As the Four Seasons Turn, Meet Xiao Zhan in Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter.

Original Article: https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s/MWWCaY9-AmzY8YxlshBGEg
Original Author: JIAWEI
This article was originally published on 26 December 2025 on ELLE’s Weixin Official Account 世界时装之苑ELLE.

Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter,
Time flows,
Xiao Zhan is always around.

The long winter will eventually end,
And now in the season of spring flowers, we meet again.

In the dry, comfortable southern night of late autumn, the shadows of trees swayed gently in the residential area, creating a tranquil and peaceful atmosphere. Suddenly, a tightly closed door burst open, and two men hurried out, pushing a bucket of “snow”, enveloped in a cloud of white mist. Along with the mist, several others emerged from the crack in the door, seeking some fresh air in the night.

Inside the photography studio, the white mist lingered, enveloping the “snow”. A leather sofa lay nestled within the “snow”, and a winter was being constructed. Before this, it was summer; long water pipes meandered up the walls, climbing to the skylight of the set, where rain fell. Before that, ginkgo leaves fluttered down, it was autumn. Before that, apricot blossoms filled the air, it was spring.

The four seasons pass by in this way. But upon closer inspection, one discovers that the seasons are out of order.

#01 Chaotic, Vast

As Xiao Zhan stood waiting, he looked at the two trapezoidal spaces in the studio, constructed from wide wooden planks and encompassing the four seasons, and found them fascinating. “It’s like the spaces are displaced, as if we’re trapped in between some kind of spatial layers.”

The chaotic, ever-changing time, the distorted and superimposed spaces, this was the time and space he entered after becoming an actor. Therefore, he had to learn the skill of navigating through it all, shivering while performing in the sweltering heat and sweating profusely in the dead of winter. And a character’s fate would be unpredictable; sometimes the ending would arrive before the beginning.

He learned quite well. The shoot took place in the warm, pleasant south, where he was well-dressed. Five days later, when he answered the interview call, he was already in Jinzhou, Liaoning. They finished work at 7.30pm, the temperature had dropped to -1°C, and he was so cold he could barely open his mouth, yet he remained talkative. “Knowing what kind of state I should be in in what situation and what kind of work, I’m already very comfortable with it.” The transitions are very smooth.

When one’s ability to travel is sufficiently mastered, time and space may no longer be limitations, no longer linear or singular, allowing one to briefly enter an open space on a conscious level. Creation then becomes a game of how to capture and piece together time and space. In late January 2024, heavy snow fell in northern Zhejiang. Xiao Zhan had only recently joined the drama group of “Legend of Zang Hai”. The notice for that day originally stated “day off”, but when he opened his eyes and saw the snow scene outside, his mind raced through the script, and he immediately texted the director: “Director, we should be filming today, right? This snow, if we don’t film, it would be a waste, wouldn’t it?” The director replied that he thought so too.

They hit it off immediately, set up the scene, changed clothes, and quickly adjusted the characters to their near-final state. In the end, “Legend of Zang Hai” presented a famous scene in the snow, after Zang Hai avenged his great enemy and reclaimed what belonged to his family, he walked alone in the snow, calm and lonely.

“But there are still times when I feel completely lost.” Xiao Zhan smiled, recalling the filming of “SPYING” in Shanghai this August. Wearing a thick coat, he could not convince his body that it was autumn or winter. After all, the seasons remained unchanged no matter what. “Summer is that stuffy, humid air; the wonderful thing about autumn is that it has a slightly cool air that you can breathe in; as for winter, it’s so cold that it can instantly wake you up.”

He used to think his personality was more like autumn, and for a time he especially liked winter. But now, he thought: “All four seasons are fine. A person’s personality and their state of life are fluid.”

Looking back, what truly anchored his career in time and space were his works — 2018, 27 years old, not long after his debut, “Oh! My Emperor”; 2019, 28 years old, gaining widespread attention, “The Untamed”; 2021, his first stage play, 30 years old, “A Dream Like a Dream”; 2022, a time when he particularly loved winter, 31 years old, filming “Where Dreams Begin / The Youth Memories”; 2023-2024, often spending months immersed in a single role and film crew, 32 and 33 years old, “Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”, “Legend of Zang Hai”, “Gezhi Town”; 2025, currently, 34 years old, “SPYING”, “A Small Town Remedy”…

#02 The Character’s, Mine

“Do you think this is a good thing? An actor always portrays a character who is very smart and shrewd. Do you think he is creating something?” Xiao Zhan asked curiously.

At first, he did not realize that the characters he played in recent years unconsciously shared a common trait: Zang Hai in “Legend of Zang Hai”, who stayed hidden for ten years to avenge his family, then plotted step by step, finally achieving his goal; Ren Shaobai in “SPYING”, who becomes dignified and righteous after putting on glasses, seeing the world and people’s hearts clearly; Liu Zhengliang in “A Small Town Remedy”, a genius doctor; and Mo Dexian in “Gezhi Town”, who transformed from a refuge into a rebel through wisdom. Intelligent, resourceful, and strategic.

