That night, at the 1844 Xintiandi Contemporary Art Museum on Heyi Road, a photography exhibition titled "What's the Matter with the World" drew to a close. Local director Jelova was sharing an improvised environmental drama called "When I'm Old". Actor after actor took the stage to perform or tell emotional stories about the elderly.
An "old man" with white hair in the crowd was listening quietly, his back arched, holding a cup of tea, nodding his head when he saw someone and smiling meekly between his eyes. No one recognized him as Wei, who was a big hit years ago and now appears on TV almost every day.
The roses were ready, and Wei, made up as an old man, stared at the "goddess" on stage, his heart pounding.
She said, "You've been shining since you were a child, and now it's a kind of shining if you're buried in the crowd and don't let anyone find you."
He had done it, wasn't it time to say those words in his heart?
Talent
Since 1984, when he became the "National Storyteller" at the age of 13, Wei has felt that he was born for the stage, and he looks forward to each and every one of his "shining appearances".
But in that year as a grassroots talent show "Ningbo Da Ren" judges, Wei on the children's contestants, but almost harsh, known as "small players of the nemesis. A friend did not understand: you are obviously a child star, why do not you want other people's children to become child stars.
We feel that, as a child famous, take too many honors, not necessarily a good thing. The first step is to make sure that you have a good understanding of what you're doing and how you're doing it. It's just that not everyone is listening, especially those parents who are still keen to get their children involved in competitions.
And it was only after he joined CCTV in 2007 that he slowly realized this.
In 2007, Wai received a phone call.
"I'm Bi Mingxin from CCTV's Countryside World program. we have a recording on June 12 at the Yangmei Festival in Xiaoshan, Zhejiang province, and I can't come, so I'd like to ask you to come and try, and Fu Yulong is your partner."
"Ah, who are you?"
Wai frowned, not responding for a moment. He didn't let out the scream of surprise that the average person would expect, and as a Ningbo celebrity with nearly 10 years of experience hosting nightclubs in entertainment venues, he was feeling extraordinarily self-conscious at the time.
The other man repeated, "I think you should step out and give it a try, maybe this is an opportunity."
Wai agreed, not thinking it was much of a big deal. On second thought, he was quite proud of the fact that he had only put down the nightclub mic one night and picked up the CCTV mic the next, and he was probably the only one in the country to do so.
With the performance of this program recording, a few months later, Wei backpack to CCTV.
"That springtime." Recalling it years later, Ah Wei would still laugh to himself, "Eyes growing to the top of my head, I felt that everything was not difficult, just like when I was a child, the first time I won an award, it was effortless."
He was talking about 1984, when he was still known by his real name, Han Zhenyu, and had just finished his first year of school. That summer, he won the honor of National Storyteller of the Year in Shanghai. A few months before that, he had been a quiet, ordinary boy who, if anything, spoke better Mandarin and was often called up by his teacher to read from a text.
In the second semester of his first year of school, the National Storytelling Championships kicked off, and he gradually drew attention to himself as the first in his school, the first in his district, and the first in his city. Before going to Hangzhou Anji Road Experimental School to participate in the provincial competition, the Education Bureau also sent two teachers to tutor him in Mandarin and storytelling. Inside and outside the school, everyone was impressed by him, and no one cared whether he attended class, did his homework or not, and how well he did on the exams. Well, it just felt good to have a small meal.
To Hangzhou, he took a first in the province, and obtained the qualification to represent Zhejiang to Shanghai to participate in intensive training, the instructor was then famous commentary artist Liu Lanfang. In the children's hearts, Liu Lanfang is an idol, not to mention her face-to-face guidance, "the heart of the beautiful do not know how to express".
Besides a national second prize honor, that intensive training, more for a half-grown child closed in the school opened a window. On the boat ride back to Ningbo, he envisioned the start of the school year, and how the school would probably welcome him.
It never occurred to him at the time that his mother, who should have been most proud of her son, would not give him the chance to forget the honor.
Frontier
Awai's first program after arriving at CCTV was recorded in Deqing, Zhejiang Province, and this time his partner was Bi Mingxin himself.
