RENAISSANCE MAN

Formerly a creative director at specialist website OnlyLady, owned by American television powerhouse CBS, he’s also been an editor of a Japanese music magazine, a radio DJ and an acclaimed author of fiction, on top of being a prolific writer for numerous publications. But he’s best known for being one of the most-followed fashion bloggers in China, with 2.4 million fans on Sina Weibo and half a million subscribers on WeChat, where he posts the latest looks, trend-based news and his roundup of “Who Wears What”.

I started writing a blog on (the now-defunct) MSN Spaces around 2006. My blog was among the first batch that had more than a million views. I officially became a fashion blogger as I transitioned from MSN to Weibo, in 2010. At that time, Chinese netizens were just exploring Weibo out of curiosity — “the Twitter of China” and the 140-word limit were a new thing.

In the MSN era. Some brands found me and gave me their products to try. Then, if I found them to be good, I’d recommend them. The commercial sense was very much lacking at that time, though; the brands didn’t really know how to do these types of collaborations. But I did realize that I was given some sort of attention.

The first brand I collaborated with was a cosmetics line, I think under L’Oreal. At that time I was also writing a beauty column for a magazine, so I took the article from the column over to my blog and added a new facial cream. But it was cheaper than the rest of the products, so I remember there were a few followers who suspected me — nothing serious, people were just curious.

As far as the first larger-scale collaboration, that was in my Weibo era. I was invited by Gucci to their show in Italy, and I wrote some pieces and tweets on the way. We didn’t know anything about increasing fans or boosting sales at that time; fashion blogging in the West was already quite mature then, but not in China. So I was selected as a representative of fashion bloggers coming from China.

I like to imagine what life stories the people around me are having. I was inspired by my experience in Beijing as a bei piao (Beijing drifter) — many prototypes came from my neighbors in the same building and the little restaurants downstairs.

For the first book, I was an editor for an animation magazine then, so there are many things people who love ACG (anime, comics and games) can relate to. It’s a book for young people, perhaps aged from middle school to university.

In the two love letter collections, I wanted to talk about the preservation (of love). Vegetables can be preserved in the frozen section, but preserving love human beings.

I used daily-life objects to create love metaphors. It’s not addressed to anyone specific; I just hope to be a person who can tell love stories that others can relate to. is difficult for

Gwyneth Paltrow. I was invited by Boss to interview her in New York when she was the face of the brand’s perfume.

It was held in her hotel room; she was in a very luxurious velvet robe, lying on a sofa looking extremely rich and laid-back. I asked her, “Why were you chosen as the spokesperson?” She said in a very lazy tone: “I don’t know.” The Boss PR person was right next to us, so it was quite

I’m pretty slouchy in private. With friends, I wear hoodies. At fashion shows, I wear suits and the latest fashion items. I have a collection of more than 200 jeans. When I was younger, I tended to collect and maintain them, but now I just can’t wait to wear new jeans.