Just a little something I wrote for the birthday of one of my favourite C-drama actors, Xu Haiqiao

I first laid eyes on him when he played Ronghao in Love Between Fairy and Devil. At the time, the only thing that struck an impression on me was how unique his face looked. I say unique because looking in hindsight, my brain probably already see him as a pretty face albeit in a more woman-like way (instead of the more common girly-looking pretty-faced men), which is why it took me a couple of years to finally process that thought. Apart from that, he didn't made an impression on me after his first introduction as Ronghao and so I wasn't interested in his character.

That is until episode 6 of LBFAD where it was revealed that he is also the mysterious masked Lord of Haishi City and I remember just feeling mind-blown after that because I hadn't really seen it coming and didn't expect Ronghao to be a complex antagonist. Following that reveal, his performance just captivated me as he strikes a balance between being the carefree and amiable Ronghao and the obsessive and hell-bent on reviving his master Ronghao.

After I finished watching LBFAD, I find myself being his fangirl for a while and tried to search more dramas and videos of him, which was how I eventually got to watch Kun Lun Que, Revive and last but not least, Detective Samoyeds. His performance in Kun Lun Que and Revive is nothing short of good but the jump from complex and obsessive Ronghao to cheerful and mischievous foodie Samo Duoluo was really what made me noticed his versatility as an actor.

His on-screen persona is wonderfully charming too. While I was looking for more dramas and videos of him back then, I stumbled upon a lot of clips from interviews and variety shows that he was involved in. He seems like an amiable and cheerful person who gets along with his castmates pretty well, which is largely the reason why I find him cute, despite his age (and honestly, I rarely call any guy cute). The people around him seem to be fond of him due to his personality. His cognizance and dedication to the performing arts are very evident to me based on how he readily taught some techniques and shared his experiences on acting to his fellow members in Call Me By Fire Season 4 and willing to learn from them in return, how he guided fellow actor Guo Xiaoting in Memories Beyond Horizon and his well thought out answers in interviews.  

I'm currently fangirling over him for the second time as I write this post. Watching him acting as the caring and supportive husband Lu Jingming in My Destined Consort obviously melted my heart which propelled into my fangirling. As a result, I ended up watching a lot of videos from the time when he was in Call Me By Fire Season 4 and in some BTS clips. I feel rather blessed to see new videos of him recently since my last fangirling days of him in 2023. My adventures through YouTube watching those videos made me appreciate his cuteness more than ever and I just can't get enough of it for now :3

On a more serious note, even if I'm not fangirling over him, I would still want to follow and see his other works that I haven't been able to watch yet just because I love his acting chops. After LBFAD, Kun Lun Que, Revive and Detective Samoyeds, I only had the chance to watch him as Zhao Qing Huan in LGIEF and Lu Jingming in My Destined Consort in recent years — both of which he gave solid performances though the characters are not as striking as Ronghao or Samo Duoluo. However, ever since I watched Detective Samoyeds, I've always been confident that he will perform well in each and every one of his performances, and I'm looking forward to his future works. 

So, happy birthday to this fantastic actor! Thank you for existing in this world. I'm glad to have seen you as Ronghao that day in February 2023. I hope you will continue to live a long, good and happy life. :)

P.S : I wrote this post some time in mid-February when my fangirling phase over Xu Haiqiao was at an all time high, hence why Starlight was not mentioned in the list of his dramas that I watched. I also actually made some GIFs of him to be included in this post but I think I'm just going to post this entry as is.