He went confidently, but as soon as he went on stage he realized something was wrong. Bi Mingxin's grasp of information and understanding of local culture left him completely unable to keep up. He could clearly feel that Old Bi was taking care of himself without showing any signs of it.
The more anxious he got, the more eager he was to perform, the more overwhelmed he became, and eventually his passion faded, he didn't want to talk, and he went into a state of exhaustion, looking forward to the recording ending early and slipping away quickly.
Since he was a child, Wei has never tasted such embarrassment, and for more than 30 years before, he had a smooth ride.
When he won the National Storyteller Award, he returned to his hometown for the first time in his life, and all he could think about was how his teachers and classmates had applauded him.
Never thought that his mother would give him a new school, from Ningbo 19 Middle School to Dong'en Middle School to repeat the first year. No one there knew about his "brilliant" past, except for his aunt and uncle who were class teachers. His mother made it a point to say that no one was allowed to mention the fact that he had won an award, and that he would not be allowed to participate in the school's cultural and artistic activities.
Avi's mother, Zhu Zhongling, was the first director of Jiangdong Center Kindergarten and Huaguangcheng Kindergarten, and a national outstanding teacher. She understood her son and knew that sudden fame was not a good thing for a young and exuberant child, so she always wanted him to return to his roots and study hard. It's just that his mother's hard work was not understood by the then 13-year-old.
How could he pretend that nothing had happened?
He tried to behave himself. Every day after school, he went to a tape store near the school and learned some Hong Kong and Taiwan songs that had just come to the mainland, then sang them to his classmates. The kid, who did a great imitation of "I'm a wolf from the north," quickly became an "opinion leader.
On a whim, he saw a group of girls rehearsing a dance in the school's multi-purpose classroom. When asked, they were preparing for a competition in the city.
He leaned on the window of the classroom to watch, and couldn't help but lament: so long can't learn, really stupid. The teacher was surprised and amused, "You can do it, come and try."
Just what I was looking for! The teacher's eyes were brightened by this try, and I can't imagine that there's still such a master in hiding. He became a mainstay of the school's dance team, and his other talents were soon discovered.
In the name of winning honor for the school, he began to participate in various activities and competitions without stopping, and although his mother was reluctant, there was nothing she could do.
With all the accolades that came his way, he once again became a school celebrity, and that star-studded life came back to haunt him, but he paid the price, and his grades went down the tubes. The class teacher's final comments were only two sentences: "Three steps, four steps, dance steps to the sky; arts, science, science red light."
More than 30 years later, Wai still clearly remembers these two sentences, only that he was quite unimpressed at the time, and it was not until the midterm exams that he realized that there were few choices on the basis of his grades.
Fortunately for him, Ningbo's cultural department was preparing to build a dance class, the precursor to the art school.
"What's the future of dancing?" At the time, many parents had such concerns, and the teacher in charge of enrollment was running around the schools, identifying seedlings and then going from one to the other to convince them to give up their general education. Unlike Wei, he was the only student who enrolled on his own that year.
The interview was a close call. As Wei and the other unsuccessful students walked to the door, a teacher called out to him.
"This kid is an average dancer, but he has an aura in his eyes."
It was 1987, and the teacher, named Li Renlin, who went on to become a national-level actor and an associate professor at the Zhejiang Art Vocational College, was the one who brought Wei into the art world.
Changing careers
With regard to Li Renlin, Wei remembered all his life. The emergence of Bi Mingxin also became another leader on his artistic path.
The first recording of the program, A Wei did not find the feeling, Bi Mingxin smiled particularly kind: "has been very good, after all, has just begun."
Ah Wei of course not willing, he is very sober: CCTV, far from his former night stage, and even more so when he went to art school school stage. A Wei admitted that the year's art school career, for his later stage career to lay the foundation, but the young and frivolous he also learned "bad".
Under the bright and dim lights of the rink, each young face becomes mottled, and Wei enjoys the feeling of leading a group of people to stretch themselves in the music. Everyone's faces were blurred, but it was easy to see who had the strongest aura.
He was breakdancing, the most popular form of dance at the time. In the late 1980s, breakdancing was introduced to the mainland and mesmerized a group of young people. A good imitator, Wei soon learned it like a fish in water, often followed by a large group of fans.
Finally, one weekend, he was pulled out of the dance floor by his parents. As soon as he got home, he saw his professional teacher waiting at the door, sweating profusely.
The teacher said bitterly: Maybe you can't be a dancer, but the arts are connected, you can still be a good choreographer or director, even if it may not be full of flowers, but at least have your own work.
Isn't breakdancing an art? The words bounced around in his mind, not popping out.
He was pretty hurt by the fact that there were 11 guys in his class, and at the end of the first semester, he was only in the middle of the pack in his major. Only in the breakdancing stage, he is the "big brother".
He also tried to do both, but it was hard, and his results were mediocre. When it came time for the graduation show, he had to stand at the end of the line.
We couldn't accept it and approached his teacher. The teacher was also amused: "You want to lead a dance? Fine, make up one yourself."
A few months later, the debriefing performance review, Ah Wei directed and led the breakdance "Nine Suns" to the teachers' eyes. On the day of the performance, the rather modern "Nine Suns" became the most eye-catching piece of the night.
Losing his way, he was pleased again.
He was planning to take the choreography exam at the Beijing Dance Academy, but the bar was too high. He thought of working and reviewing at the same time, so he went into the city's Song and Dance Troupe at the time, and it was six years in the making.
He described those 6 years as "screws", drilling wherever they were needed. Every countryside performance, curtain, comedy, backing dance have his share, and sometimes also guest sing a song, professional dance did not progress, the day as if a glance can see the head.
In 1996, when the owner of a hotel in Yuyao invited him to be a night host, Wei was moved. He had previously seen shows at the then Donggang Hotel and heard that hosts were paid 400 yuan a night, which was a month's income for him at the time.
The boss asked him to make his own offer, and Wei hesitated: "Is 200 yuan a night OK?"
The other man laughed: "I'll give you another raise, 250, it's a deal."
Transformation
10 years, from Yuyao to Ningbo, Wei changed several places, with the rich experience, income also rose.
When he was a nightclub host at the new Rainbow in Tianyi Square in 2007, his career was as red as ever, and as long as he was there, the nightclubs didn't have to worry about guests.
Only, the nightclub's set, when put under the TV cameras, doesn't hold up.
"The stage is in the performance to hundreds of people, with hundreds of people in the speech, and face the camera you think you are in the performance to how many people in the speech?" Bi Mingxin once hammered him very graphically like this.
"Countless people." He didn't look up.
"Wrong!" Bi Mingxin said, "Think about it, you're watching TV at home, if the host's movements are exaggerated and his tone is high-pitched, can you stand it? Don't forget that there are at most two or three people watching in front of a TV set."
That's a fair point, and Wei knows he needs to change, but once he's on stage, with several bright lights baking, and the announcer shouting "three, two, one, go" in his headset, his body tightens up, and he can't quite get it right.
Some people say he is too thin, how to how to convey to others ideas, how to how to bring others a sense of picture, rather than rely on so hard to sing and dance, will be able to retain the audience.
The words do not sound good, but Wei also began to reflect on the nightclub 10 years, he has given up the dream of continuing his education, although in this relatively closed area to achieve excellence, but other aspects of the lonely.
He worked hard on every program and slowly made a breakthrough, the scene began to grasp the ease of use, and ratings slowly rose. He has also come to realize that he is not the center of the stage, and that he has to work with a lot of people, rather than people working with him, and think about a lot of things in order to do a good job on the show.
He worked hard for his dream, but he was always tired, more tired than the 365 days of nightclubs, and his body and mind were always tense.
Until 2012, when he met Chen Jiaqiang, then director of the Ningbo Municipal Bureau of Culture, Radio and Television, in Beijing, he said, "Why don't you come back? At the same time, while serving as a judge of "Ningbo's Got Talent", he met Zhou Yangwen, director of Ningbo TV's second set, who said, "You come back, one side of the soil raises one side of the people, and your roots are in Ningbo!"
