Never thought I would have an idol until I found Zhou Shen. You cannot resist but admire and love him for everything that he was, is, and will be in the future.
I first heard the song “空壳 / Shen / (Empty Shell)” from #ZhouShen 's second album “Shenself” on 08/11/2024, which was the day of its first release on music platforms. I remember it was a warm morning. The room was dark, and the neighborhood started to wake up with its usual noises. I had put an alarm on my phone to remind myself that it was the date for Zhou Shen to unlock another song in Shenself. As soon as I put my headphone on, the sound of the guitar captured me by surprise, and then Zhou Shen’s voice came.
I still could not describe my feeling when I first heard the song Empty Shell. It felt like the whole world suddenly stopped moving, including my brain, my heart, and my breathing. Without understanding a single word of the song, the melody and the sound of Zhou Shen’s voice became my only thought, my beating heart, and my air. I felt such a strange sadness and loneliness in Zhou Shen’s voice: it started out as calm as a newborn first looking at the world, then came the emotion, the outburst, and ended with a whisper. At that moment, a peculiar thought came to my mind, “This is my funeral song. If there is one last song I want to hear before saying goodbye to this world, it is this song”.
A song without meaning, I used to refer to Empty Shell with that name. It was the only song I did not look up the meaning of the lyric for many weeks after it was released. I was in a daze, a trance, whenever I heard this song. Just Zhou Shen’s voice is enough to stop me thinking about anything else at that moment and brought me to the land of peace and quietness. Why bother with the lyric, I had thought. Even if it means nothing, I already love this song to death.
I first knew about the meaning of the lyric on a cold day in October. I was riding the train back home from a long day at work. In the car train full of people and noises, I put on my headphone and surfing through the fan-cams of Zhou Shen’s concert in Hangzhou. When I heard the guitar of Empty Shell, I stopped moving my fingers, and I listened. It was the first time Zhou Shen sang this song in his concert, and a kind soul had taken the liberty to translate and insert the translation into the fan-cam’s video. When my eyes met the first line of the translation, it felt like someone just punched me in my chest:
“They say that I am just an empty shell
A face that knows neither cruelty nor tenderness”
As the video rolled on and the translation of the lyric rolled out, I did not realize my whole face had been covered with tears. In a space full of strangers, I silently pulled down my mask and used my sleeve to wipe my face. My only thought at that moment was: “God, why was I so stupid. If only I had known the meaning earlier”.
If I ever had any doubt before about having Empty Shell as my funeral song, after knowing the lyric, I am sure that this song will ease me in my passing moment. It is full of emotions and colors, imagery, and symbolism. It’s like reading a short story slowly unfolding in front of my eyes: it has a plot, characters, a conflict; there is a climax with character growth, and resolution. The lyricist used first person POV to set the tone of the story, and you can see how excellent the lyrics were woven together to form the theme of the song. There are three methods that were used exceptionally well by the lyricist: compare and contrast, symbolism, and metaphor.
“Little by little, you filled me up
With the piggy bank you love, the marbles you won
The first bouquet you received
The first pair of shoes you waited so long to own
The dress you admired again and again, finally taken out from the display window
You said these are what you call sweet
And the hand you are not willing to let go
The head bowed by the weight of life
The you who always walks alone in the pitch-black tunnel
The greetings that were never received
The pain that nobody understood”
In this passage, you can see the contrast that the lyricist used to highlight the different “gifts” that “I” received. The piggy bank, the marbles, the first bouquet, the first pair of shoes, the desired dress, these are childhood and happy memories that forever imprinted in our mind as “sweet”. Then, the hand that is not willing to let go, the bowed head, the lonely walk in the dark, the un-returned greeting, the indescribable pain, these are life-experiences that when we grew up, we all went through as we try to survive: separation, pressure, isolation, and discrimination. The subtle but immense changes from “sweet” to “bitter” was laid out gently but profoundly through different images, each symbolized a fragment of our lives that are full of up and down. As soon as we recalled these memories, the “empty shell” immediately followed, which raised curiosity as to what plot the story is going to unfold. Slowly, we saw the conflict of the main character:
“I carry them as I go
Cherishing all of them dearly
Only after bidding you farewell
Did I understand what it means to own
The shell that has experienced the taste of life
Doesn’t understand why so much trust is given to me
The shell that has grown flesh and blood
Starts to feel emptier than before
Because of what you’ve given me”
I can’t say enough how beautiful this passage is. It’s like the moment when you witnessed a rose bud bloomed into flower, or a baby learned to walk and ran into your arms. Such development, if not done carefully, can be lengthy or fail to capture the significance of the growth. However, just through a few lines above, you can see how the lyricist exquisitely used each image to symbolize each awakening, and it left you with wonders.
“The shell that has grown flesh and blood
Starts to feel emptier than before
Because of what you’ve given me”
I had repeated this line over and over again in my head, and each time, my eyes were filled with tears. Something that you discarded easily and hastily becomes another person’s treasure. It’s like seeing a child picking up a toy from the pile that you disposed to Goodwill store and holding it dear to his heart as he had never received a single toy before in his life. The child turns to you and says: “Thank you very much for giving me such a precious gift”, and you thought: “Such a strange child, values a stupid toy for great love”. When walking away, have you ever looked back to see the light in that child’s eyes who regarding you as:
“But you came walking from afar bearing tokens”.
In this story, the child, or “I” alone, carries the hidden hope that nobody noticed. Through the eyes of the child, “I” looked at the raggedy things that you discarded with an understanding heart and open arms:
“The piggy bank that is not full
The marbles covered in dust
The first bouquet has also withered away
The hand that would eventually let go
The head too weary to lift up
You gave me everything without reserve
I gladly accept them all”
In that moment, the position of the giver and the given suddenly switched. The almighty you now lay on the child's lap. His little fingers gently stroke your hair and his voice warmly said: it's ok, I’m here, I accept you for who you are, what you feel is valid, don't beat yourself up, let it go, no matter what happens, I’ll never leave you.
(Even if one day, you'll leave me.
I will still be here, silently waiting and accepting everything about you. Even if you come to me in the most "tired and withered" form, even if life covered your light, even if you have nothing to offer, even if you don't say anything, I will still recognize you.)
“I gladly accept them all
Empty and full trade places at this moment.”
The happy memories that you gave, "I" return to you now so you can be happy. The bitter memories that you discarded, "I" molded them into sweetness and filled you so you can be fulfilled. The missing pieces in your pending puzzle, "I" grew it inside my heart and torn it out, give it to you without hesitation when you need it, just so you can be "completed".
“Yet you are still asking me
The purpose of filing an empty shell
But I’m just afraid that you
Will lose yourself
You said the old you is already
On the verge of crumbling apart
Yet you still don’t know
Where to find the new you
I carry them as I go.”
When I read this passage, suddenly, the image of my parents appeared in my mind. When I graduated from high school, I could not wait to leave home to "make my own dream". I went to another State to study, got my first job, and got my first laid-off. At that time, I thought, "I want to go home now".
But will my parents still want me? They already spent most of their lives raising me and received nothing but a, "Goodbye. I'm leaving this small, quaint town. There are so many wonderful and bigger things waiting for me" from their child. Would they still want me who is lost, broken, and have nothing to offer them?
As soon as I called my parents, my dad said "Your mom had been keeping your room the same as when you left. Come home now".
When I hold the Pooh bear pillow as I laid down on my bed that night in my parents' home, my tears soaked through the pillow cover. My favorite Pooh bear pillow, it's still here. My parents had kept it in perfect condition. What did they expect?
Nothing. Maybe a small hope that one day, if I decide to come home, I would feel happy seeing it.
Just that, nothing more.
“Perhaps we will meet again
Then I will gently embrace you once more
The empty shell is me, and also you
And also you.”
------*******-----
Song title: 空壳 (Chinese)/ Shen (song’s name in the album) / Empty Shell (English translation)
Singer: 周深 (Chinese) / Zhou Shen / Charlie Zhou (English name)
Lyrics by: Zhou Shen
Composed by: Qian Lei
Listen to the song:
https://t.co/2IqNoPfiXH
Fan-cam with English translation by the “ZhouShen_Global_Fans_Family 周深C929星球海米家族” group:
https://t.co/Sp8JtEYDVO
Additional resources on Empty Shell’s background (English translation provided by Rockster929):
https://t.co/ALrALwxEra
Disclaimer: the lyric translation in the article is obtained from the Fan-cam by the “ZhouShen_Global_Fans_Family 周深C929星球海米家族” group:
https://t.co/Sp8JtEYDVO
I asked my sis: "Do you think President Trump will give us New Year's Eve off as holiday, like Christmas's Eve?" 😳
She looks at me like this: 🙄
Why!!!! I need New Year's Eve off, so many Zhou Shen stages and his Hong Kong concert that I want to see 🥲.
So plan for tonight is go to sleep at 9PM and wake up at 3AM.
