MARTIANS LOVE THIS PLANET

For many, attending a concert is a cultural experience of sharing musical memories with a crowd in a stadium. But for singer-songwriter Hua Chenyu's fans, it goes beyond that.

During his recently concluded Mars Concert 1.0 tour, Hua reimagined the concert experience as an immersive amusement park. Attendees rode attractions, played games inspired by his songs, sampled themed foods, discovered Mars-themed gifts on their seats, and even joined their idol's onstage performance.

The experience reached a poetic extreme at the tour's coastal stop in Yantai, Shandong province: tens of thousands gathered for a concert that began at 3 am.

As dawn approached, Hua stood on a stage erected near the shoreline, dressed in a white shirt with flowing, intricately cut sleeves, as the tangerine sun rose on the distant horizon.

Facing sunrise and ocean breeze, he sang his single Growing Towards the Sun (15-minute live sunrise show) in unison with tens of thousands of fans. It was a collective, almost sacred greeting to the dawn.

Hua frames this world in intimate terms. At each venue, he greets fans with "Welcome home".

He explains, "I want to create a utopian space where everyone feels as relaxed as they do at home."

In their shared language, fans are "Martians", and the concert is their "planet", a temporary escape from everyone's earthly identities, a zone of pure, unrestrained joy. This sense of liberation resonates across ages and borders.

Esther Lau, a Malaysian fan in her 50s, recalls dressing as Luffy from one of Hua's favorite anime works, One Piece, at the tour's stop in Wuhan, Hubei province.

"Imagine someone my age in full cosplay, excitedly wandering the venue, taking photos with strangers," she says.

She calls it a joyful "madness", a feeling of release she never knew before.

A fan since 2018, Lau has traveled across China to attend Hua's concerts — from South China's Guangzhou and Shenzhen in Guangdong province to that unforgettable sunrise in East China's Yantai.

"It was my first time watching the sunrise. To experience it with an artist I admire, surrounded by thousands who feel the same connection …when the sun rose, I was completely overwhelmed," she recalls.

"I couldn't hold back my tears."

For Lau, the experience of sharing those collective moments with her fellow "Martians" and listening to Hua's healing songs has made her a more positive person.

"I used to be someone who hid in the corner," she says.

"Because of him, I've come out of my shell. Now I approach people and care about those around me."

This personal shift in Lau mirrors a broader evolution in Hua, one that has seen him grow from an artist immersed in his own world and sonic experimentation into a musician who reaches outward, connects with others, and believes in music's power to heal.

A graduate of the Wuhan Conservatory of Music, Hua first rose to fame after winning the hit talent show Super Boy in 2013.

Back then, his avant-garde compositions and uninhibited stage presence earned him the nickname "Little Brother from Mars".

But his early work also drew controversy. His 2015 single Cancer, for instance, is a vocal experiment without lyrics. Through shifting vocal intensities, it traces the spread of cancer cells, often brought to life onstage with convulsive, theatrical body language.

Clips of these performances, some only seconds long, circulated widely online and fueled misunderstandings about his artistry.

"My early work was self-focused. It was all about expressing my inner world," says Hua, who once paid little attention to outside judgment.

"Over time, I began writing about others and society, and the shared struggles of today's young people."

That shift gave rise to a series of powerful, healing songs.

I Really Want to Love This World reached out to those battling depression. Growing Towards the Sun invited listeners to rediscover life's quiet beauties. The Journey from Plain to Magical reminds us that we may be born ordinary, yet each of us holds the power to craft something uniquely meaningful.

"I hope my music helps people cherish themselves a little more," he says.

Musically, his range has expanded considerably.

His sixth album, Tipping Point, released last year, weaves together poprock, tender ballads and Nordic folk.

Onstage, he blends classical Chinese instruments such as the pipa (Chinese lute), guzheng (Chinese zither) and xiao (vertical flute) with Western folk instruments rarely heard in orchestral settings, including the banjo and Irish uilleann pipes, a type of bagpipe.

It is a quiet yet persistent exploration of what the East and the West can create together.

"I want to stay true to my musical identity," he explains.

"But I also want to create works that allow even those who don't yet like my music to gradually understand it."

At the tour's final stop in Shenzhen, Hua celebrated his birthday on Feb 7 with his fans during the concert.

That evening, watching from the stage, he saw fans seated across the venue, silently and meticulously coordinated, holding up color-coded signs that spelled out giant messages: "Happy Birthday, Baby" and "From the Start to Forever."

Overwhelmed by the gesture, he wept.

"At that moment, I felt truly blessed and deeply moved, wrapped in the immense love of my fans," he recalls.

Sitting in the audience that night was 75-year-old Barbara, an American fan from California who had traveled to China for the ninth time to attend Hua's concert.

She sums up the tour in three words: love, togetherness and freedom.

"I see China in a totally different way now," she adds.

She recalls a specific, vivid memory from a Sunday stroll in Shenzhen.

What impressed her most was not the city's sleek skyline, but the vibrant and humane community life unfolding along its sidewalks — a barber cutting hair outdoors, people singing together and children playing freely.

"It's just a beautiful culture," she says. "I've fallen in love with China."