Rehearsal of Station Liberte. [Photo by Ruan Fan/chinadaily.com.cn]

Embracing romance, you need to be liberal

"As a French, I value liberte, egalite and fraternite a lot. Liberte always comes first, it is something that no one can deprive me of," Julien said, adding such value orientations were the basis for arriving at the idea of Station Liberte.

As the son of director Gerald Gelas, who introduced him to a group of free-thinking, unbiased and unguarded people while he was young, Julien also had such traits grow in him, and that he want to depict such people to pass on such traits and spirits.

According to Julien, the concrete idea of the play was a natural flow of intuition, which didn't land on him until a period in 2012 - a time when he commuted a lot on subway and got the chance to "observe people".

"Most people on subways are reading, and they seldom talk. People seem so aloof and it makes me feel oppressed," Julien said. "So, as an artist, I want to bring to consciousness this annoying fact to more people, and seek ways to influence them, hoping that things would change for the better," he said.

In the play, Julien created those two contrasting people – a charming and once promising trader who was framed up by his company for a debt mess and ended up in prison for four years, and a gorgeous nomadic photographer who is empathetic enough to feel other's pain.

With the trader initiating a conversation, and the photographer following him to a more productive talk, love was kindled along the way –"when two open hearts exchange their spiritual worlds, love begins to grow."

"What's on my mind is that, when we are not afraid to expose what we think, become less hostile to strangers, we may embrace new possibilities – romance is just one of them," Julien said.