ABOUT LIU HAORAN

Who is Liu Hao Ran? 

Liu Hao Ran (刘昊然) is a Chinese actor who was born on October 10, 1997. He is best known in China for his role as Qin Feng in the Detective Chinatown film series - the second of which is currently ranked fourth in Chinese box office history.

He also had eye-catching supporting roles in Chen Kaige's The Legend of the Demon Cat as Bai Long and Andrew Lau's The Building of An Army as Su Yu. 

Among international fans, he is probably best known as Xiao Ping Jing in the drama Nirvana in Fire 2: The Wind Blows in Changlin and Yu Huai from With You. For upcoming works - he has Novoland: Eagle Flag coming! 

Follow us on Twitter for up to date news/pics of him!  

How did Liu Hao Ran become an actor?

He was selected via an open casting call in 2013 for actor/director Chen Si Cheng's film directorial debut, Beijing Love Story (北京爱情故事). He went through several rounds of auditions, but was ultimately chosen when Chen Si Cheng had the group of candidates - mostly consisting of girls - spend an afternoon playing group games. At the end, he asked the girls to vote for the guy that they liked the most - and Liu Hao Ran won almost all the votes. From this, Chen Si Cheng deduced that there was something about the then fifteen year old that would appeal to audiences. 

When did he officially debut? 

Liu Hao Ran's official debut was on February 14, 2014 - the day that Beijing Love Story hit theatres. The movie was an anthology film that featured an ensemble cast that included Carina Lau and Tony Leung Ka Fai - and fifteen year old Liu Hao Ran and twelve year old Ouyang Nana played two young high school students who experience first love. He earned a nomination for Best New Actor at the Beijing College Student Film Festival in 2014 for the performance. However, he took about a year off right after the film premiered to finish high school, so there are also those (including possibly himself) who consider 2015 to be his official debut year since he was actually active then.

How popular/well known is Liu Hao Ran in China? 

His popularity and public recognition are at an all time high right now after the successive releases of The Legend of the Demon Cat, NiF2, and Detective Chinatown 2 at the end of 2017/early 2018. But even before these three releases, he was one of the most prominent younger actors due to the success of the first Detective Chinatown and his reputation as a studious (ranked first in his major at the Central Academy of Drama) and serious young actor. 

So why is it that I'm just hearing about him now then? 

Chinese dramas - especially idol dramas - are a lot more accessible to the international audience, so that's why idol drama actors tend to have more of an international presence. And Liu Hao Ran is primarily a film actor - it's where he debuted, and also where he has gotten most of his fame/popularity/reputation - and it is hands down his biggest advantage over peers, so most likely film will continue to be his main platform going forward.

Just as in other countries, film actors have the upper hand. So even if you do decide to transition to dramas, you will have a better chance of landing quality projects/lead roles. Vice versa, even if you're a very well known drama star, you will have a difficult time even getting supporting roles in the more prominent film projects. 

That doesn't mean Liu Hao Ran won't act in dramas! It just means that he won't have as many dramas on his filmography as some of the other young actors that we know of. 

What do people like most about Liu Hao Ran?

If there is one word that is associated the most with Liu Hao Ran, it would be "youth" (少年感). Not because of his age - it's a temperament/ spirit that he embodies in spades, both in real life and in his acting. The second word would be "clean". It's not a personality description as in he is a pure person - it basically means that he has an aura about him that just makes you feel really comfortable. The media tried to make "Nation's First Love" (something that they picked up from South Korea) stick for a while, because that's the impression that he gives - the boy next door who is also the golden boy at school because he just excels at everything. Or to put it another way - he's basically like the real life version of Yu Huai in With You.