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Marie Claire: Be True, Be You

by Sunday, May 12, 2019


Haoran gets his seventh magazine cover of the year with Marie Claire China! This one pretty much came out of nowhere and was a hot topic of discussion on both the big forums and on Weibo, primarily due to the unique and experimental nature of the shoot as Haoran is known for his clean and sunshiny image. The Marie Claire team explained that since the theme was about breakthroughs and future possibilities, they wanted to try something daring for Haoran, a style that he's never tried before. And as we know from his previous interviews, he's always wanting to show us a new side of himself, which he definitely did this time! 

Not only has he unlocked his third women's big 5 cover, he's also the first male celeb to grace the cover of Marie Claire China this year and is just the fifth in the last two and a half years. And in a surprising twist*, Tod's is the brand that pushed for this cover. This is the first solo magazine cover that they've gotten for Haoran since he was named the ambassador of their footwear collection back in March.

*The reason why it's surprising: as a brand, you've got to spend a LOT of money to get a Big 5 cover (this is actually the main way magazines make money - not actual sales). Usually brands like Chanel, Dior, LV, etc. are the ones who win the bidding wars (update: the other two MC covers for Jing Tian and Tang Yan this month were sponsored by Dior and Chloe, respectively). Tod's went all out this time for Haoran (and of course for promoting themselves).


There should be another magazine/interview coming soon as well! A popular freelance journalist posted just a couple of days that she was meeting with him for one (the photoshoot apparently was taken quite a while ago but they just hadn't been able to schedule in an interview). 

Travel Journal: Liu Haoran in Kenya With Tiffany & Co.

by Sunday, May 05, 2019

In March, Liu Haoran went on a surprise trip to Kenya with Tiffany & Co. for their Save the Wild campaign. The goal of the trip was to bring awareness to the Save the Elephants project, and to promote the brand's Save the Wild jewelry collection, which donates 100% of profits to the Wildlife Conservation Network. 




Tencent Fashion was the media outlet that tagged along for the ride, and one of their journalists kept a running diary of the six day trip - specifically, following Haoran as he explored Kenya and learned more about the elephants, the land, and the locals. There are a lot of fun anecdotes here, and we get a first hand account of both Haoran's playful and serious sides.  

Most of the photos/gifs are the ones she used and are kept in the order in which she published the first-person perspective article, to keep the "travel photojournal" feel. All the wildlife/land photos included were taken by Haoran (the photos of the campground are her own). LOTS OF PHOTOS/GIFS, so probably want to view on computer.

Note: I'm translating from famous fashion blogger gogoboi's post of the Tencent Fashion journalist's original log (they're friends) - for whatever reason, Tencent actually edited their original article after publishing it and basically changed it a lot. I'm still so annoyed about this because it took forever to track down gogoboi's original - he only had screencaps on his Weibo. I ended up trying to combine the two. 

VogueMe: Fearless Youth

by Monday, March 25, 2019

Sixth magazine cover of the year for Haoran comes with VogueMe - April 2019 issue, the younger sibling to Vogue China! April 2019 also happens to mark the three year anniversary of VogueMe, and just as they did in previous years (Haoran was on the cover of the second anniversary issue last year), they went with a special theme for the entire magazine ("fearless youth") and invited Zhou Dongyu and Liu Haoran as the cover stars.

You might've noticed that Dongyu and Haoran have collaborated quite a bit, especially in the last year or so in basically every platform available minus an actual acting project, and VogueMe (kind of) explains why. They're often seen as parallels of one another among post-90ers (Dongyu of course is five years older and has a much more extensive resume) - both made their debuts in well known films, are more known for their film work, and are seen at having "won at life" due to getting to start their acting/entertainment careers at a much higher starting point than most of their peers (both are also acknowledged to having the talent - and accomplishments thus far - to back that up). 



So given that everyone seems to think they've led the perfect lives, the challenge VogueMe gave them was to write the script for their own lives if it was made into a movie - how would it be filmed in their minds? Haoran's interview is subsequently quite fascinating. He explores alternative ways his life would have played out at different the crossroads into his life. What if he had chosen to not attend the Beijing Dance Academy? What if he missed out on his golden ticket - his first acting opportunity? He also takes us through what his life looks like now, and how his family deals with his celebrity.

As a result, this translation was a bit tricky and took quite a while to put together, but hopefully you'll find it as interesting as I did! There is a certain wistfulness in his tone as he talks about what his life might've been like - it's not so much that he doesn't like his current life, but he very much recognizes that his life is far from normal, and it was very much unplanned.

For regular news, updates, and translations on Haoran, make sure to follow us on our Twitter account! 

LEON China and LEON Young: Child of the Wind

by Saturday, March 16, 2019

Liu Haoran takes the cover of LEON China and LEON Young for the March 2019 issues! He is the first artist to appear on the covers of both magazines for the same month.

There are two covers that were released for the main LEON China - one for Louis Vuitton, and one for Tiffany & Co.'s Save the Wildlife collection. I'll post the photoshoot for the Save the Wild cover in a separate Tiffany & Co. post as I didn't want to clutter this one too much (and I think that one is deserving of a post on its own as it's for a fantastic cause). 

The LEON Young cover was sponsored by Puma (Haoran is one of the brand spokespersons for the brand in China). Both shoots were taken in Japan, and I swear this was the fasted turnaround ever - the covers were revealed about a week after Haoran came back from the trip. 

Admin note: Translations on HTTYD3 interviews, Tiffany interviews, etc. (at the very least, written translations) are coming soon - struggling to try and catch up. There's just been so much Haoran content lately which is GREAT!).

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