Zhang Xiaofei makes warmth and comic timing count most in scenes of family life. Her work with Jia Ling gives us the clearest reason to follow her, though some dramatic leads have proved less persuasive.
Fi1m perspective
In Hi, Mom (2021), the scenes between Zhang Xiaofei and Jia Ling keep us interested when the comedy around them starts to drag. Zhang plays Li Huanying, encountered as a young woman in a story that brings mother and daughter together across time. She gives those encounters enough warmth and humour to make the relationship matter without needing every complication to convince us. We were moved more than we expected by the tenderness between the two women. The film earns our recommendation, with patience required for its slower stretches.
Her ease in company developed through supporting film and television parts alongside extensive sketch comedy. Feng Gong was a comedy mentor, while the working relationship with Jia Ling preceded the breakthrough lead in Hi, Mom. That background helps explain the unforced timing: the emotional passages do not feel as though the comedy has been stopped for an acting demonstration. With Jia Ling directing and playing Jia Xiaoling opposite her, the family scenes are the ones we most readily believe.
The move into more prominent film roles brought Five Hundred Miles (2023) and Last Suspect (2023), followed by Malice (2025). In Last Suspect, she plays a defence lawyer and mother under pressure, a part that uses her capacity for intensity. But professional women have not been a uniformly comfortable fit: her delivery can be stiff and single-note in the television drama Good Things Come in Pairs (2023). The tougher roles are worth trying, but we would not assume they use her better.
YOLO (2024) brings her back to Jia Ling as Du Ledan, a sharp, ambitious sister rather than a maternal figure. It also puts her in a supporting part, where her comic timing remains useful. We are more interested in what she can do with another performer than in whether her name heads the cast. Begin with Hi, Mom, provided an overlong comedy is an acceptable price for the pleasure of watching these two together.
Biography
Zhang Xiaofei is a Chinese actress and comedian. Born on 10 January 1986 in Anshan, Liaoning, she trained in dance at Minzu University from 1997 and joined a People's Armed Police performance troupe in 2001. She graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 2009, in the same class as Yang Mi, Yuan Shanshan, Jiao Junyan and Jing Chao.
After graduation she joined the China Broadcasting Performing Arts Group, where she studied under comedian Feng Gong and met Jia Ling. She appeared in numerous television series and sketches, including several CCTV Spring Festival Galas. Her breakthrough film role came in 2021 as Li Huanying in Hi, Mom, directed by and co-starring Jia Ling; she won the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress for the performance. She later appeared in Five Hundred Miles (2023) and YOLO (2024).
