liu Hao Ran's 2019 calendar.

In 2016, right after web drama With You aired its last episode, Liu Hao Ran released a hand written letter to his fans. In it, he thanks them for their support and encouragement and shares his thoughts on fan-given gifts.

Because this is a pretty short letter, I also included a translation of a letter that the primary agent at his company posted on Weibo on the very last day of 2016 - the two letters go very well hand in hand with one another. As always when I read something from his company, I'm astounded by how much they truly seem to care about him as a person, and how much they support him. They just really, really get him. It's just so rare that young actors have such great, understanding management teams - not just in the Chinese entertainment industry, but in all entertainment industries as a whole.

Note: Nuan Yang is the name his fans go by. It literally means Warm Sun, and I'm not sure exactly how they came up with it, but I'm guessing it has do with his bright and sunny image.

Although Nirvana in Fire 2 wasn't the ratings hit that it should have been (yes, I'm biased), it was still heavily discussed online by those who loved it. Though there were still a good chunk of people who felt that Liu Hao Ran was too young - the Chinese audience is way too used to seeing thirty year olds play twenty year olds - his performance as Xiao Ping Jing was largely praised. In late January (right as NiF2 was finishing its run), there was a discussion topic in the NiF2 group on Douban that basically asked: Which other Chinese actor could have successfully pulled off the role of Xiao Ping Jing? 

This is Part 2 of the Men's Uno interview from January 2018. Most of the questions here focus on how Liu Hao Ran views himself as an actor, his thoughts towards performance, and some of the more personal parts about him. Part 1 can be found here.

In January 2018, Liu Hao Ran was featured on the cover of Men's Uno and was also interviewed at length about where he is in his career and how his road has been different from most of his peers. It's an extremely in-depth and interesting read. I am splitting this interview into two parts as it also includes a lengthy intro by the interviewer and there are a lot of questions asked. 

A couple of interesting things that I wanted to point out - the author says in the beginning that despite all of Liu Hao Ran's accomplishments, he's not as popular as those who choose to star in idol dramas. That was in January (though the interview probably took place in December) - and about a month later in February, Liu Hao Ran's popularity and public recognition skyrocketed to a new level. The way the media introduces Liu Hao Ran now is someone who both has liu liang (popularity) and talent - so it's funny how things changed in such a short amount of time. Also, I'm not sure if the interviewer was trying to bait LHR into criticizing idol actors/dramas or if she just feels really strongly about it, but she kept bringing it up - thankfully, he handled it pretty well.

Liu Hao Ran's star is rising faster than he can age, but it's not just because his popularity and public recognition are at an all time high. In an era where most of the popular male actors under 30 have been criticized extensively for relying more on their looks and fans than focusing on developing their acting, Liu Hao Ran's much more traditional approach has been refreshing. It's gotten to the point where Liu Hao Ran's name will be brought up without being asked - he's become an industry darling of sorts. So we thought it would be fun to share a compilation of what prominent people within the C-ent industry - fellow actors, MCs, producers, authors, and directors, etc. - have said about Liu Hao Ran. Most of these are from the past year, if not the past six months.