Reported by: ZHANG Yan
Photographed by: FENG Jian
Translated by: WANG Yihao
Edited by: Jennifer Taylor
In 2002, she became one of the first undergraduate students of the Advertising Major, the Department of New Media and Art in HIT.
In 2006, she entered the Department of Cinematography, the Beijing Film Academy for a Master’s degree as the first in the entrance examination.
In 2011, she was favored as the best young director of the generation after the 1980s by FOCUS: First Cuts, financed by Andy Lau.
In 2013, she took her film debut Singing When We Are Young written and directed by herself back to her Alma Mater HIT.
She is LIU Juan.
From 2002 to 2013, this girl from Chonqing departed from HIT, and came back to HIT again. “Because HIT is my origin, is the place where the seed of my dream has sprouted. Before the official release of my first work, I want to get reviews from the teachers and students in my Alma Mater” LIU said.
When LIU was interviewed, she had just met the teachers and friends of her Alma Mater. LIU smiled as she said: “Since I got into the gate of HIT, I kept taking photos with my mobile phone and then sent them to my partners and friends. A partner coming with me asked, ‘Does the school seem so strange to you?’ I said, ‘I am too familiar with the campus and people here, so I want to share the photos with my friends who have never been to HIT. I want to show them what a brilliant school HIT is.’ ”
It was the first time LIU came back to her Alma Mater after graduation in 2006. On July 4th, her film debut Singing When We Are Young would be officially released around the country. In the firm written and directed on her own, with youth as the theme, LIU told a story about the struggles of six high school students with her pen and camera. They make continued efforts, afraid of no difficulty and with no fear of failure in their pursuit for their dreams. “It is a story about love and growth. I want to record the youth of the next generation with a camera so that the film audience would find emotional resonance with the six young people, and let memory and feelings about youth be solidified through the film.”
LIU said that the film contents were not only the condensation of her years of thoughts and inspirations on art creation, it was also her personal experience about love and growth. In the process of creating the film, she was also learning how to love and grow. Today, LIU has come into people’s sight because of the support of Andy Lau’s FOCUS: First Cut, and also because she made documentaries for two films of the famous Chinese director ZHANG Yimou, Under the Hawthorn Tree and A Simple Noodle Story. Surprisingly, the thirty-year-old young directress who is covered with glory never thought she would embark on the path of art. “Frankly, before I entered HIT, I had never thought I would become a director. In the four years study at HIT, teachers around me constantly encouraged me, saying I could do the job and I would find my own way as long as I put in the effort.”
Looking back on the passionate college time, LIU said she was fortunate to get to know life-long teachers and friends in HIT, who always give her support and encouragement. Professional teachers personally took her to do internships, and also taught her how to make a shooting script. Under the leadership of the school TV station, she interviewed HIT academicians and the "Eight Hundred Heroes". She with two classmates formed a group reading English together every morning at 6 o’clock. She also got encouragement and consolation from teachers and friends when she prepared for examinations. LIU has kept all of these memories in her mind. “It is not be too much to say HIT was my origin on the road of art. Without teachers’ reminders and encouragement, I would never have thought that I could go to try this kind of life, and I would never have had the courage to apply for the Beijing Film Academy. HIT was the starting point of my life.” With the encouragement of teachers and friends, LIU learned all the teaching materials of the Cinematography Major by herself during undergraduate years, and participated in a variety of internships and practical activities. Finally, she entered the Beijing Film Academy as the first in the major, and was one step closer to the road of art.
In the Beijing Film Academy, the girl with an engineering background was independent and distinctive. Teachers and students often asked: "Why are you so strict? You do everything so strictly." "Every time, I told them that I came from HIT, and in HIT, everyone is so strict” LIU said, although “being strict in qualifications for graduates; making every endeavor in educating students” could not be understand by everyone, the qualities of HIT students could be seen everywhere.
Although LIU was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy as the first in the examination, she lacked advantages in the terms of art and the profession when she as first admitted. However, she quickly turned the disadvantages into advantages with an unyielding spirit. She combined the careful thinking and rigorous work style of HIT with her pursuit and distinctive understanding of art, and took on the characteristics that would even make art background student envious. “HIT students are never afraid of tackling key problems. In order to do one thing, they can come up with countless ways, and persist for many years." Insistence and dedication bought more opportunities and platforms for the young director. During her postgraduate period at the Beijing Film Academy, she participated in the advertising filming of several well-known brands, and was even selected by ZHANG Yimou as director for his films. It is persistence and dedication that made LIU who she is today.
From an Advertising Major undergraduate student to a Cinematography Major postgraduate student, and then to a serious young director, took LIU only eleven years. LIU said: "Actually, I just kept walking. Like a poet once said: ‘He is there, and I am here. One day, we will meet.’ In my case, ‘he’ is film.” It was fortunate for LIU to meet film while she is walking on the road. When we heard her memories about learning cinematography, saw her sincere gratitude for the help and encouragement of HIT teachers and students during her four years here; felt her calmness and courage upon receiving the filming invitation from ZHANG Yimou and understood her unique insight on film-making and her insistence on pursuit of the true, the good and the beautiful in art, we discovered that LIU owes this to much more than luck. As she said: “On every road, there is fertile soil that can make a seed sprout. However, the growth and blossom of the seed of dreams need to be watered and fertilized by oneself.”
LIU Juan (second from right) with Producer Andy Lau（first from left） and actors ZHANG Hanyun (second from left) and RAN Xu (first from right) (Photo from Baidu)
LIU Juan Interview
