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.