Xu Ruohan: The Artist Who Became an Actress

02Drawing first, then an audition

By her own account, drawing came first: she chose to study something she loved. Her family had not expected an arts school, and told her that if she failed, she would repeat a year on her own account. She passed on the first try and entered the animation program at the Beijing Film Academy.

Then, in the second half of her second year, she was invited to an audition without knowing who was casting. It was Jackie Chan, for a film called My Diary, which was still unreleased when she told the story in 2023. On the first day of shooting, she says, he gave her seven days to prove she could act. Andy Lau played her father, and for about three months senior actors guided her closely. What she took from them, she says, was professionalism and attitude. Her first released film was Vanguard, alongside Jackie Chan.

03A lead, and learning to bring her own ideas

By 2023 she was the lead of The Forbidden Flower, opposite Jerry Yan. Her character, He Ran, lives with leukemia. To understand the dizziness, she says she practiced hanging her head upside down. He Ran is bold in love, while Xu Ruohan describes herself as reserved, so she played the character as brave but still a little shy.

Working opposite him made her nervous, she says, and she worried that audiences might not see them as a good match. Her mother, a longtime fan of his, told her he is quiet, and suggested she take more initiative. The biggest change she names is communication: she used to follow directors without question, and now she brings her own ideas to her co-stars.

In 2024 she led Go Back Lover, a romance about ex-lovers who meet again, opposite Li Yunrui. She plays Shen Xingruo, and the two leads' story runs from school days to a reunion years later.

04An acting class, on camera

In spring 2024 she did something unusual for a rising lead: she joined an acting class, on camera. The show is Memories Beyond Horizon, and its mentors are veteran film and television professionals. Wu Zhenyu called her a natural talent, and a mentor praised how relaxed her acting was, and how steady her energy stayed.

Was it all praise? No. Hao Lei told her she was acting a little too much. A mentor said that relaxed, natural acting is a good base, but she should not stop there. Another note was that her sense of happiness came across too strongly for a character pushed to the bottom.

Natural, and not yet finished: two sentences about the same performance.

05After a hard breakup, and what comes next

Then came The Best Thing, which aired on iQIYI in early 2025. She played Shen Xifan, a hotel housekeeping manager who cannot sleep after a hard breakup. Her doctor, He Suye, is played by Zhang Linghe, and the story follows how two people recover. For this role she was nominated for Best Newcomer Actress at the Asia Contents and Global OTT Awards.

Both this and Go Back Lover are stories about people returning to love after being hurt. More are coming: Love in Red Dust, opposite Wang Xingyue, and Love Song in Summer, opposite Johnny Huang, already have official trailers. In August 2026 she and Wang Xingyue also joined Mango TV's Hello Saturday, playing a detective-style game together.

06Back to the drawing

On 12 October 2026, The Lament of Autumn began airing on Mango TV. It is set in 1920s Republican China, adapted from Ling Xi's novel. She plays Ye Pingjun, a poor student who cares for her seriously ill mother and is drawn into a bargain with a young military commander. Under that bargain, she has ten days to find the real culprit behind an attempt on his life. Cheng Lei plays the commander, Yu Changxuan.

The series is only days old and early reactions are divided, so there is no verdict to give. What can be said is what the behind-the-scenes clip shows: a notebook, a pen, and cartoons made while someone is away.

She did not leave the drawing behind; she carried it onto the set.

Which of her roles would you watch first?