 |
| Guo Yuxin’s Transformation: Short-Drama Queen Joins Big-Budget Period Romance (Photo: Weibo) |
Chinese short-drama darling Guo Yuxin has finally admitted what many fans long suspected: her decision to become an actress was sparked entirely by one woman — Zanilia Zhao Liying. In a newly released interview, Guo Yu Xin said she first felt the pull towards acting after watching Zhao Liying in the hit historical series Legend of Lu Zhen.
“The first time I ever had the idea of becoming an actress was after watching Zanilia in Legend of Lu Zhen,” she shared. “No one can be her, but everyone can be themselves.” She also revealed that Zhao Liying was the very first person she followed when her studio created its official social media account.
A true fan-to-professional pipeline moment.
And looking at her recent movements, Guo Yuxin is absolutely determined to carve out a career as solid as her idol’s.
 |
Securing a Key Role in The Lament of Autumn
It’s now confirmed that Guo Yuxin has landed the second female lead in the upcoming Republican-era romance The Lament of Autumn, starring Ryan Cheng Lei and Xu Ruohan.
The drama leans heavily into old-Shanghai aesthetics, tragic love, and high-society politics — and Guo’s casting has already stirred chatter online.
At the opening ceremony in Hengdian’s Republican Street, Guo Yuxin arrived in a muted cheongsam, clutching three incense sticks so tightly that her fingers turned pale.
Fans shouted “short-drama queen” from the sidelines. She bowed deeply, almost dropping the incense.
Three years ago, on this very street, she was just the girl holding an umbrella behind Liu Shishi in A Journey to Love, with only her hands briefly caught on camera.
She didn’t even receive a wrap-up packet when filming ended.
That contrast alone sums up her entire career trajectory.
From a Partition Room to Half-A-Second Cameos
 |
Back in winter 2019, fresh from the Central Academy of Drama, Guo Yuxin rented an 800-yuan partition room on Beijing’s North Fifth Ring Road.
At one point, her bank account showed a remaining balance of just 83 yuan.
She worked as a background colleague of Yang Zi in Best Choice Ever, appearing for a total of forty seconds.
The props team forgot the coffee cup she needed for the scene; she held an empty one.
When the show aired, she spent three days dragging the progress bar trying to spot herself — only to find a 0.5-second side profile lurking in a corner of the frame.
It wasn’t glamorous. But she didn’t give up.
A Three-Minute Video That Changed Everything
Her turning point came on Chinese New Year’s Eve 2023.
Guo Yuxin posted a three-minute monologue about heartbreak on Douyin, saying with red-rimmed eyes, “Beijing doesn’t have room for dreams anymore.”
The clip unexpectedly blew up, pulling in over a million views.
Within days, short-drama crews reached out.
Summer Fendera offered her seven days of work for eighty thousand yuan — more than she’d earned in a whole year of running extras. She took it.
Then came the roles that really tested her:
-
In Summer Fendera, she kneeled on ancestral-hall bricks until bits of clay lodged under her nails.
-
In Tell Me When You Fall in Love, she played a terminally ill patient and fasted for two days to portray weakness.
-
In Muli’s Colour, she was lifted and spun repeatedly by a 192-cm actor in a rain scene. By the fifth spin she felt dizzy and sick, rinsed her mouth, and carried on with the kiss scene.
Her intense approach paid off.
Summer Fendera hit 3 billion views within twenty days.
The platform reportedly had to adjust its ranking code because the numbers kept maxing out.
Levelled Up: Independent Dressing Room, Character Prep, and Serious Drama
Now in C-drama The Lament of Autumn, the production team has built an 8-million-yuan set for the grand Yu Residence, using authentic bricks transported from old homes in Jiangsu and Anhui.
Guo used to squat outside these kinds of sets eating boxed lunches while crew members reminded her not to block the path for “the real leads”.
This time, she has her own dressing room.
To prepare for her role as the well-educated, overseas-returned heiress Tao Ziyi, she studied English debating skills and piano for three months, filling her hotel walls with 1930s photographs.
When it came time to shoot the character portraits, she stayed up all night reading the original novel and arrived the next morning with a script covered in handwritten notes.
She insisted the character should be “proud, but never gaudy”.
From ‘Fast-Food Acting’ Labels to Strong Performance Numbers
A well-known producer once criticised short-drama actors for having “fast-food-style acting”.
Guo Yuxin responded by performing a monologue from Thunderstorm live on stream.
Her short-drama completion rate sits at 78%, far above the industry average of around 45%.
The casting director of The Lament of Autumn admitted they chose her because she could “move the base audience”.
Other short-drama names like Ke Chun and Ma Qiuyuan are also transitioning into longer series, but many others find themselves stuck with minor scenes that never see the light.
Full Circle: The Coffee Line Returns
During a slap scene in The Lament of Autumn, her scene partner misjudged the strength and left her cheek swollen. Guo pressed an ice pack to her face, then returned to shoot the next take immediately.
Somewhere behind her, an extra recited their line:
“Miss, your coffee is getting cold.”
That was the one line Guo herself had in Best Choice Ever three years ago.
Life really does have a sense of humour.
When the traffic wave eventually fades, one question remains for the countless extras wandering Hengdian’s maze of sets, queuing for boxed lunches they sometimes never receive:
Will another reversal-of-fate like Guo Yuxin’s ever land on them?
Her answer seems to be simple — someone has to believe it can.
Source: Weibo