He was indeed efficient and dedicated in his work. When filming “SPYING”, he would switch to another personality as soon as he put on his glasses, just like turning on a switch. When filming “Legend of the Condor Heroes: The Gallants”, he challenged himself by memorizing lines in Mongolian. “You give an instruction, and your body, brain, and emotions will do it. I think humans are actually very sophisticated artificial intelligence machines.”

“But to be honest, I’m quite scared.” He did not consider himself to be a smart person; he had never been one to take shortcuts or follow the “effective” paths others talk about. He did not want to be stupid, but he was not exactly smart either. His portrayal in dramas were decent, at best a case of hard work compensating for shortcomings.

He also struggled to make long-term plans for himself. At work, he often faced career paths for 1, 2, or even 5 years down the road, and he would be completely lost. “Well, the thing I can guarantee is that I’ll do my best in the present, but I don’t think too far ahead.”

And just like when he was interviewed a year and a half ago, Xiao Zhan was still worried that his sensitivity was fading. This might be due to aging, “I wouldn’t have thought about such a problem when I was in my twenties”; or it might be due to work fatigue, “I’m so tired, forget it, I won’t amplify my sensitivity today,” let it dissipate.

Most people would face this situation sooner or later. He could not say whether it was necessarily a good thing or a bad thing, because sometimes when he thought about it again, “If it doesn’t drain any of your passion and energy, it might not be a good job, right? It doesn’t make you feel pain or frustration, which is also quite scary. I think sometimes life, or fate, these arrangements are all for a reason; it won’t always be smooth sailing, nor will it be particularly disastrous.”

Compared to so-called intelligence, in an industry and era of increasing uncertainty and rapid change, he felt he is closer to being pragmatic. “If you do your current job well, you can have a stable situation. But if you are overly ambitious — this is true in any industry — and can’t even do your current job well, you will be unemployed after a year.”

He watched dramas, read scripts, and treated each encounter with people and characters as a new journey; he met with crew members, created mind maps, and listened to podcasts that told stories of strangers during each trip. Listening to podcasts had been a long-standing habit of his, and the people and events from afar were all related to him. “They are real, and whether it’s anger, pain, or sweetness, it all touches me deeply.”

He seemed forever curious about another life, forever wondering — what is a dream, what is my greatest fear, what is a wish, what is my greatest desire?

But life did not present the answers to us directly.

Since last year, he has realized that one change in himself is acceptance. “Accept yourself, and then accept some people and things, some outcomes, some things you want to control but are powerless to change.” His tone became calm. “It’s not a big deal.”

#03 The Cruel, The Endearing

The world is cruel. This was Xiao Zhan’s view on the essence of life.

“This world has a beautiful side, but beneath its beautiful exterior lies a cruel essence. Because in a sufficiently long period of time and space, everyone is equally insignificant.” This is the inevitability of history, the inevitable course of humanity.

At the end of 2024, Xiao Zhan released his first solo album, “WM”, which records his humility and self-examination, his thoughts and doubts about others and the world.

The first song in the album “WM”, titled “Anonymous” was actually created back in 2022. At that time, he was filming in Beijing, and because he was playing a child from the military courtyard and had to speak Beijing dialect, he had a strange feeling: although he was an outsider, he had briefly settled down in a foreign land. But as soon as he returned to his accommodation and saw many people going to and from work, and a few people coming out to hail taxis, he was pulled out from that feeling of settling down. He thought that all foreigners are the same, “wandering in a strange city”.

Over the next two or three years, various feelings frequently surfaced, which he wrote down. “Go Ahead” represented continuous exploration, while “Life of Us” leaned more towards philosophical introspection. As he hoped, the album was like a diary, laying bare many of his innermost thoughts.

Within the inevitability of insignificance and limitation, something else slowly emerged: “Human emotions are incredibly powerful, incredibly strong, and incredibly unpredictable.” These emotions made humanity seem quite endearing.

“So it comes back to a very practical issue, which is choosing roles. I always say that the role must first move me.” Xiao Zhan is currently filming “A Small Town Remedy” in Jinzhou. After reading the first five episodes, he felt a deep empathy for Liu Zhengliang. And as Liu Zhengliang began to experience various stories and reflect on different kinds of family, friendship, and love, he also unconsciously underwent a change.

Xiao Zhan’s parents often bickered over trivial matters — “Today I didn’t lift the curtain for you when I went out, or I didn’t hold the door for you, and the door bounced back and hit you. And then they brought up things from many years ago because of such a small thing. It sounds a bit absurd, but that’s the truth, and it’s quite funny.” — Bickering was not enough; the two of them would argue in front of him, demanding his judgment, and the argument would last for two or three hours.

“A few years ago, I would get really angry. Why argue over such a small thing? Can’t you two just get along peacefully?” But now he had accepted it and found it quite interesting. “It’s their way, a way of proving their feelings. Now I actually enjoy it. Let me be the judge. Okay, I’ll give you a good evaluation, hahaha.”

He also mentioned an idea, “If possible, I’d like to follow a stranger for a day and see what their day would be like.”

But how would he put it into practice?

A sly laugh came from the other end of the phone: “Maybe one day in the future, during the next interview, I’ll tell you that I’ve already done it.”