Zhan Xuan’s Happy Planet (Full Visual Edition)
Faced with the sudden spotlight, Zhan Xuan felt uneasy. He found it hard to believe what was happening and began to doubt himself, as if he wasn’t yet capable of receiving so much attention and love. He worried that some things that arrive suddenly might also leave just as suddenly.
Along the way, Zhan Xuan has always kept his eyes fixed on his goals, steadily building his own inner order amid chaos, clear-headed and determined, resilient and kind, gentle yet romantic. What was unplanned were the people who, by chance and sincerity, came together this summer. And these seemingly accidental encounters may lead to many inevitable possibilities in the future.
Now, Zhan Xuan tells himself, “No matter what the future holds, I am deeply grateful. It is all of you who have given me more opportunities to move forward on the path of being an actor, and that alone is enough.”
01: This Summer
To give thanks for everything he experienced this summer, and to give everyone an answer, Zhan Xuan took everyone to see the first sunrise of autumn and documented the entire journey in a vlog.
Setting off in the early morning before the mist had cleared, he chatted softly along the way, describing the changing colors of the sky outside the car window and sharing his scattered reflections and inner thoughts. Although he didn’t make it to the very top of the destination, the sunlight halfway up the mountain was already bright and warm enough.
Watching a single sunrise takes no more than two hours from start to finish. Yet Zhan Xuan spent nearly ten years on his journey as an actor before he was truly seen by everyone and received the light in return.
He has never paid much attention to the passing of time, nor has he carefully counted how many dramas he has filmed. It’s not that he doesn’t care about time; rather, he cares more about the marks and proof of truly “living.” No matter what he does in a day, even if it’s simply picking up a piece of trash at his feet, he sees it as a form of growth, a gesture of kindness offered to the world.
Zhan Xuan chose to become someone who chases the sun. On his journey toward the light, guided by clear awareness and well-defined goals, he truly welcomed his moment of dawn this summer.
Along the shifting interplay of light and shadow, he once gazed at the light from within the darkness, and quietly became the one “found by the light.” Throughout the process, he illuminated himself with his burning inner core and discovered the beauty along the way. He is willing to embrace life and fully experience it, and he has come to realize that the world holds so much wonder and so many interesting people. Every place is worth pausing to uncover what makes it unique. His sensitivity to life is both delicate and sharp, and he possesses an ultimate sense of romance.
02: A Dialogue with Myself
On the day of the photoshoot, it happened to coincide with the release of Zhan Xuan’s first original solo single, “I.”
Speaking about the song, Zhan Xuan candidly shared that he had always wanted to write a song for himself. He often finds himself in dialogue with his past self, wondering, if given the chance, what would his present self say to the person he used to be?
This summer, thanks to everyone’s attention and support, that idea was able to come to life sooner than expected. The song’s overall production took nearly a month. For this sincere and thoughtful “dialogue,” Zhan Xuan hopes listeners will take a quiet moment to truly hear it. Each lyric is like a painting, and together these images outline the vivid, authentic “me” of the past.
On set, one of the backdrop designs featured a deep blue lighting scheme. Standing within it, Zhan Xuan seemed as though he had stepped into a mysterious, dreamlike space. That shade of blue is the color he was most familiar with in childhood. Speaking about his early years, he said:
“When I was little, my family often came home late from work, so I was frequently alone in the house. I was also someone who was especially afraid of the dark. But in the countryside, the night sky was very bright, blue, the kind of blue I loved most. Behind our house there was a vegetable garden where my mother grew many kinds of vegetables. I was so small back then, it felt like every vegetable I could pick was taller than me. In the summer, there would be countless fireflies. The neighborhood kids loved chasing after them, but I preferred standing alone in the garden, watching them. As long as you stayed completely still, they would circle around you again and again, and suddenly there was no fear at all. Now when I think back on that scene, it feels as if I were standing at the center of the Milky Way, every tiny asteroid glowing and gathering into a galaxy that lit me up. So in the song <I>, there’s a line waiting for the fireworks of the starry night to gather into a galaxy so the blue night is no longer lonely. Originally, I wanted to use the word “fireflies” in that lyric. It was meant to describe my childhood life. Those images are my most precious and beautiful memories.”
Before high school, Zhan Xuan was the shortest boy in his class. But after one summer break, he suddenly became the tallest.
“It was just so sudden. I didn’t even notice myself growing taller, and I don’t know why,” he said.
Like the vegetables in his family’s garden, following the natural rhythm of the seasons, from tender green seedlings, they quietly stretched into lush abundance, then bloomed and bore fruit. The boy nourished by that soil also, almost without realizing it, grew strong at an astonishing pace, giving rise to dreams vast and free. Just as he sings in “I”: “I know time is racing on, perhaps growing up is hard. But all the sails of life have made me fuller than before.”
When asked whether he would like to have a conversation with his future self, Zhan Xuan answered without hesitation: no. Because he doesn’t know what the future will bring. But if you were to ask what the “past me” would want to say to the “present me,” he thinks the answer would probably be just one word: “Thank you.”
03: Happy Planet
What is Happy Planet? Acting.
From beginning to end, Zhan Xuan’s goal has always been to become an actor. As a child, he loved imitating characters he saw on television. After every winter vacation, when he returned to school, he would perform popular skits from that year’s Spring Festival Gala for his classmates, making them burst into laughter.
In his spare time, he especially loved watching the children’s sci-fi drama Happy Planet. At the end of each episode, there was a phone number for signing up to become an actor, but unfortunately, he could never get through.
As he grew older, he came to realize that being an actor meant being able to experience different lives and roles, lives with paths entirely different from his own.
The first time he joined a production for The Gravity of a Rainbow, Zhan Xuan’s role consisted of only a few pages of dialogue. Even so, he prepared thoroughly in advance. But when he finally arrived on set, he was both nervous and excited. As filming began, his lips couldn’t stop trembling, he was afraid of mispronouncing even a single word or disappointing the director and his scene partners with a poor performance.
Fortunately, everyone on the crew treated him kindly. When they learned it was his first time acting and that he aspired to become an actor, they offered as much guidance, help, and encouragement as they could.
Not long after, he took on the leading male role in the film The Dragon’s Bride: Dragon Island. At the time, Zhan Xuan felt both incredulous and hopeful, imagining that his career would continue to progress smoothly from there.
Although the acting opportunities that followed came sporadically, Zhan Xuan never stopped moving forward. He insisted on watching one classic work every day. The first time, he would focus on understanding the storyline. On the second viewing, he paid close attention to the details and the actors’ nuanced performances. Then, with questions in mind, he would search online for deeper analyses of the film, and watch it a third time with those interpretations in mind.
Finally, Zhan Xuan would write a review and send it to his company. Through this process, he trained himself quietly, learning how to dissect a character’s personality and observe how different actors handled the subtle details of their roles in different ways.
After auditioning for Shadow Punisher and winning the role of “Yan Zige,” Zhan Xuan was especially thrilled. “Maybe every boy has a wuxia dream in his heart, wanting to become a legendary hero,” he said.
At the same time, he deeply cherished the opportunity to be part of such a large-scale production. Zhan Xuan shared that during filming, the director gave him a great deal of detailed guidance. For example, in a scene where Yan Zige battles two top masters, Zhan Xuan had originally designed a slight twitching, fierce expression to convey the character’s sharp ruthlessness. However, the director told him that as the number-one master, facing such a situation, Yan Zige’s inner state should be calm and unshaken. Whether he could defeat his opponents was already certain in his heart, so there was no need for excessive facial expressions to prove his strength.
Zhan Xuan acknowledged that this subtle adjustment indeed made the character more distinct, and the scene felt smoother and more compelling to watch.
The childhood phone call he once made to “Happy Planet” has finally gone through.
His determination toward acting has never wavered, even when the line seemed busy and unanswered. When it comes to what he truly wants to do, Zhan Xuan will always persist. No matter how many setbacks lie along the way, how many winding mountain roads he must navigate, or how long the journey may take, he remains happy, because at the very least, he knows he is moving forward toward that goal.
During his student years, Zhan Xuan served as a broadcaster at the school radio station and was also a member of the school choir. To this day, he can still sing the choral piece they performed back then, “Prayer”:
“Let us ring the bell of hope,
So many prayers held in our hearts.
Let no one see defeat,
May success remain forever…”
FRESH INTERVIEW
This year you won the Weibo Thailand Breakthrough New Artist Award. How does it feel?
This is the first award I’ve received since becoming an actor, and my emotions were quite up and down. The moment I stood up to go on stage and accept the award, I was nervous. But when I heard everyone cheering, I stopped feeling nervous, because I realized that this award doesn’t belong to me alone. It also belongs to the character itself, and to the fans who loved the character or came to know me through that role.
However, once I was on stage, I became a little nervous again. It felt like there were so many things I wanted to express and be grateful for, yet I didn’t manage to say them all. For me, this award is also an affirmation and encouragement for the years I’ve persisted. It tells me that the perseverance of the past was not in vain.
Are there any types of roles you’d like to challenge next?
I hope to receive more good scripts and take on different kinds of roles, to explore the possibilities of my acting and let everyone see more sides of me. If I have the opportunity, I’d love to act in a suspense film. I’d like to play a refined villain, someone who appears to be a good person on the surface, or a character with multiple personalities, someone who is both righteous and sinister. In other words, a role with more dramatic tension. If it’s a film project, that would be even better, so I can take my mom to the cinema to watch my performance.
You once said, “Pessimists are always right, while optimists keep moving forward.” So would you say you’re a pessimist or an optimist?
I think I’m an optimistic pessimist. Deep down, I’m probably more pessimistic. But I don’t want that to affect others. I believe everyone has their own energy field, if I become pessimistic, the energy I give off might make the people around me uncomfortable. I’m someone who’s very afraid of influencing others in a negative way, so I try my best to approach people with an optimistic mindset.
Sometimes I consciously adjust my emotions, but I also worry, like whether a joke I make might be ill-timed or make someone uncomfortable. At the same time, as I grow older, I don’t want to become too slick or overly polished. So right now, I’m still in the process of figuring things out and finding my balance.