That's how he returned to Ningbo after six years in Beijing.
When I'm old
Nowadays, in Ningbo TV station, Wei's job is mainly to host the local news program "Lai Fa Speak What's West" and the entertainment program "Natural Stage", and gradually cope with it.
He says he believes that "one side of the land nurtures one side of the people", so he intends to do his own programs in Ningbo.
What makes Wei feel most fortunate is the emergence of "Jie Luo Wa", a new theater director in Ningbo who has become his companion in life and career. Director Luo's line, "If you are buried in the crowd and don't let anyone find out, it's also a kind of shine," has always been a reminder to him.
Experiencing the big stage of the CCTV, Wei has a lot of different experiences than before. He feels that he is a craftsman who relies on his skills and just focuses on what's in front of him.
"I am now very solid in my heart and know what I can do well and what I am not capable of. It's not like in Beijing, where your heart hangs in the air every day."
Last year, he took on Zhang Shaoze, the inheritor of the provincial non-legacy-listed Ningbo commentary, as his teacher. He grew up listening to Mr. Zhang's commentary and didn't think much of it at the time, but now that he's past his prime, the more he listens to it, the more he feels it has flavor. "It's a culture that runs in your bones, a real long-lasting art."
He thinks it's actually quite good to be like Zhang Shaoze and do only one thing for the rest of his life. He no longer thinks of success as he did before he went to Beijing, because success means complexity and sophistication, while what is needed on stage is simplicity and purity, and childlike innocence like that of a child. It's hard to get deeper into a role if there's too much to skim off the top.
He hopes that when he grows old, he will have the same kind of calmness as Zhang Shaoze.
On the night of June 12, at the "Jelova" environmental drama about the elderly, he carefully planned not to be the same Wei, who likes to shine, but to play the old man silently for four hours, without anyone recognizing him. Toward the end of the show, he went up with roses and got down on one knee to propose to Jelova in front of nearly 200 people. He hoped that when he became a common old man, he would still have her by his side.
In the crowd's blessing, his goddess said yes with tears in her eyes.
Hearts
Ah Wei said, this is he should not be impulsive when he did something that must be impulsive, because no longer do not do, will really old, he does not want to have regrets in life.
We asked him if he had any regrets before. For example, do you regret going to Beijing, or further back, if you went to school or after work to pay more attention, to get into the Beijing Dance Academy or other art schools, there will be a different life?
He says he doesn't regret every step he took. If he hadn't gotten hooked on breakdancing when he was studying, he probably wouldn't have been able to find his own specialty, and wouldn't have made an impression on his teachers by the time he graduated; if he hadn't had the exercise of doing "screws" and making guest appearances all over the place in the troupe, he wouldn't have been so comfortable jumping into the nightclubs; and if he hadn't gone to Beijing, he would not have known that the world outside was so big.
After experiencing so many things, he realized that the most difficult choice is not the most unpopular time, but precisely the time when he feels that he can do anything. Eyes higher than the top, you can not see the road in front of you, so he does not agree with the child has too many honors, the younger the age, the easier it is to get lost. "Take yourself too seriously, and often there's nothing left for you."
If there's any other insight, it's a little thing he often mentions to his juniors. At the time, he was new to the entertainment industry as a nightclub host, and one night a child was carried onstage by his father and asked to sing with him. Unintentionally, he looked down and the child's shoelace was loose.
"What to do?" Wei's mind raced at high speed. He knew that squatting down to help tie the shoelace would be cold, and if it was a very experienced presenter, he might have reminded the child in a more humorous way, but he couldn't think of anything, he just knew that he couldn't let the child fall down. After a second's hesitation, he knelt down, put down the microphone and tied the child's shoes.
There was a ten-second gap as the audience watched very quietly, then all rose to applaud.
"The topics change on stage, the audience's interests change, but the only thing that doesn't change is human nature, the human heart. And those things are often learned when you have nothing." He said, "Before being a good presenter, before learning all those tricks of experience, it's better to be honest and at peace with being 'in the crowd'."