On February 7, he flew back home to ChongQing to spend Chinese New Year with his family. This airport sendoff was particularly memorable because after X-Fire competition ended, Xiao Zhan must have thought this was it for his entertainment journey as a singer. So in the airport, he initiated a selfie with his fans as a keepsake. He spent two weeks with his family in ChongQing before flying to ShangHai on February 26. Then on March 3, he flew from ShangHai back to ChongQing where he stayed for another week before flying back to BeiJing on March 12.
Milestone alert! Milestone alert! While he was back home in ChongQing, Xiao Zhan had his wisdom teeth taken out on Mar 7 and he shared this post and drew a bunny with swollen cheeks:
“I had my wisdom teeth pulled out and stitches, and now my face is really swollen and round😭”
On March 14, Xiao Zhan revealed in his weekly vlog that he along with 8 people have moved into a small apartment in BeiJing. We can say that this is the moment that Xiao Zhan has made BeiJing his new home. So what is he and his X-Fire cast mates doing in BeiJing now that the idol survival competition is over? 🤔
On March 22, “Super Star Academy” official weibo page posted “The host of this star galaxy officially announce: 8 beautiful boys have been assembled and will collectively participate in #SuperStarAcademy# This is just the beginning. The young people who have seriously discussed the script, I look forward to your acting skills!”
That same day, Zhan Zhan shared in his weekly vlog that they’ve been reading a lot of books, taking acting classes and getting acquainted with their characters and their “superpowers.” For the first time, Zhan Zhan learned script delivery and performance. He also felt nervous and excited as the day to join the film crew approaches. Everyone is working hard and feeling super tired.
On April 14, Xiao Zhan flew from Beijing to HangZhou, ZheJiang Province to start filming Super Star Academy with some of the guys from X-Fire. There was a sweet moment at this airport sendoff where Xiao Zhan was photographed looking at his cheer banner held aloft by his XFX among a sea of people. I wonder what went on through his mind in that moment seeing the lone cheer banner? It makes me happy to think that the single cheer banner would be a precursor to the red sea of 战 light banners in the years to come. I wonder what would the 2016 version of Zhan Zhan think about present day Zhan Zhan?
From April 15 to June 12, Xiao Zhan and his X-Fire brothers filmed the idol web drama “Super Star Academy,” which was produced by EE Media. “Super Star Academy” was Xiao Zhan’s first foray into acting, his first experience on a film set working with a film crew, and his first time being the male lead in his drama debut. During the duration of the filming, Xiao Zhan shared his thoughts and small achievements in his weekly vlogs. you can watch it here: 2016 weekly vlogs.
On May 5, Xiao Zhan was spotted at HangZhou airport again to catch a flight back to BeiJing. Later in the day, XFX spotted him again at BeiJing airport catching a flight back to HangZhou to continue filming Super Star Academy. I wonder what commitment he had that day that he would need to fly back and forth like that? 🤔
Anyways, back to his weekly vlogs, I want to share this one particular vlog that he recorded on set during a break. I love this vlog because he opened it serenading his XFX with a song and then started sharing his thoughts about university. He cheered his XFX on to do well in their entrance exams to get into a good university because they “must go and experience the university atmosphere” and “reading more books is always a good thing.” Someone captured a photo of him immersed in his own little world recording this weekly vlog for his XFX.
Speaking about reading and books, on May 25, Xiao Zhan posted about receiving a copy of the book “Instead of Words” by Fan XiaoChun. It looks like this book appeared in Xiao Zhan’s life at the right moment just when he was at a crossroad of life choices. A book about facing all of life’s negative and positive moments and accepting it as a kind of growth:
~~~ Post translation ~~~
I thought about getting a copy before, I never thought I would be given one as a gift, fate is really peculiar;
“I’ve always hoped that one day, I would be honest about my vulnerability, to accept giving up, to accept a lost, Instead of saying it is the power of destruction, why not say it is another kind of growth”
— “Instead of Words” by Fan Xiaochun
Thank you for the appearance of this book at my present moment!
Around late May in 2016, while the winning team “X-Fire” (aka. the White Team) went to South Korea for a few weeks to train and record their debut EP, the X-Fire Weibo account made an unexpected announcement: EE Media will open a poll with a plan to add more members to “X-Fire” from the eliminated contestants. Fans would get 10 votes per Weibo account, and every 3 days the contestant with the highest amount of votes would win. Hence, Xiao Zhan along with four other eliminated X-Fire contestants were voted in and joined the winning team to form a yet-to-be-named “boy group”.
On June 5, 2016, Xiao Zhan and his X-Fire brothers took a break from filming Super Star Academy to take part in Zhejiang Satellite TV Sports Games. They performed “Be a Man” and “Dong Bala” on an outdoor arena stage with a live audience. A quick search will find a lot of Xiao Zhan-focused fan cams of that performance, so it looks like he already has quite the fan following even back during his pre-debut days.
