We had the good fortune of connecting with Ke Liu and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Ke, what led you to pursuing a creative path professionally?
There were many reasons, but if I trace it all the way back, I think it’s my childhood experience of strolling around that led me to a creative path. I used to spend too much time wandering on the street when I was a kid. My parents often locked me in the house for safety when they were away for work, but I was always a rebel. I would throw the keys downstairs so my friend could help open the door from the outside. Then I would come out and just stroll around the neighborhood. The street downstairs from my childhood house was filled with mahjong parlors, billiard rooms, street peddlers, and passersby. People gambled, chatted, and sometimes fought. A lot of different characters and a lot of drama. My favorite activity was simply watching people. Daydreaming could kill an entire day. Years later, when I learned about the idea of a ‘flaneur,’ I thought, “Oh, that’s exactly what I did as a kid.” Even now, wandering around and doing nothing but watching is still an important source of my inspiration.

Alright, so let’s move onto what keeps you busy professionally?
What sets me apart from others might be a weird mix of rebellion to the reality and the romanticism in my works. I often love to bring some magic to my stories even if they have a very realistic foundation. Deep down inside, I think I have blind optimism when it comes to the question of how we should live and look at our lives. I think the miracle is real when you have faith in it. And everyone should believe in ‘something’ that is beyond the ordinary surface of lives. By making films, I want to create a world that mirrors reality but is much more tender and romantic. In terms of challenges, I believe the same holds true for anyone else; it’s never easy to pursue a career as a writer/director. The challenge comes from both inside and outside. I would say the biggest challenge for me is to constantly fight against self-doubt, maintain faith in myself, and push further in my creativity. I’m not the most confident person. To be honest, I never think I have completely overcome the challenges. They always come one after another, and then another. The way I wish to deal with it is by trying to be like Sisyphus, rolling the stone over and over again without questioning the meaning of rolling the stone. That’s the spirit I want to keep with me forever.”

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
I’m a big fan of adventures and urban explorations, so if it were a week-long trip, I would take my friend on a road trip to some post-industrial towns. I would drive them to the Great Lakes region, dropping by Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Detroit, etc., visiting abandoned towns and factories, playing billiards and bowling, and finding the weirdest roadside attractions (which I’m pretty good at). I have been to Detroit many times, and it has always been my favorite city in the US for the abandoned factories and traces of its past glamour that you could find in thrift stores. Every time I traveled there, my must-go spots were Eastern Market and a veteran bar where I could play billiards and retro arcade games.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
This time I want to say thank you to a rental bookstore where I spent most of my off-class time during my primary school years, even though it was demolished a long time ago, and I have lost contact with the owner for years. I used to drop by the store and spend an hour or two there every day on the way back from school. The membership of that bookstore only cost a few bucks but gave you access to hundreds of novels and comic books. Those books were all knockoffs, with cheesy designs and blurry text. That place was my fairyland, my secret playground. The funny thing was that my mom didn’t allow me to go there, as a lot of knockoff bookstores in China were mainly for pornographic books and cheesy romance fictions. But luckily, I was only interested in ghost stories at the time. The first series I finished there was LiaoZhai (Strange Tales from a Chinese Studio), a traditional collection of supernatural tales, and even now, I still read it once in a while.

Website: metallicbabylon.net

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/metallic.babylon/

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ke-liu-855bba215/

Image Credits
Credits: Kanne Vee; Pengfei Song; Chris Ziminski

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