1990: Starting from Baojia Street

"Everyone, please be quiet. The next song is about to start."

Outside the Jimen Gate of the Taimiao, a young man in his twenties stood on a bench, raised his arms and shouted loudly, asking the people at the scene to calm down.

As the concert progressed inside, the number of people outside the Temple of Heaven increased instead of decreased, and both sides of the arch bridge were filled with people.

If there hadn't been a large number of staff and police officers on the scene to maintain order, there would have been chaos long ago. After all, there is a river under the arch bridge, and if there are too many people and the situation gets chaotic, someone might fall into the water.

There are so many people crowded at the door. If someone really falls into the water, it will be really troublesome.

In order to prevent any emergencies, there are not only police officers on site to maintain order, but also medical personnel and ambulances on standby at all times. This is also standard for large-scale events.

The space in front of the Temple of Heaven is very small, and even if it is crowded, it cannot accommodate many people. In order to prevent the scene from being overloaded with people, the staff who maintain order and the police have already set up isolation zones around it.

Only when someone goes out of the other exit will this entrance let people in. The number of people who go out will be the same.

But from the start of the concert till now, the number of people going out is less than double digits.

Therefore, many people who could not squeeze into the entrance of the Temple of Heaven could only stay nearby and could not get in at all.

To the west of the Taimiao are Tiananmen, Duanmen and Wumen, which are inaccessible at night. Therefore, those who cannot squeeze into the Jimen Gate of the Taimiao run to the east. However, the east is too far from the entrance of the Xiandian Hall, and the effect of listening to the concert is not comparable to that at the Jimen Gate.

The audience gathered at the entrance of the hall also cherished this opportunity very much, so everyone tried to remain quiet.

There is no problem with music because the volume is loud enough. Even if there is some loss, I can still hear it roughly. Besides, I have already listened to it outside, so I don’t care about the sound quality. The main thing is to feel the atmosphere.

The main problem is Zhou Yan’s voice, which sometimes cannot be heard clearly.

At this time, everyone needs to calm down.

The young man who was speaking was not a staff member, he was just a enthusiastic citizen. He got a chair from somewhere so that he could stand higher and help shout.

His shout had a very good effect, and the scene immediately became much quieter.

In fact, not many people heard his voice, mainly because he was standing on a chair and making gestures, which most people could see.

After a while, the music from inside came, which was "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together".

This song is adapted from "The Street Where the Wind Lives". Needless to say, its popularity is very high. After the adaptation, the richness of the whole song has been elevated to a higher level, and it is accompanied by singing and dancing, so it is also very popular in the industry.

Because the Jinling Frontline Song and Dance Troupe and Zhou Yan have made this piece of music and the song and dance available to the public, song and dance troupes across the country can now perform this song anywhere without any application.

Therefore, now basically all song and dance troupes across the country have listed "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together" as a regular program, and the performance frequency of this program in various theaters also ranks very high among musicals.

People like to perform because the audience likes to watch it, and tickets can be sold, which is all driven by the market.

Linda stood beside the arch bridge, listening to the beautiful music coming from the temple, and couldn't help nodding. Although they were outdoors, the music effect was still good. The audience waiting at the gate of the Temple of Heaven was really lucky.

But it’s not easy to grab a spot here. You have to arrive at the scene at least at four or five o’clock. If you are a little later, you won’t be able to get in.

As a reporter for Billboard, Linda must have a ticket, but they only had one ticket for the first show today. She gave the ticket to her colleague and stayed outside.

Taking photos is not allowed inside the Temple of Heaven today, so even if she goes in she can't do anything, so it's better for her to stay outside and see what's going on outside.

Perhaps, the situation outside is more worthy of recording.

At this moment, Linda was glad that she stayed outside and saw how crazy the fans were about Y.

The entrance to the Ji gate is so small that there must be several thousand people crowded in it, and she just saw the staff put up isolation tape to prevent people from coming in.

If the place is big enough, Linda believes there won't be any pressure at all even if there are several times more people on site.

If it was a pop singer, such a scene wouldn't seem like a big deal, but this was a concert, and Linda had never seen a concert so popular before.

In recent days, Linda has heard an idiom in China called "the music is too high and too few people like it", which means that the more elegant the music, the smaller the audience.

This term applies to music from almost all over the world. No matter where it is, the audience for classical music is smaller than that for pop music.

Y is not a classical composer. He has many pop, new age, neo-classical, avant-garde and experimental pieces, and his music style is very diverse.

But no matter what, Y is a composer who doesn't sing.

As long as you don't open your mouth to sing, the scene won't be too exaggerated.

In fact, the reason why Y’s songs are so popular and his tickets sell so well is partly because of the movies and partly because of pop songs.

If he had only relied on traditional pure music to spread his music, he would probably not be famous now and wouldn't even be able to sell tickets for his concerts.

The key point is that the tickets for this concert are not cheap. Not to mention the prices sold by scalpers, even the tickets available at the ticket office have an average price of more than RMB 1,000.

Based on Linda's understanding of the Chinese market, this is obviously far beyond the average level. Most Chinese people do not even have this much money in a month's salary.

This price, even converted into US dollars, is not cheap in the United States.

Not to mention, scalpers have already driven up the ticket prices for this concert to sky-high levels.

Before coming to China, Linda saw news reports that someone in the United States spent thousands of dollars just to buy a ticket to a concert in the Forbidden City.

To be honest, this price has nothing to do with ordinary people. There are not many people in the United States who can afford to spend thousands of dollars to buy a concert ticket, not to mention that after buying the ticket, they have to spend at least thousands of dollars to go to China to watch the performance.

Most American people cannot save a few thousand dollars each year after deducting the basic living expenses of food, clothing, housing and transportation.

In this regard, American music fans are not as happy as Chinese music fans.

These Chinese music fans at the scene did not buy tickets, but they still had the opportunity to listen to the concert outside. Although the effect was not as good, the atmosphere was still very good.

At least Linda felt that it was still very interesting to listen to the concert with everyone outside. It was a pity that she had not learned enough Chinese recently, and she could not understand what Zhou Yan said inside, nor what the Chinese fans around her said. Otherwise, the experience would definitely be better.

She decided that she would study Chinese well after returning this time, because a large part of her current work was related to Zhou Yan.

In addition, after Leehom Wang debuted in North America, she had another Chinese star to interview.

Although Leehom Wang speaks very good English, Linda feels that she will use Chinese more and more in the future.

Linda also has a hunch that as Y becomes more and more popular in the United States, more and more Chinese artists will go to the United States to develop their careers.

Leehom seemed to have followed in Y's footsteps and entered the North American market, and developed very well in the United States with just one song.

It is highly likely that in the future, there will be more Chinese musicians like Leehom appearing in the North American market.

But Linda was lucky. After the performance of "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together", Zhou Yan was talking. When she was confused, a girl next to her saw her confused face and smiled and said to her, "You don't understand? Teacher Zhou is talking to everyone about the creation process of this song."

Linda's eyes lit up when she heard someone speaking English to her. She looked at the girl and said, "Thank you so much. My Chinese is really not good. I can't understand a word he said."

"You're welcome." The girl smiled and said, "The song 'Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together' originated from 'The Street Where the Wind Lives'. When Teacher Zhou went there..."

Linda smiled and continued, "When Y went to the filming site of the movie 'To Live', he happened to meet a group of elderly people resting in the alley. One of them was..."

The girl looked at Linda in a daze. She didn't expect that a foreigner would know so much about the creation process of "Drinking the Yangtze River Water Together", and there were many details that even she, a Chinese fan of Zhou Yan, didn't know.

This person must be a very experienced music fan, otherwise he wouldn't know so much and in such detail.

"How do you know so much?" the girl asked in surprise.

Linda smiled and pointed to the badge on her chest. "Because I'm a reporter for Billboard, I usually write news about Y, so of course I have to know more about him. In other words, it's my job to understand Y."

"So that's how it is. No wonder." The girl suddenly realized, and then she asked with great interest, "Is Teacher Zhou really famous in the United States?"

Linda nodded. "Of course, there is no doubt about it. If he wasn't famous, why would big stars like Mariah Carey, Backstreet Boys and Celine Dion come? The achievements he has made are real and cannot be faked."

After arriving in China, Linda found that people often asked her such questions.

Most Chinese people have seen news saying that Y is very famous in Europe and the United States, but they are not sure, so they must verify it with her.

Maybe it’s because no Chinese has ever achieved the same results as Y in all these years, so his results are somewhat hard to believe.

Linda herself also felt deeply moved that over the years, no one outside of English-speaking countries, let alone the Chinese, had achieved such results in the United States.

Not only the Chinese were surprised, many Americans were also surprised.

But after just a few years, many Americans have become accustomed to Y's appearance. They have gradually become accustomed to a Chinese person appearing in their lives with his music, influencing their ears and eyes.

At the end of last year, People magazine released a list of the sexiest men. Although Y did not win the title, he appeared on the second page.

This has never happened before. People magazine has been publishing this list of the sexiest men for more than a decade, and no Chinese has ever appeared in such a high position.

Being able to appear on the second page meant that he was just one step away from appearing on the cover and becoming the sexiest man in the world as voted by People magazine that year.

This shows that Americans' aesthetic taste is quietly changing, and people are gradually beginning to accept Asian aesthetic tastes.

Linda has also interviewed many Americans, and when they mentioned Y's appearance, many people thought he was very handsome.

However, in comparison, Y's appearance is at a higher level in China and is more attractive to the public.

She also asked many people in China, and none of them said that Y was not outstanding in appearance.

If the average American would rate Zhou Yan's appearance at seven to eight, then the Chinese would rate her at more than nine.

And she could see that these interviewees were not being polite or out of admiration for Y, but they really thought Y was very handsome.

Especially some little girls, when they mention Y, their eyes light up, and those eyes can't be faked.

In addition, Linda also conducted a blind selection experiment to prove that her feeling was not wrong.

She took photos of Zhou Yan and some other stars and asked people who didn't know them. The answers she got showed that Y topped the list in terms of the number of times he won first place.

This shows that in the Chinese aesthetic, Y is indeed very handsome, even ranking at the top among celebrities.

The aesthetic tastes of the Chinese and American people have reached a certain level of unity in Y.

Not to mention Y, even the Chinese actress Joey Wong was considered very beautiful by American fans because of "The Sixth Sense". Now there are many fans of Joey Wong in the United States. After "Time Traveler" came out, American fans are not only looking forward to Zhou Yan and Zhou Yan's soundtrack, some fans are also looking forward to Joey Wong.

If this continues, Y might be the sexiest man on the cover of People magazine next year. Then, Y will make history again.

Of course, Linda believes that as long as Y can continue to bring excellent works to everyone, sooner or later he will be on the cover of People magazine and be voted the sexiest man in the world.

The girl was also very happy to hear Linda's answer, "I knew these things would not be false."

"Of course it's not fake." Linda smiled. "Y is very popular in the United States, which is why I came here from the United States. And you can see that besides me, there are other foreign reporters at the scene."

Among the people crowded at the entrance of the gate, there were at least one or two hundred reporters, including many foreign reporters.

“I hope Teacher Zhou can do better and better abroad.”

"Of course. Now many American fans are looking forward to the release of About Time in the United States. In this respect, you are happier than American fans."

"That's true." The girl felt a little proud of what Linda said, "We... Hey, Teacher Zhou said--" (End of this chapter)