[Parallel World + Reincarnated Copycat + Campus + No System + One Heroine]
Video blogger Lu Ran, from 2025, woke up to find himself back in a senior-year high school classroom in 2008. To his shock, Jay Chou, JJ Lin, and the other top stars had all vanished from the Chinese music scene.
Faced with this musical wasteland, he had the greatest Chinese pop hits of the next twenty years in his head. It was like holding a gold mine in his hands.
The song “Later” touched countless hearts over the campus radio station, while “Lonely Brave” set the crowd ablaze at a band competition.
As the Korean Wave surged and Chinese pop music faced a crisis, Lu Ran took Chinese-style music to the world with “Blue and White Porcelain.” Its misty, rain-soaked imagery painted in glazed colors, along with its poetic lyrics and melody, not only dominated global music charts but was also hailed by overseas media as “the ultimate expression of Eastern aesthetics.”
When the media asked what he thought of the Korean Wave, he looked straight into the camera and declared, “Don’t let the Korean Wave get more and more arrogant. Chinese pop is the best!”
He never argued with his critics, choosing instead to break through with action. His score for a blockbuster film helped it rake in billions at the box office. The music variety show he created, "China’s New Generation", blended elements of intangible cultural heritage with electronic music and became the world’s most-watched show. He was invited onto the cover of "Time" and recognized as “a cultural icon who redefined Chinese pop.”
When capital tried to replicate his success, he merely replied, “I don’t follow trends. I am the trend.”
From campus idol to global superstar, Lu Ran used the notes of another era to build a music empire of his own, letting the world hear the mighty voice of Chinese pop.