A whole year is almost over. I had survived with the help of Zhou Shen music. Lots of things had happened, and surprisingly, the one song that had accompanied me in the past few weeks was this song:
https://t.co/HvfM7Ut8nr
Turns out, even in my darkest hours, what I need most was a gentle hug. This song had put me to sleep, pushed me to get up in the morning, wrapped me in an invisible blanket that protect me from both the cold and the pain. Yet when Zhou Shen sang to the word "Baobei", I could not help but choked up a little bit.
Hope this song will bring you warmth and love in this upcoming year 2026.
@SilvaSongHG Hard to say what song I repeat the most. Zhou Shen released songs so fast and all the songs are so amazing. I was looping some songs and told myself this is "the" song, then a new song came out and i was like: "OK, scratch that. This is 'the' song". And the cycle continues LOL.
...then Zhou Shen sings, and the screen turns black. There goes the title. It has joined its friends on the other side🤣.
But seriously, Zhou Shen sang this song so well. I love it from the first sound. Listen to only the song and somehow, a whole star-crossed love story had run through my head with blood and tears. So vivid.
So, I am watching Star Trek (2009) with my sis right now. At the beginning of the movie, when Captain George Kirk had to stay behind on the mother ship to ensure his wife's shuttle can leave safely, and his wife gave birth, he asked his wife to tell him how his son look like, and his wife said: "He's beautiful". Those are the last words they exchanged.
I often wonder, we see no problem when saying babies or children are beautiful, girl or boy. In fact, the word "beautiful" often ilicit an overwhelming pride and fondness over such precious existence: a human life. Now, why is it that we must use the term handsome or manly to describe a man, and to call a man beautiful is often regarded as derogatory term?
In the past few days, I had listened to "a lot" of #zhoushen Zhou Shen's non-Chinese songs on a certain platform, especially English songs. The impact: greatly successful. My favorite, of course is "I See You". However, yesterday's evening, I went to the market, and they were playing "Unstoppable" overhead. As soon as the first sentence from the singer came out, my body started swaying to the music, and unconsciously, I was anticipating Zhou Shen singing the next line, then, I realized I am not at home 😂 . Then, somehow, the whole song sounded "incomplete". It does not have that same flavor. I don't know how to explain, but I went home and listened to Zhou Shen and it felt right again LOL.
Ok, my friend just pinged me and said Zhou Shen had another stage on 11/8. Then another on 11/9 😯. I only heard of the term "chasing after the star", but in my case, it seems like "my star is chasing crazily after me" 😶. This kid!!! How will I ever caught up on his new stages!!
#zhoushen I don't know how to explain this encounter. This morning I could not find Zhou Shen's stages of his new songs, so I settled to listen to the songs first on QQ. The first song I listened to was "Creation". After the song ended, I felt my whole body was numb and my soul was shattered all over the places. It is excessive and sometimes fake to keep saying that I cried when listened to Zhou Shen sang, but this song "Creation" truly just broke down your strongest defense. More than anything, without knowing the lyric, just listened to Zhou Shen's singing voice alone seemed like a lifetime had passed. I had an immense bias for musical-like songs, such as his medley of Mirage-Ring the Doorbell-Memory Store-Paradise Island on his tour. Zhou Shen's song Creation share the same powerful force and characteristic as this medley, but within 5 minutes of this song, you felt like you had watched a short musical film: with beginning, context, climax, resolution, and ending. The emotions were so powerful it felt like they had transformed into real persons, and each character want to jump out of the story and dance in front of you to express their fates. Zhou Shen really is singing "Creation": he created these characters, breathed life into them, gave them stories, then at the end, after these characters had captured your soul, they quietly go back into Zhou Shen's musical world, waiting to be seen again.
Tell me, which singer can be so powerful as to create life with their voice alone and make the audience wept for such fate?
Unfortunately, after "Creation", I could not listen to any other song for the whole day. Zhou Shen's emotions are still flowing strongly within my trembling soul right now. I'll save the other new songs for tomorrow.
#zhoushen I don't know how to explain this encounter. This morning I could not find Zhou Shen's stages of his new songs, so I settled to listen to the songs first on QQ. The first song I listened to was "Creation". After the song ended, I felt my whole body was numb and my soul was shattered all over the places. It is excessive and sometimes fake to keep saying that I cried when listened to Zhou Shen sang, but this song "Creation" truly just broke down your strongest defense. More than anything, without knowing the lyric, just listened to Zhou Shen's singing voice alone seemed like a lifetime had passed. I had an immense bias for musical-like songs, such as his medley of Mirage-Ring the Doorbell-Memory Store-Paradise Island on his tour. Zhou Shen's song Creation share the same powerful force and characteristic as this medley, but within 5 minutes of this song, you felt like you had watched a short musical film: with beginning, context, climax, resolution, and ending. The emotions were so powerful it felt like they had transformed into real persons, and each character want to jump out of the story and dance in front of you to express their fates. Zhou Shen really is singing "Creation": he created these characters, breathed life into them, gave them stories, then at the end, after these characters had captured your soul, they quietly go back into Zhou Shen's musical world, waiting to be seen again.
