Xiao Zhan: When I was acting as Xiao Chunsheng, I experienced the joy of the social butterfly briefly.

Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/-SP3vAfBnmXhRVBEDXq5UA
Original Author: 周矗
Translator’s note: The original author is part of Yuli Studio, this article is published in Yuli Studio’s Weixin Official Account on 13 Jun 2023 as a part of “Behind the Screens” Volume 1051.

In June 2023, in the topics related to the actor Xiao Zhan, a Beijing boy named Xiao Chunsheng appeared more frequently.

In the popular drama “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, Xiao Chunsheng, who lived in the 1970s, bustled around for the whole day, wearing a coat, riding a 28″ bicycle, reading books everywhere, and fighting off injustices. Even though he lived recklessly, but he experienced changes one after another, such as the departure of his loved ones and the shattering of his dreams. The audience lamented about his encounters and worried about his fate. Looking at him, it was like seeing their parents when they were young.

The Xiao Chunsheng on screen was pure, proud, and high-spirited, which was completely different from the quiet, humble and polite Xiao Zhan off screen. These two young people with great contrasts, spanning nearly 40 years, had formed an invisible resonance with the role as the medium.

When talking with Yuli Studio, Xiao Zhan told us that although there are obvious personality and regional differences with Xiao Chunsheng, both of them have the same strength in their bones. Even if there were only a 1% probability, they would never give up working hard, they firmly believed that as long as they persist, ahead of them must be their future and light.

Through Xiao Chunsheng, Xiao Zhan has completed a new challenge and training. The sea in their dreams, even if it was sealed in ice at low temperatures, the scorching sun would eventually arrive for them.

01 From Chongqing people to Beijing people

When reading the script of “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”, Xiao Chunsheng, a young man living in Beijing in the 1970s, immediately attracted Xiao Zhan. In that high-spirited, dare-to-think and dare-to-do era, he admired Xiao Chunsheng’s recklessness, freedom and perseverance.

“His enthusiasm and contagious power were relatively strong, so he would have a stronger presence. This sense of presence came from the fact that in Xiao Chunsheng’s mind, his father was a hero through and through, so the influence on him was positive. This made him him very optimistic, cheerful and full of hope,” Xiao Zhan told Yuli Studio.

Xiao Zhan believed that in the tide of the times of the past 40 years, no matter how people and matters changed, Xiao Chunsheng always stuck to his friendship and principles in his heart, hence a pure land existed in his heart.

Slowly, along the way, from Xiao Chunsheng, Xiao Zhan met a Tong Xiaomei, who was soft on the outside but strong on the inside, Ye Guohua, who was loyal and true, He Hongling, who was warm and realistic, and Chen Hongjun, who was inferior and restrained. From them, a vivid image of Beijing youth emerged in his mind.

“The group stories in the script were very well written. The growth of Xiao Chunsheng was very complete, so I wanted to challenge it. From the relationship between Xiao Chunsheng and all of his buddies in Beijing in the early stage, to him joining the army, because he had to return to Beijing because of some reason, and to the later stage of entrepreneurship, the relationship with the people around him changed, and his experience was very complicated, but very attractive.”

Xiao Zhan, who grew up in the factory zone, has lived with his family for a long time, and often listened to his family retelling stories about the past. When he walked into the set that was meticulously restored to the 1970s, wearing old-fashioned coat and gloves, and riding a 28″ bicycle, Xiao Zhan seemed to see the shadow of his childhood, as he acted, he felt that he had become Xiao Chunsheng.

After the episode aired, his family members told him: “The acting is not bad, felt a bit like our era.” This gave Xiao Zhan more confidence.

However, Xiao Chunsheng’s mouthful of Beijing accent stumped Xiao Zhan, who is a Chongqing native who had never spoken with Beijing accent before.

During the first script reading, Xiao Zhan stood up and introduced himself saying, “Hello to every laoshi, I am Xiao Zhan, and I am a kid from Chongqing.” He originally thought that he was the only one who was from the south among the leading actors, but in the end, Zhang Lingxin, who portrayed Chunsheng’s sister, said that she was from Shanghai. Seeing the “sister” and himself “suffering together”, Xiao Zhan joked, “Sister, let’s change the background of the story and say that we were actually children who grew up in the south and then moved to the north.”

In order to train the Beijing dialect well, he read the script like he was a student studying a text, underlining the Beijing dialects he does not understand one by one, and annotating the correct meaning next to it. In addition to studying in private, he often practiced his pronunciation with Liu Ruilin and other Beijing actors on the set, saying “heyo-eh” and “ho” every day.

“If there were behind-the-scenes released, everyone would be entertained. Because many people in the crew are from the north. The northerners have an innate advantage, that is, language advantages. The way they talk is particularly funny. I just enjoyed watching them at the scene because I have to silently think about how to say them in Beijing dialect,” Xiao Zhan said.

02 Social Butterfly vs Social Phobia

Compared with Xiao Chunsheng being a social butterfly in the drama, Xiao Zhan outside of the drama is a bit socially phobic.

