[Interview] Light and Night x Marie Claire: Jesse - Offstage | 光与夜之恋×嘉人：荷尔蒙炸弹【夏鸣星：舞台之下】

From Celine:

Jacket with Mesh Inserts in Soft Lambskin - Optic White

Turtleneck Sweater in Wool with Sequins - In Silver (can't find image in silver so you can have a look at the black variation)

Slim Jeans in Soft Lambskin - Black

From Hublot (Watch):

Big Bang Collection: Unico King Gold Rainbow 42mm 

From Fred:

Force 10 Collection: Force 10 Winch Earring, Titanium and Steel, Black

Force 10 Collection: Force 10 Winch Pendant, Small Model in Titanium and Steel

Force 10 Collection: Force 10 Ring Winch, Large Model in Titanium and Steel

Force 10 Collection: Force 10 Ring, Large Model 18K White Gold and Diamonds

Chance Infinie Collection: Chance Infinie Ring, Medium Model 18k White Gold and Diamonds

*Not listed, but in above image:

Force 10 Collection: Force 10 Ring Winch, Small Model in 18k White Gold and Steel

Force 10 Collection: Force 10 Winch Pendant, Large Model in Titanium and Steel

- Introduction-

"Those depicted in dramas are possibilities that could happen, and my possibilities has been connected to you from the beginning till the end."

- Prologue-

Just as his name depicts, Xia MingXing* is the brightest star in midsummer nights**. He has never purposely dazzled in a light where people find it blinding. You can find him having a gentle yet steady strength from him. When offstage, Xia MingXing likes drinking orange-flavored soda, likes surfing the internet, and also likes exploring new and interesting places with the person by his side. Onstage, he can become anyone. Yet when off stage, he is the one and only Xia MingXing.

* In his preview, he mentioned that he is showing the Xia MingXing side in the interview, so there are certain parts where I'll use his full CN name throughout this translation instead of his stage name Jesse.

** Jesse's CN name is 夏鸣星 (Xia MingXing), where Xia means summer, and Xing means stars.

- Offstage-

"Hello everyone, I'm Jesse Xia MingXing! I'm very glad to be able to participate the photoshoot with Marie Claire's magazine. I've acted many different characters in musical stages, as well as attempted many different styles, yet this time, I'm portraying more of Xia MingXing himself in front of the cameras." 

(You can listen to him saying this here)

In the photoshoot venue, colorful neon lights dazzles brightly. Xia MingXing holds a microphone in his hand, and calmly stood at the center of this old Hong Kong-styled street. There's no need for bright spotlights, because any place, and any venue with his presence can turn into a magnificent stage in an instant.

After the photoshoot ended, Xia MingXing returned to the lounge and changed back into his usual attire. When the interview was about to begin, he's leaning into the vanity table, and downed the entire bottle of chilled orange-flavored soda in his hand completely.

The moments before and after stage time is just like the epitome of this interview. From Xia MingXing, not only you can see his steadiness hammered out from his past experiences, but the keen, youth-like interest isn't lacking either. Just as his name depicts, Xia MingXing is the brightest star in midsummer nights. He has never purposely dazzled in a light where people find it blinding. You can find him having a gentle yet steady strength from him. This strength comes from his past, and also comes from his inner perseverance. 

As a musical actor who has a high profile, Xia MingXing has brought extremely ingenious onstage performances to his audiences. The more amazing thing is, although Xia MingXing is at a young age, but he is still highly capable when it comes to acting gloomy and tragic characters, that he has portrayed an extraordinary acting skills and fine control. On contrary, Xia MingXing expressed that this is actually no magical talent. "It's related to some experiences of my past, so it's easier to grasp onto the emotions when I act as these characters."

Regardless the type of character, Xia MingXing would spend his efforts to research about them. "Each character possesses different traits and inner conflicts". The first role Xia MingXing received was a rock, and it's exactly the period of silence on the stage that has ignited his passion for musical acting. "When I'm performing, I can forget myself."

Xia MingXing shines brightly onstage, and the Xia MingXing offstage instead exudes a simple yet rich sense of life. In his timeline, there's his helplessness of him mistaking a wasabi bun as a matcha bun, and also his awkwardness of him placing a paper straw into coke; there's his daily experience of his "feigned encounters" with a chubby orange cat near the entrance of his community area, and also the bits of detail of him noticing a magnolia stabbing by the bus driver's window on his way to his theatrical troupe rehearsal. As a 5G internet surfer, Xia MingXing has all sorts of internet memes coming from his fingertips. In his records, you can find joy and wonders from every part in his life.

Various kinds of delicacies has also taken a great portion in Xia MingXing's timeline. He likes the chilled orange-flavored soda in summer, and he also likes the steaming chestnuts and baked sweet potatoes. "But compared to delicacies, the more important one is the person I'm eating with."

With no evasion, Xia MingXing expressed that "the person" he mentioned is his childhood sweetheart. Recently, Xia MingXing has announced his new collaboration song with Fang WenShan "No Jet Lag*", and the inspiration of the song is exactly related to the girl. They grew up together, until Xia MingXing moved overseas, where the two stopped contacting each other. Yet, Xia MingXing met her once again last year.

*His birthday song, you can listen to a short preview here. Fang WenShan is a popular songwriter, and his most popular work is Qing Hua Ci (Blue and White Porcelain) by the legendary C-Pop singer, Jay Chou.