Tell me, which singer can be so powerful as to create life with their voice alone and make the audience wept for such fate?
Unfortunately, after "Creation", I could not listen to any other song for the whole day. Zhou Shen's emotions are still flowing strongly within my trembling soul right now. I'll save the other new songs for tomorrow.
I've been so happy in the past two days, all because of #zhoushen Zhou Shen. I watched countless video of his Chengdu concerts on multiple platforms, and each one really lifted up my spirit and gave me immense happiness. I saved so many of pictures/gif/video onto my phone, as you can't never imagine when you desperately need it. Like when there is no internet connection and all you have is your phone, just open up the gallery and surfing through the timeline will automatically bring a smile on your face.
@yumetsu_zs This is hilarious. The first time I watched the video, without reading the explanation in the comment section, i was shocked, like, what happened???!!!😳😳😳 the confession was so loud 🤣.
#zhoushen
It was Halloween on Friday 10/31/25. I stayed up late for Trick or Treat, and went home with a mind full of different costumes: angel, demon, fairy, skeleton, etc. It's like this comedy/horror movie that you were forced to sit through once a year, no way to escape 😑. Then when I woke up this morning and open my phone and saw Zhou Shen, in my half-asleep state, i reached over to my nightstand to grab the candies and waiting for Zhou Shen to say "Trick or Treat" before giving it to him 😂.
No tag, this post is for myself and my peeps.
My angel has built a paradise for his fans, a perfect world where even the air is filled with happiness, encouragement, and warmth. Living in his world, you are worry-free, basked in the gentle sunshine and bright light that disperse the darkness. Now, if per chance, you happen to wander outside of his world and encounter some unpleasant things, you have the option of going back into his world to avoid those malicious words, or you can choose to brave yourself, learn from it, and let go. The main thing is, how to not let it bother you. Is it even possible?
Not entirely, but when it passed, you will become so much stronger and use it as a lesson to succeed in your life. For example, when I first started my job in my young age, during my residency, second week, I was all smiling and bubbling walking into a patient's room to provide care for her. My heart was filled with love and tenderness, for i was determined to provide the best care for her. Unexpectedly, the patient threw her lunch tray at me. It landed on my feet. She screamed and cursed at me, using words that shocked me to the core. I ran out of the room, hid in the toilet and cried my eyes out, but even after crying for 15 minutes, I still did not know what happened: what did i do wrong, why she was so mad at me, etc. But i was shaking like a leaf, for this is the first patient who treated me this way. When I came out of my hiding place, my preceptor came to grab me for the rounding with the attending. When we got to her room, i stayed hidden behind my preceptor's back, not wanting her to see me, but she still saw me. And the screaming and yelling started again. This time, i was able to processed what she was saying, and i was stunned, for she had lied blatently and accused me, in front of the whole attending team, that i treated her badly. My preceptor signaled me to step out of the room, and i thought i was dying at that moment. The bullying from the patient is one thing, the accusation is what threw me into the darkest pit, but i thought that nobody believe me, for i was told to leave. Nobody said anything differently to the patient, everybody tried to appease her, and I was told to write an incident report. I had repeatedly told my preceptor the patient lied, she said she believed me and she knew that patient very well to know she was lying, but the hospital policy focused on "patient satisfaction", so if there is a complaint, an incident report must be filed. I remember i had thought of quitting the profession (after only 2 weeks of started the first job), that this profession is not right for me, and i was so useless for not being able to defend myself. Main thing was: i felt powerless, hopeless, wanting to quit. I felt crumbled.
But one had to eat, so i hang on to my job for money. Then with each new day, each new patient and new experience that i encountered, somehow i had lasted in this profession for almost 15 years. In these 15 years, there were countless times when patients threw stuff at me, screamed at me, became violent, using lies to accuse me, changing stories on the spot to make me look bad. Each time, it hurt a lot, but the time it took for myself to recover is getting shorter and shorter, and i learned to be active instead of passive, reading on legal cases to know what to record to protect myself. The main point is, my friend, you learn from it, and become stronger because of it. So instead of running away and hiding in the bathroom to cry, i now stand my ground and said with a gentle smile: "I understand your frustration. Thank you for letting us know your concern. I will address this with my supervisor. Is there anything else I can do for you?". And if they scream "Get lost!", i would happily walk out of that room and go grab an early lunch.