After Super Star Academy wrapped up filming on June 12, Xiao Zhan caught a 9am flight on June 13 from HangZhou airport back to BeiJing. The approximate time it takes to fly between the two cities is 2h 15mins. Mid-way through that flight, the pilot announced they had to turn back because there’s a thunderstorm in BeiJing. So around noon, Zhan Zhan’s flight landed in HangZhou again and he had to wait at the airport for almost the entire day. Eventually, he was able to catch a 6pm evening flight and arrived in BeiJing at 8pm. That’s 11 hours spent at the airport and on the plane! 😱
Hmmm…June weather in China must be pretty chaotic that year. I say this because a few days later on June 20, Xiao Zhan was heading to ShangHai from BeiJing to film his guest spot in “Love Through The Millennium 2” drama. When he and his agent arrived at the airport, they find out their flight has been cancelled due to poor weather in Shanghai. So they decided to take the high-speed rail. It was Xiao Zhan’s first time taking the high-speed rail and riding business class so he was super excited.
The next day, on the way back to Beijing from Shanghai, they took the high speed rail again, and this time Xiao Zhan excitedly shared his experience with his XFX in his June 21, 2016 weekly vlog.
Back in BeiJing, Xiao Zhan and his brothers spent the entire summer of 2016 going through intensive training to prepare for their debut. Their schedule was jam packed with vocal classes, dance classes, acting classes, etc. They trained so hard that there were days when all the guys would return home with hoarse voices from singing so much. Despite their super busy schedule, it’s reassuring that Xiao Zhan still finds time to go catch a movie and eat out with his brothers. On July 2, he was even able to catch a Hua ChenYu concert! He shared this experience in his July 4 weekly vlog: how the experience was mind-blowing, how envious he was of Hua Hua’s big concert and how supportive Hua Hua’s fans were. Who could ever predict back then that a few years later in 2020, Xiao Zhan himself would take that centre stage and be greeted by his XFX’s red sea? 🥰
On July 18, something funny happened. Xiao Zhan was feeling a bit rebellious and instead of posting a 3min weekly vlog, he posted a 10sec vlog just of him eating and not saying anything.
In his post he wrote, “Rebellious vlog is here, forgive my willfulness, I heard that a rebellious child’s luck isn’t that bad! ahahahahahaha!! Sudden death from awkwardness!”
Suffice it to say, his XFX felt cheated by the 10sec video so they launched an eggplant assault at Xiao Zhan in the comments. There were pages after pages of eggplants and it got to a point where Xiao Zhan replied in the comments, “Don’t hurt each other! 😤 Block🍆”
And for funsies, here is Xiao Zhan attempting to learn to speak Tai Shan dialect from Wu JiaCheng. Luckily I understand TaiShan dialect since my family is from there, so I have translated the clip into English for y’all to enjoy! 🙂
There were many more interesting things that happened during that summer in 2016, and I will leave you to discover it in Xiao Zhan’s weibo updates 2016 page here. There’s a post from July 27 that I want to highlight because it really stood out for me as I was doing some archaeology digging. Here, he drew for his XFX and posted this:
“I picked up a pencil wanting to do something. I usually want to say so much. It reached the tip of my tongue, but I got embarrassed. To those who are still here by my side accompanying me, I cherish [you]. Thank you all! Good night❤️”
Xiao Zhan’s comment #1: “I haven’t drawn for a long time, I hate it, that’s all! Going to sleep!🌙”
Xiao Zhan comment #2: “I heard someone gave me a gift😅 How come the only thing I received are letters🤔?!! I’ve said it more than once, so I’ll say it again here: awkwardness is cancerous so I don’t read the letters, I just take the letters when they come; I had also said I hope from now on we will meet again during official settings; Lastly love is mutual, I hope you all can understand! ❤️ Good night!”
During Xiao Zhan and his X-Nine brothers’ downtime, they would come up with silly videos such as this parody of a “fashion show” posted on Aug 3, 2016. 😂
And here is Xiao Zhan in a lip sync battle with Gu JiaChang and Yan XuJia on Aug 17, 2016.
A month before Xiao Zhan’s debut with his X-Nine brothers, they were all in intense vocal, dance, and acting training. During this time their X-Fire mentor Chun Chun was also set to open her Savage Growth 《野蛮生长》 Tour. On Aug 20, 2016, the boys all gathered in their dance studio to record this 1minute 20sec video to cheer Chun Chun on.
And that’s all for Xiao Zhan’s pre-debut chapter 2! Onwards to chapter 3: X-Nine debut and activities! 🙂 You can check it out here: