Huayu started by playing Lao Ai

Chapter 154 Unexpected Popularity

The next morning, everyone had lunch together in the hotel.

Chen Hong's complexion became much rosier. She was in a good mood and was smiling all the time.

The same goes for Amanda, she is experiencing a new stage in her life, learning new knowledge and is very happy.

Zheng Jing played a game and had a lot of fun and was very satisfied.

Cheng Kaige was very surprised.

"It's true that we meet everywhere in life!" Cheng Kaige sighed while introducing Zheng Jing to Oshima Nagisa and others.

Next to Nagisa Oshima is the well-known Japanese star Takeshi Kitano and a young woman named Asako Maeda.

According to the introduction, this woman was the female companion brought by Takeshi Kitano, and she was very consistent with Kitano's usual style.

After everyone finished their meal, they took a bus back to downtown Tokyo.

Zheng Jing, together with Cheng Kaige and his wife, first participated in one of NHK TV's ace programs - "Face to Face Interview".

The interview topic of this episode is the Three Kingdoms culture.

We talked about the drama "Lü Bu and Diao Chan", then the culture of the Three Kingdoms, and then the differences between Japanese and Chinese culture from the perspective of treating the characters of the Three Kingdoms.

Cheng Kaige was very talkative and said a lot, so Zheng Jing just sat there to make some comments.

After recording the face-to-face interview, the three separated, and Cheng Kaige took Chen Hong to participate in an indoor program.

Zheng Jing came to NHK's concert hall to participate in the rehearsal of the "LIVE YELL" program.

In Japan, great emphasis is placed on singers' live performances.

The LIVE YELL program is a live music program.

Singers and bands will perform live on the show to showcase their talents.

The show has high ratings and is broadcast live every two weeks.

Generally, only popular singers from Japan are eligible to participate.

If you perform well on LIVE YELL, you will have the opportunity to participate in the NHK Red and White Songs Contest, which is known as the Japanese Spring Festival Gala.

In order to ensure the effectiveness of the performance, NHK built a concert hall specifically for recording related music programs.

Zheng Jing participated in LIVE YELL, but he did not sing. Instead, he played two songs, "Kiss the Rain" and "The Street Where the Wind Lives", on the piano and erhu respectively.

The reason for choosing to play these two songs was that Full House was also bought by NHK, and the scandal between Jung Kyung and Lee Boo-jeong was also reported by many media in Japan.

The song Kiss the Rain is quite famous in Japan.

The street where the wind lives was named because Akiie Yamaguchi particularly liked this song.

The Japanese version of "Lü Bu and Diao Chan" not only had a new translation and dubbing, but also the ending song was changed to "The Street Where the Wind Lives".

Instead, the theme song, Romance of the Three Kingdoms, was retained.

It can only be said that fireworks fade quickly, and this time it really cooled down, and it was also received coldly in Japan.

As he walked into the concert hall, Zheng Jing saw a beautiful woman who was about eighteen or nineteen years old.

She has round and bright eyes, a round face, plump lips and a short chin. She is a typical goldfish-like beauty.

In Zheng Jing's opinion, she is a bit like Deng Ziqi.

Noticing Zheng Jing's gaze, the beautiful woman took the initiative to come over and said, "Hello, Zheng Jingjun, I'm Mai Kuraki, nice to meet you!"

She spoke in Japanese, and after the translator relayed her message, Zheng Jingcai politely said, "Hello, Mai, I've heard your songs, but I didn't expect you knew me."

Mai Kuraki is one of the hottest female singers in Japan right now.

Her album "delicious way" sold over 400 million copies, becoming the best-selling album in Japan in 2000.

As a female singer packaged by being record company, Mai Kuraki, like her predecessor Izumi Sakai, has a beautiful appearance.

This is also the consistent vision of being's president, Daiyuki Nagato, in selecting people. Not only must they sing well, but they must also have a good image, and it would be best if they have that youthful and bright feeling.

Nagato Daiyuki's strategy was correct, but no one is perfect.

Beautiful female singers often have poorer singing skills and talent.

Izumi Sakai is good at writing lyrics, but her ability to compose music is very poor, and her live singing skills are also unstable. In addition, after she became famous, the photo shooting issue caused huge controversy.

So he simply took the "mysterious" route, appeared less frequently in public, and created an image of being "indifferent to fame and fortune."

This move was a surprise victory.

Izumi Sakai is successful, and she has one invincible experience - death.

The filter that comes with death is extremely powerful.

But Mai Kuraki was not so lucky.

This person reached the peak as soon as he debuted, but was later packaged by being and followed the path of Izumi Sakai, but his development ended up getting worse and worse.

After hearing the translation, Mai Kuraki said enthusiastically: "I like your book The Da Vinci Code very much, and I often discuss this book with my American friends."

At first, Zheng Jing really thought that Kuraki Mai was a fan of his books.

It was not until he saw Utada Hikaru that Zheng Jing realized that Kuraki Mai was deliberately chatting with him in order to avoid embarrassment.

