Interview with Dou Wei - About Dreams

Dou Wei, 34, musician. He's about to release two new albums "The Story Between the Mirror and Flowers" and "Three States, Four Scores". Mind you that he devotes half of his time to his family nowadays. Before we made the interview appointment, Dou Wei said that we must do it on a fine day. The reason is, a fine day brings good vibes. His persistence and sensibility for moods, all led to the nameless bar he chosed which is near Yindian Bridge at the Back Sea(Hou Hai).

(N for Newweekly; D for Dou Wei)

N: Do you have any impressive dreams?

D: Lots of them. But I lost them completely once I woke up.

N: What comes first in your mind when talk about dreams?

D: Miraculous.

N: Why?

D: They seem both real and surreal.

N: Do you think there're any connections between dreams and real life?

D: Sure. Dreams are abstruse, not only for the physical and psychological reasons, everyone has different dreams, for me they are hard to describe.

N: There are times when we surprisingly find that things we have dreamt about would accutally recur in real life, do you have any of such dreams?

D: Yes. I once wanted to keep records of my dreams, in case someday when I run into something familiar, I can check my dreams and see if there's any connection. But I often forget my dreams once I wake up. So I never have records of my dreams.

N: What do dreams bring to you?

D: Mostly emotional feelings. Happiness, sadness, dread... something like that.

N: What would be your first response when you wake up from a dreadful nightmare?

D: I'd tuck myself tight in the sheets. Things that might be not so laughable in real life would become so funny in dreams that I'd laugh out loud. And so are the painful things, in real life they might be not so sad, but in dreams I'd feel so miserable that I'd burst into tears, I'd become very emotional, not as the real life at all.

N: Do you think that depends on one's personality?

D: I think so. I'm an introverted person.

N: Why did you paint Back Sea(Hou Hai) in this painting about dreams, do you often dream about the Back Sea?

D: Yes. I used to play around this neighborhood when I was a kid. This bar has been running for three years, and I've been hanging around here for three years

(transcribed by Xia Nan)