新年快乐 ! Celebration with Film!
- Casey Tsou
- Feb 11, 2019
- 4 min read
On Sunday, February 10, 2019, I had the honour to attend the Beauty in the Lens Film Festival with my aunt Jennifer Su. This opening event was co-hosted by Marie Claire China and Eyepetizer App, IMAX China, Youku & UNIPX MEDIA. Many famous figures came all the way from China just to celebrate the art of short film at the start of the Chinese New Year. There are five categories in the International Short-Film Awards: Advertisement, Creativity, Fashion Documentary, and MV and Personal Style. Professionals in the film industry from the world.
The venue was actually an AMC movie theatre in order to show the short films, so there wasn't much space for mingling. We were greeted at the entrance by Abigail Posner, Head of Strategy at Google's Brand Unit and famous public speaker. After we introduced ourselves, we headed to their little "red carpet" and had our pictures taken in front of the "Beauty in The Lens" backdrop. Shortly after, Chinese celebrities Jing Chao (经超演员), Famous Actor, Li Dongtian (李东田时尚造型师), Founder of Tony Studio, and Aaron Yan (Aaron Yan (炎亚纶演员/歌手, Famous Actor and Singer. I got a quick pictures with Jing Chao and Li Dongtian before everyone went upstairs to enter the theatre. My aunt and I took our seats a couple rows from the front. After about 5-10 minutes everyone got settled, the lights dimmed, and the festival showing commenced!
I loved the viewing because China has a very different and much more dramatic style of film. The music videos were vastly different, but both really amazing to watch. The first music video was for a rap song and had tons of crazy graphics and lots of people, whereas the second one only focused on the solo artist. Almost all of the films were in Chinese, and not all of them had subtitles. There was even a short film that started off in French and then transitioned into Mandarin. I felt extremely lucky that I was able to understand everything. For the past four years I have been regaining my Mandarin, and I have been learning French in school for the past 6 years, so in a way it seemed all my passion for language learning led up to this very event.
After the showing concluded, there were two speeches given by Zhang Xiaodong, the founder of Beauty in the Lens and Vice President of Marie Claire China, and Li Liyan, Cultural Consult and Director of Chinese Consulate. Both expressed how important film is for expression and how wonderful the event was for bringing so many people together to commemorate something so special that has gained as much popularity as feature films.
Following their speeches, three panel discussions took place. The first panel consisted of Kevin Allocca, Head of Culture & Trends at YouTube, Famous Fashion Photographer Michel Nafziger, and Abigail Posner (mentioned previously).As well as being interviewed, audience members were allowed to ask questions to the panel. The second panel was composed of Cheng Gong, Project Director of Marie Claire China, Zhang Xiaodong, and Li Liyan. The third and final panel featured the three big celebrities in attendance (also mentioned previously). It was incredible to see how many fans showed up to meet them to show their love and support and get to personally ask them questions. One of my favourites was a question directed to Aaron Yan: "Being a singer and an actor, which is more powerful to you: imagery or music?" This was a question I wondered if I even had an answer to. Images often don't need captions to speak great measures, but words and sounds capture raw feeling that images are not always capable of. Although Yan explained the great beauties of both, he came to a conclusion that for himself, music was more powerful because had a stronger emotional appeal.
After the panel had come to an end, I got a picture (left) with the Yuan Twins (苑子豪苑子文) who are influencers of Weibo, a Chinese blogging website, and I also got the chance to chat with Michel Nafziger. I mingled a bit and made a few friends whom I exchanged Instagram handles with. (Follow me @caseytsou!) A woman my aunt met at the Philadelphia Auto Show approached her and we all chatted for a bit as well. We headed out of the theatre together shortly and saw Jing Chao was taking pictures by the escalator in a completely different outfit. We went downstairs and back the mini red carpet and took some pictures together before parting our separate ways when our Ubers arrived.
My aunt and I went straight to our family lunch and continued to celebrate the Year of the Pig with delicious traditional Chinese food at a restaurant only a block away from our hotel called Radiance Tea. The food was incredible there and we had all been completely stuffed by the end of our meal. After our dessert of chocolate truffles and matcha ice cream, we took some group photos and we all went our separate ways.
I stayed behind at the hotel and worked out at the hotel gym since I had plans to meet up with a friend in Times Square after she got off from work at 6 and I had 2 hours to kill. It's funny how one morning you're all dressed up for an exclusive event and the same afternoon you're in all athletic clothing.
When it came time to meet up with my friend Tamera, I was super excited to see her. She had visited me once earlier in the semester after not seeing her for over a year. It's always so fulfilling to catch up with a long distance friend and get away from your lives at home in a way. This weekend was a getaway of some sorts from college and I could not have been happier with how it went!
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