Utada Hikaru debuted earlier than Kuraki Mai.

Her album "First Love" released in 1999 set various sales records, and it is said that it sold an astonishing 765 million copies in Japan. And Kuraki Mai is an artist who was packaged as an imitator of Utada Hikaru after seeing her success.

This kind of imitation is a comprehensive copying from experience to album style.

So much so that on Yahoo Japan, questions like "Mai Kuraki is just a copy of Utada Hikaru", "Who is more talented, Mai Kuraki or Utada Hikaru" appear one after another and are very popular topics.

NHK is really good at making trouble, arranging Utada Hikaru and Kuraki Mai in the same episode.

The ratings of this episode of LIVE YELL will definitely explode in Japan.

But it was rather embarrassing for Mai Kuraki.

Although imitating popular stars is a normal packaging method in the entertainment industry, Mai Kuraki still subconsciously feels guilty when facing Utada Hikaru.

Seeing Zheng Jing looking at Utada Hikaru with an expression that said "I understand", Mai Kuraki felt embarrassed.

She was about to leave when she found that Zheng Jing didn't mind and continued chatting with her.

"Why did you agree to be on the show?"

Mai Kuraki replied: "My album Start in my life was released, but the results were not as good as expected. I need promotion and exposure."

"Understand, this is part of the job, you will get used to it slowly."

Hearing Zheng Jing's comfort, Kuraki Mai breathed a sigh of relief and her favorability towards Zheng Jing increased rapidly.

Unexpectedly, Zheng Jing was not only tall and handsome, but also so warm and considerate, helping her ease the embarrassment.

Zheng Jing had nothing to do, so he was just waiting in the wings.

He didn't know the other people, so he just chatted with Mai Kuraki, and was quite happy.

"Zheng Jingjun, thank you for your help!" Kuraki Mai bowed and said, "I'm going to go on stage now."

"come on."

The song sung by Mai Kuraki is the title song of the album, Start in my life, which is one of the ending songs of Detective Conan.

Her singing voice doesn’t quite match her appearance; she is very cute but her singing voice is deep and powerful.

After Mai Kuraki and Hikaru Utada finished their performances, Zheng Jing came on stage. He was the last one to appear.

Zheng Jing possesses expert-level piano playing skills, and with the added bonus of his dexterous finger skills, he has no problem performing live and can even play the erhu very well.

Instrumental music still has a large market in Japan and has a high status.

Zheng Jing could clearly feel that after he played two songs, the singers on the scene became more enthusiastic towards him.

Mai Kuraki blushed and took the initiative to find Zheng Jing to exchange contact information.

After the rehearsal, Zheng Jing left the concert hall and experienced the nightlife of Japan with Amanda.

On the evening of March 3, Zheng Jing appeared on the LIVE YELL program.

Utada Hikaru and Kuraki Mai participated in this episode, which attracted a lot of attention in Japan.

However, after the show was broadcast, the song that received the most praise was "The Street Where the Wind Lives" performed by Zheng Jing.

This song is in line with the aesthetic taste of Japanese people, and NHK has been promoting this song in order to publicize "Lü Bu and Diao Chan".

It is normal to become popular.

On March 3, Zheng Jing held a book signing event for "The Da Vinci Code" in Ginza, which attracted long queues and huge crowds of people.

Zheng Jing was also surprised to see so many people. After all, his TV series had not yet been aired in Japan, but he did not expect that he already had so many fans.

This is also why Zheng Jing underestimated the influence of "Yuanmen Shooting the Halberd" and "The Da Vinci Code".

Japanese culture is extremely strong, and Zheng Jing's feat of shooting the halberd at the gate was like the reincarnation of Lu Bu, which caused a sensation in Japan.

It was for this reason that the Japanese royal family did not stop Princess Kako from becoming Zheng Jing's disciple.

As for "The Da Vinci Code", it became a global bestseller and made Zheng Jing famous in the United States, and the reports on him in Japan were "the light of Asia".

These two things earned Zheng Jing considerable popularity in Japan.

Of course, this popularity was not clearly demonstrated before Zheng Jing came to Japan.

It was also at this signing event that, with so many people coming to the scene, everyone had a clear understanding of Zheng Jing's popularity in Japan.

In particular, the situation at the book signing event was reported by Japanese media such as NHK TV.

"Imperial Wing arrives in Tokyo, causing massive traffic jams!"

"Zheng Jing's first signed book in Japan was sold for 5000 million yuan."

"First there was the street where the wind lived, then there was the Da Vinci Code, and now the Zheng Jing whirlwind is blowing in Japan."

"By writing books and composing music, riding horses and shooting arrows, Zheng Jing is already an Asian superstar."

"Shooting the Halberd at the Gate! Zheng Jing will perform a human miracle at Dream Island Park!"

With these media reports, Zheng Jing's popularity in Japan further increased.

The event of shooting the halberd at the gate that he held on Dream Island attracted widespread attention in Japan.

Celebrities from all walks of life expressed their desire to watch the show in person, and tickets were hard to come by.

(End of this chapter)