"

"

"Whenever I'm with her, I can always feel a particularly bright happiness, just like the summer days." During his idle time, they will play minute mysteries* together, and they would also cycle over the golden fallen leaves in late autumn together. They have also traveled to various places, spending time to watch an aurora that belonged to only the two of them in a blue ice cave, and to dance flamenco together in a foreign tablao. 

Xia MingXing mentioned, the photoshoot venue today reminded him of a place he went with her on his birthday. "It's also an old street shining with bright neon lights, so I kept feeling that she's staying right by my side throughout the photoshoot session." To Xia MingXing,  life has given him many responsibilities to shoulder, it has also brought him much struggles and pressure. And it's exactly because of the girl's existence, that he became more confident and firm to face this world, and to face himself. "I wanted to become her knight, protect her, and give her all of the best things in this world." It's said that the most wonderful thing in life is to recover what's previously lost. And to Xia MingXing, it's exactly because he has tasted losses, that he can treasure every second he could spend with the one by his side even more, and to anticipate further on the infinite possibilities the future brings.

"What the stage gives me is the joy of forgetting myself, and what she gives me, is the joy of becoming Xia MingXing."

*In this game, the Chinese version is called "turtle soup game". It's a situation puzzle where the host gives out an opening and an ending of the story, then the game participant will have to guess the progress of the story by asking questions, and the host can only answer "yes", "no", or "unrelated to the story". Upcoming description can get a little graphic so please proceed with caution.

The reason why it's called a turtle soup game is because the first situation was "someone ordered a turtle soup in a restaurant, and cried after taking a sip", so that's how the game was named. The situation is called a 'soup', and each 'soup' has a surface and a bottom. The surface is the situation you get asked about, and the 'bottom' is basically a story behind the situation. 

The interesting part of the game is that, the "bottom" of the soup can be creatively scary that it can send chills down your spine. The main point of the game, taking the "turtle soup" situation as an example, is to guess why this person intended to order the turtle soup. It's open to interpretation, and it's up to the player's creativity to recite the narrative the host had in mind. There are definitely more than one fitting answer to the situation too. 

For example, in a popular, well-known "bottom" of the first turtle soup situation is actually because, this someone was trapped in an deserted island with his girlfriend not long ago, and when he's about to starve to death, his girlfriend made him a bowl of meat soup and told him it's a turtle soup, and that's how he survived the disaster with this very bowl of turtle soup. After his return, he ordered a turtle soup from a restaurant on his own, and found out that the taste is completely different from the one he tasted on the deserted island. That is when he instantly understood that it was his girlfriend who cut off her flesh to make soup for him, and lied to him that it's a turtle soup. 

- Interview -

marie claire: Our collaboration theme is "Hormone Explosion", it's said that everyone's hormone has a different scent, what do you think your hormone scent is?

Jesse: The most important person to me thinks that I have the scent of her favorite orange blossoms on me. As long as it's something she likes, I'm willing to like them all. My hormone scent must be the summery, sunlight scent of orange blossoms just as she said.

marie claire: Then what's the type of hormone scent that you like?

Jesse: During winters, I like the fragrance of baked sweet potatoes and roasted chestnuts that gently wraps every coldness away. During summer, I like the scent of the refreshing orange-flavored soda and the fragrance of the hair of the one by my side where it's only within an arm's reach. 

marie claire: If you were to use a poem to describe the hormone response when you have a heartthrob, which would you choose?

Jesse: "As an unperfect actor on the stage, who with his fear is put beside his part."

*Sonnet 23 by William Shakespeare

marie claire: MBTI tests are very popular recently, do you know what MBTI you are?

Jesse: I tested it before, I'm ISFP. Eh?! Is it that surprising to hear that I'm an introvert?! But... I was actually a little surprised at first too. But upon reading the overall analysis of the personality, "this is exactly me!" is also what I felt. People with this personality are often described as an artist, filled with passion towards life, very friendly to others, but also a little sensitive. Also, just like me, they prefer to express their feelings through actions... But at the same time, ISFPs are also a little cunning, so, you have to be careful too~

marie claire: Reminiscing the past year, and looking forward to the next year, do you have anything that you'd like to say?

Jesse: If I were to describe the past year, I think "recovering what's previously lost" would be a better phrase than "reunion after a long separation". From one summer until the other, I've confirmed countless times, that the most important person to me is by my side, and we have our future that can make up to the past regrets. For every moment in the future, I don't wish to let go of her hand ever again. This movement titled "us" will never have its coda.

*The reason I didn't use cadence but 'coda', is because a coda is a passage at the end of a piece of music that brings the music to a close. It can technically be considered a longer cadence. While it's longer than cadence where it's usually less than a bar, and a coda can be a few bars or it could be an entire extra section, the original text used in the interview is "终止符", which basically means "the symbol of the final note", so translation to 'coda' appears to be a closer choice than 'cadence' since coda has a symbol. What Jesse meant is that there will be no coda that would bring the movement of 'us' to an end~ ♪

- - -

You can also read Sariel's here and Osborn's here, Evan's here, and Charlie's here!

Also, here concludes all five interviews of Light and Night x Marie Claire, I hope you enjoyed reading despite the translations were rushed and are likely not the best >m<