CRI听力:Chen Wei: I Do What I Like

Chen Wei is the Chief Editor of one of the most famous Chinese fashion magazines "BAZZAR" - he particularly specializes in writing stories about successful Chinese businessmen. Still only in his early thirties, Chen Wei has a huge amount of experience and he has already written and published his two books which analyzes the development of the Japanese economy. What is a day in the life of Chen Wei like?

Du Lijun has more.

It's nearly 11 o'clock in the morning and I am standing in the coffee shop on the first floor of the Fashion Building in the east of Beijing, the working day of fashion editors here has just begun. This is where Chen Wei works. 

In a pristine white shirt and with hair fashionably and meticulously styled Chen Wei looks, at most, in his late twenties. But when he sits and speaks to me, the experiences from more than ten years within the media field begins to spill out and the knowledge he has accrued becomes apparent.

"If you go upstairs, you probably won't find anybody there. We tend to get to the office at about 11 and then go to lunch! For most of us, the night is when we work."

Chen Wei tells me that being a chief editor working for a fashion magazine, life is not all about the spotlight. Every month they have a meeting to decide who they will feature as their interviewee, they plan a time to conduct the interview, and contact the dresser and the camera man to book them too. After the interview, Chen Wei is in charge of the script whilst his colleagues help him with the layout of the article.

"Our magazine is published once a month, and although we feature stories about businessmen, there are many differences between our magazine and financial magazines. Most of these magazines have weekly meetings, which we don't need."

Taking his coffee with him, he leads the way upstairs to his office. It is extremely quiet and only three people are there filing paperwork. Chen Wei tells me that the timetable of his employees is very flexible - they are each able to dictate when they work as long as it is finished before the deadline.

Chen's desk is home to a mountain of magazines and pages of drafts of the stories he is working on. He says that he usually contacts his interviewees via MSN or email when he is in the office as well as researching and polishing stories.

He is now preparing for the interview that he is going to conduct this afternoon. Before becoming the chief editor of Bazzaar, he had many different jobs. After majoring in Japanese, he graduated and first worked for Toshiba as it is a Japanese company, but always dreamed of going into media. Three years later he came across an opportunity to work as a reporter for Asian Business Leaders magazine. This was the turning point in his career, because during this time, he accumulated a lot of experience. Most especially in the skills of interviewing which proved invaluable later on in his career.

"At first, I found journalism hard, I remember the first time I ran my own interview. It was with a famous Japanese designer. At the time I knew nothing about design and I didn't know what to ask. I got to the interview, and he asked me the first question! It really was an unforgettable first experience."

The famous designer only asked Chen Wei a simple question, but Chen Wei talks of how it relaxed and inspired him.

"He asked me why there are always beautiful flowers painted on classic Chinese cups and I did not know how to answer! He went on to explain that because the cup is used to drink water, and the water is used to moisten the plants, it makes you feel closer to nature."

Now Chen begins to look confident about his upcoming interview. He is going to meet a book publisher in the afternoon and he and his interviewee have already been in contact. Chen has sent him the question list. This interview is just a simple one and there is no need to take any photos.

An hour passes and Chen wraps up his interview. Chen tells me how he never imagined he would be working in a field related to fashion - and he even thinks that he is not fashionable at all. He was even a little afraid of working in the Fashion Building but it is not how he had expected.

"I always thought I had little in common with fashion-lovers, but now I have friends amongst my colleagues for beers and good conversations after work. We talk about sports and politics. It really makes me happy to have found friends here."

After his interview, Chen needs to head back to the office for a meeting. The meeting is top secret; the team is deciding on what the cover of next month's magazine will look like.

Chen is father to a 6 month old daughter. He says that, no matter how tired he is after work, his daughter's sweet voice calling him Daddy makes him forget any of the stress of work.

For CRI, I'm Du Lijun.