FigureAsia 35 Under 35 · Entertainment
Liu Haoran
Age 28 · Actor · Mainland China
Film lead crossing franchise comedy, historical trauma and live theatre
- Age at 31 December 2025
- 28
- Field
- Film performance
- Country or region
- Mainland China
- FigureAsia U35 Assessment
- 91.5 / 100
Profile
Career and documented record
By 2025, Liu Haoran had worked for a decade within the visibility created by the Detective Chinatown series. The Chinese actor was born in Pingdingshan, Henan, in 1997, moved to Beijing as a young teenager, attended the affiliated secondary school of the Beijing Dance Academy and later studied acting at the Central Academy of Drama. His screen debut in Beijing Love Story preceded Qin Feng, the observant young investigator who became his most widely recognised character. Work in With You, Nirvana in Fire 2, The Founding of an Army, Legend of the Demon Cat, Coffee or Tea? and Decoded subsequently tested him beyond that franchise’s comic-mystery rhythm.
His completed 2025–26 record is unusually varied in both role and production environment. In the historical prequel Detective Chinatown 1900, Liu plays Qin Fu rather than repeating Qin Feng. The Lunar New Year release retains the franchise’s investigative partnership and broad comic timing, but moves the action to a San Francisco Chinese community facing exclusion and racial violence.
The film passed RMB3.6 billion at the Chinese box office, a production-wide result that confirms immense realised audience reach. Later in 2025, Dead to Rights placed Liu in a markedly more restrained historical register. He plays Su Liuchang, a Nanjing postman who poses as a photographic developer during the 1937 massacre and becomes involved in preserving visual evidence.
Rather than displaying the polished competence associated with his franchise persona, the role begins with civilian fear, calculation and survival. The film became the summer season’s highest-grossing domestic release in China and generated a separate critical discussion around its historical drama. Liu also completed a multi-city 2025 tour of The Taste of Warmth, his leading theatre debut.
Liu described The Taste of Warmth as his first production undertaken as a leading theatre performer. Carrying First Secretary Sun Guangming through a multi-city live run removed the protections of editing, retakes and close-up control that had shaped most of his screen career.
FigureAsia selection
Why Liu Haoran is on the list
Liu’s case is built on contrast that was completed and publicly tested, not on the inherited visibility of a decade-long franchise. The verified RMB3.6 billion domestic result for Detective Chinatown 1900 supports audience consequence: his central commercial performance reached a mass public, while the revenue remains credited to the production rather than to one actor. The verified shift from Qin Fu’s broad comic partnership to Su Liuchang’s fearful civilian perspective supports originality and distinction: two 2025 films required opposing registers without using one title’s popularity to certify the other’s craft. The completed multi-city 2025 theatre tour supports durability and demonstrated trajectory: it placed Liu under repeatable live conditions beyond editing and close-up control, showing professional development rather than announced ambition.
His agency is visible in the decisions each role requires. Qin Fu must feel connected to the franchise’s established rhythm without becoming a copy of Qin Feng. Su Liuchang has to move from survival towards moral responsibility within a controlled historical ensemble. The stage lead demands continuity across a completed live run, while Li Mo adds a smaller-scale, memory-driven film register in 2026.
Directors, writers, co-stars and production conditions shape all four results; Liu’s attributable achievement is the recalibration of timing, physical control and dramatic status between them. Few comparable mainland actors under 35 completed this combination of high-reach cinema, sombre historical work, touring theatre and an intimate theatrical release within one assessment cycle. His selection therefore reflects range under different working conditions, not franchise grosses alone. The work demonstrates responsibility, audience consequence and an active resistance to typecasting sufficient for one of only 35 places.
Verified work
The 2025–26 record
Completed work
Played Qin Fu in the completed 2025 prequel Detective Chinatown 1900, renewing a familiar franchise rhythm through a distinct historical character as the film passed RMB3.6 billion domestically.
Attributable execution
Led the completed 2025 historical feature Dead to Rights as civilian postman Su Liuchang; the film became China’s highest-grossing domestic release of that summer season.
Documented responsibility
Completed a multi-city 2025 tour as the lead of The Taste of Warmth, moving from edited screen work into sustained live performance for his theatre debut.
Verified consequence
Appeared as Li Mo in the theatrically released 2026 drama My Friend An Delie, adding a quieter, memory-driven register to the period’s franchise, historical and stage work.
Live-format agency
Identified The Taste of Warmth as his first production undertaken as a leading theatre performer and carried the role through a completed multi-city run.
Field context
The work in its field
Live performance removed the editing, multiple takes and close-up control available on film, making the sustained run a substantive undertaking rather than a ceremonial appearance. In January 2026, he appeared as Li Mo in the theatrically released My Friend An Delie, a quieter drama organised around friendship, memory and unresolved trauma. Together, these completed works demonstrate a deliberate movement across franchise spectacle, historical cinema, touring theatre and intimate character drama while keeping the assessment focused on performance rather than cumulative revenue.
Few records in this cohort move within one assessment window from large-scale historical franchise comedy to a completed stage run and then to a quieter theatrical drama. Liu’s distinction is the adjustment of tempo, projection and emotional scale across those finished formats, with revenue treated as context and not as a substitute for acting evidence.
Liu’s own account of taking on his first lead theatre production makes the format change attributable: the live run required continuity without the editorial controls available across his film slate.
FigureAsia U35 Assessment
Assessment breakdown
91.5out of 100
Substantive 2025–2026 contribution
20 / 20
Liu completed two materially different 2025 film performances: a central role in the large-scale franchise prequel Detective Chinatown 1900 and a dramatic part in the historical feature Dead to Rights.
Verified impact
13.5 / 15
The first film passed RMB3.6 billion at the Chinese box office, while the second drew a distinct critical conversation, giving his assessment both realised audience scale and evidence of dramatic range.
Originality and distinction
9 / 10
He moved between broad comic timing and a more restrained historical register without using one film's commercial result as proof of the other film's artistic success.
Industry influence
9 / 10
Few eligible mainland actors produced two completed film cases in the window with this combination of lead responsibility, market consequence and contrast of mode.
Individual agency
8 / 10
The assessed responsibility is the person's work as actor on Detective Chinatown 1900 and Dead to Rights, not the production's entire result.
Durability and demonstrated trajectory
4.5 / 5
The qualifying work was completed and entered public circulation within the evidence window; no announced next project earns credit.
Asian significance and global relevance
4.5 / 5
The work is situated in Mainland China and was compared for meaning within Asian entertainment and for consequence beyond one immediate market.
Craft or creative execution
8 / 8
He moved between broad comic timing and a more restrained historical register without using one film's commercial result as proof of the other film's artistic success.
Performance, narrative or production responsibility
5.4 / 6
Liu Haoran held actor responsibility on Detective Chinatown 1900 and Dead to Rights; collective production credit was separated from individual agency.
Audience and critical consequence
4.5 / 5
The first film passed RMB3.6 billion at the Chinese box office, while the second drew a distinct critical conversation, giving his assessment both realised audience scale and evidence of dramatic range.
Cross-market and format achievement
2.7 / 3
The completed work was assessed across its original Mainland China context and any verified international or cross-format circulation.
Professional practice and representation
2.4 / 3
The case records a specific chinese actor born in henan contribution without treating identity itself as an achievement.