Up close with the man behind Xue Buhui

Zhang Haiyu, a 28-year-old actor who has quickly risen to fame as one of the freshest rising stars on screen.[Photo by Feng Yongbin/China Daily]

Making people laugh

In 2016, he got a phone call from the producer of Tonight Parliaments and made his debut performance in the role of Qingdao Dayi, or Qingdao Aunt, who is a middle-aged woman character speaking Qingdao dialect.

He teamed with famous Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, and they won wide acclaim.

"Both of us came from Qingdao and the role of Qingdao Dayi is very successful. She is the most typical aunt I saw in my childhood, talkative, gossiping and warmhearted," says Huang, who later recruited Zhang to his own agent company.

The role of Qingdao Dayi was born in 2013, when Zhang discovered Renren, a social media platform on which people record their local dialects online.

He spoke some jokes with Qingdao dialect and soon received lots of attention.

Then he created the role of Xue Buhui, and paired with actor Jiang Yi, who is also a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama. Jiang plays the role of a man with bad luck man, who is frequently embarrassed by Xue.

"From the script to the images of the role, we started from nothing and kept on experimenting. I often looked at the mirror, trying on different wigs and making different facial expressions," Zhang says. "The process of giving birth to an 8-minute piece of work is very intensive because you have to make people laugh within this short period of time. Now, when I look at the performances in the show again, I feel that I could do a better job."

However, Zhang says that he doesn't want to repeat these characters though they have a stable fan bases.

"Comedy is changing," he says. "The appetite for more diverse stories is getting bigger."