If the event had many people, Xiao Zhan would usually sits in the corner habitually, laughing while watching everyone play. Seeing many people discussing Type E and Type I personalities, Xiao Zhan, who didn’t know much about MBTI, tried to think about it: “Maybe Xiao Chunsheng has Type E personality? I am an I, right?”

When playing Xiao Chunsheng, Xiao Zhan had to utilize the energy of his whole body to fire up the whole scene. In the scene where he was fighting with Guo Heizi, in order to show his presence, Xiao Zhan yelled while jumping up and down, as if he was going to throw a small flame from his mouth, but after the director shouted to start filming, he changed his face to an arrogant state at the speed of light, completing the transition from “Mr. Social Phobia” to “Mr. Social Butterfly” in one second.

Every time when shooting a group scene where everyone ate together, the director always liked to say: “Let Xiao Chunsheng say a few words”. In the absence of a script, Xiao Zhan could only muster all his strength and chattered with a series of output.

In the scene where he was sending Ye Guohua and He Hongling off to the army, looking at Ye Guohua who was reluctant to part, Xiao Zhan said impulsively: “Good men aspires far and wide”, but the resulting scene was a little awkward. So, Xiao Zhan mustered his courage a second time, and raised another glass. Although the movements of his hands were a little rusty and the wine glass almost spilled after toasting, the atmosphere was finally preserved.

During the time when he played Xiao Chunsheng, Xiao Zhan briefly experienced the happiness of a social butterfly. The leading actors Liu Ruilin, Cui Hang and Xiao Zhan were of the same age, and all three of them happened to like singing. While waiting for their scenes, they would simply sing together, filling the crew’s daily background music. After the episode was aired, he also saw everyone’s jokes about Xiao Chunsheng on the Internet, which made him laugh so hard.

But a year after the end of filming, Xiao Zhan admitted frankly that the social butterfly attributes he learned from Xiao Chunsheng had degenerated.

In the army, in order to beat others in running, Xiao Chunsheng practiced extra hours alone in the middle of the night. Because of this, he was nicknamed “Xiao Chunjuan” by netizens. (TN: Juan is the action of rolling, a slang to mean improving. Chunjuan refers to spring roll, a pun on Xiao Chunsheng’s name.)

Xiao Zhan felt that Xiao Chunsheng was someone who was born competitive, and the “improving” came from the pride in his bones and his refusal to admit defeat. But in real life, he just wants to do my own thing well, and he would not compete with others or himself until he cannot sleep, he just wants to do my best.

“In the last interview, I said that it’s quite good to be tired. In fact, I am still very tired, but happy tired.” Xiao Zhan said.

03 Growing with Xiao Chunsheng

For Xiao Zhan, the most difficult part of portraying Xiao Chunsheng was his complexity.

“The complexity lies in the fact that he went from adolescence to his 40s, from a young boy to an entrepreneur. Many things happened during this process, which needed to make the audience feel that he sticks to his guns and that he has grown up, Those are the points I’m always balancing while filming.”

Xiao Chunsheng in the drama was faced with many major life choices. These included not only love and friendship, but also dreams and future.

While reading the script, Xiao Zhan had a discussion with the director. He felt that it was not the script that made Xiao Chunsheng choose, but the environment and society at that time made Xiao Chunsheng actively make the choice. Whether it is the subsequent changes in fate or emotional changes, they were the result of Xiao Chunsheng’s own choices.

In order to present such a complexity, Xiao Zhan would carefully discuss with the director before filming each scene, what kind of emotion was Xiao Chunsheng in this scene? Did the logic of behavior comply with his current choices? Only by understanding the logic of each character’s actions can he truly become Xiao Chunsheng.

Xiao Zhan also designed many small details for Xiao Chunsheng. For example, he did not speak properly in the early stage. After joining the army, he experienced more impermanence in the world, also grew up, and his demeanor has become more and more steady.

“I did some processing on his expression and body language. The young Xiao Chunsheng was unrestrained and outgoing, so his expression is richer, when walking, his steps were brisk and he would even run a few steps. As an adult, Xiao Chunsheng became more steady, more often he was introverted, he would not have much body movements, and at this time his walking was step by step, down to earth.”

In the countless crossroads of life, Xiao Chunsheng always stuck to his original aspiration and passion, and had never been defeated by his own misfortunes. This was also the point that Xiao Zhan admired the most and wanted to learn from.

After “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories” was broadcasted, Xiao Zhan also saw the analysis of internet users on Xiao Chunsheng’s choices, and these comments coincided with his own thoughts.

“The thing that impressed me the most was the point about choices. I had never spoken to anyone about it, and I was sure no one else would know. But in just the few episodes that aired, people already figured it out, which astonished me, very unexpectedly.”

While spending all day and night with the characters, Xiao Zhan and Xiao Chunsheng also had friendship, family affection and career resonance, and completed a special growth together.

Perseverance, steadfastness, gaining strength when encountering the strong, only difficult roads are uphill roads, in this conversation, Xiao Zhan repeatedly talked about these words with Yuli Studio.

“Later, he was injured, discharged militarily, and experienced several heavy blows, but he never gave up easily. This is worth learning or thinking about in our own lives. There will be many difficulties, but we will never be easily defeated — this is more important.” Xiao Zhan said.