I will tell you a story that begins in 2007.
I’m 17 years old and my parents ask me, “So, that’s it, it’s over high school.
What do you want to become ? “
And me: “At 17, there, do, a choice of life.
I do not know, I’m lost!
Well, I could go to college,
like that, I could party. “
And my parents: “No, no, studies are very serious.
If you want to party,
first party and then you will study.
Everything in its time. “
So, I stay there
and I see all my friends starting to work
or start studying.
And I do not want to stay there watching them.
So, I make a decision and I decide to go on a trip.
Here I am in Brighton, England.
A aunt of mine found me a little job in a cafe
and a small apartment is perfect.
The problem is that I do not speak English at all,
and I find it very, very difficult to make friends.
At work, they are not nice because I can not hold a tray
and when he speaks to me, I can not answer.
I feel completely lost.
I want to go home, I cry every night,
and for the party, it’s missed because I’m a minor
and I can not go to any nightclub.
And then, thanks to the support of my relatives, I stay,
and as it goes, it’s easier,
I learn a few words of English, I make friends and in the end it goes.
So I decide to make a bigger trip,
I’m leaving for Australia, I’m in Perth.
And then, I live from day to day.
I meet a group of Germans in Perth,
I climb in their van, we go up along the coast,
and then I meet Italians, we find ourselves in the east, in the south, in the center,
it’s adventure, I do not know at all what will be done the next day
and I’m still completely lost again,
but what is cool?
Back in France, my parents ask me:
“So, that’s it, you finally know what you want to become. “
And me: “No, I do not know what I want to become.
But what I do know is that I loved meeting
full of people from many different backgrounds,
from many different countries,
and I think I want to talk to as many people as possible.
So, yes, I know what I’m going to do: I’m going to study languages. “
I find myself at the university, in the registration office
and I have to make my choice.
German: oh no, I did not like that in high school,
I do not want to do German.
English: I would like to learn a new language.
Italian:
yes, it’s nice, but I would like to speak with as many people as possible.
What is the most spoken language in the world?
Chinese.
A billion and a half people to talk to, it’s perfect.
I’m starting the classes. The problem is that it’s very complicated actually.
We have 26 letters,
they have 100,000 small signs,
all more complicated than the others,
and they have at least five ways to say the word yes.
(In Chinese)
I tell myself that I’m never going to get there.
Then, in addition, in 2008, it’s the year when it’s the strike in college.
So, there is never any course.
(Laughter)
I see only one solution:
if I want to learn Chinese, I have to go to China.
It’s gone, heading for Chongqing in the depths of China near Tibet.
I find myself a job, I register for courses on site,
and here I am excited to start this new adventure.
And there, in fact,
it’s a lot harder than I imagined.
People do not speak a word of English, let alone French.
I can not read the restaurant menu,
I have to go to the supermarket, I do not recognize anything,
I am completely lost.
But hey, I hang on, I’m going
and I tell myself that I will not succeed but I continue, I hang on.
And after a year, I manage to gossip a few words of Chinese.
Back in France, I still have not chosen a profession,
but hey, I continue the Chinese classes,
we will see where it will not take us.
One day, my Chinese teacher offers me something crazy.
He offers me to participate in a competition of Mandarin.
He tells me that it’s on TV in China
and that elects the mandarin world champion,
apart from the Chinese.
The rule is that they must be strangers.
Well, why not? Go!
I find myself there, facing 120 candidates,
all more excellent than others.
We have a few weeks to prepare the show
and I am the most void.
And so, I can not remember what I have to do, I’m crying.
So, production offers me an alternative:
“Why do not you sing a song in Chinese? “
Me, sing? Except in front of my mirror with a hairbrush in front
to make a microphone, I never did that.
But hey, even ridicule me, as much to the end.
I accept.
And the most incredible,
is that a few days after the broadcast of this program,
a manager calls me and makes me an extraordinary proposal.
He offers me to participate in the Chinese version of The Voice.
(Laughter)
Here is my reaction:
“Oh no, I can not do that, it’s impossible.
I can not do that. I will be completely lost. “
(Video)
China had rolled out the red carpet.
(Music)
I was young, adventurous, carefree, popular.
My passion was my job.
On stage, I was MoMo.
But that was before.
Lymphatic system cancer, stage two advanced.
Biopsy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy.
At 24, I am broke in full glory by disease.
I leave everything, I leave my career as a singer.
I leave China, I come to France, I go back to the hospital.
I’m starting to lose my hair little by little,
and most importantly, I am very very afraid to die.
I feel a bit like a raft
in the middle of an ocean completely unleashed.
Whatever I do, I can not control anything.
I do not decide anything anymore,
I lost control,
and I have never felt so lost.
I think back to everything I’ve lived before,
Whenever I feel lost and know what to do.
I have to do as usual in fact, I have to follow the movement,
adapt to my new environment, and when it’s time, act.
I am much more afraid than usual
because I know that my life is at stake and that I can die.
I always managed to overcome that,
so, somewhere, I know I can do it again.
To act ? Yes, but how to act when you are in bed?
Well, here I am, at the end of my bed,
I feel like throwing up all day, I have no strength to get up,
I feel so bad everywhere
that I have the impression that a truck has rolled me over.
It’s hard to get into those moments.
What can I do ?
Well, I write. I write on my computer.
I have my computer next to my pillow
and as soon as I do not feel too bad, I write what I live, how I feel,
my daily life at the hospital.
And then I publish it on the internet.
And very quickly, there are people who start writing to me,
to comment, to share,
and in fact, there is a whole community that forms around what I write.
And a wonderful adventure is starting in fact.
The press is starting to notice my blog.
Then the television invites me on the plateaus to talk about it.
And then one day, a publisher calls me
and wonder if I want to write a book.
It was released a few days ago
and the day of the release, a film producer phoned me
because he wanted to make a movie of it.
It’s amazing, right?
Maybe it’ll miss,
maybe I’m just one more time
I’m losing myself completely, but that’s not the point.
The important thing is that each time, I go beyond myself,
every time, I come out of it all growing up.
I think the biggest barriers
are the barriers that are put to oneself
and I want to have no barrier.
I want to live life thoroughly.
Today, I’m 27, I’ve done a lot of things,
but I am still and always lost.
But it does not matter
because as could say a Chinese saying:
(In Chinese)
It’s when you get lost that the trip really begins.
Thank you very much.
(Applause)
”
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