Dong Zijian

Dong Zijian (Chinese: 董子健, born 19 December 1993) is a Chinese actor. He is best known for his roles in Young Style (2013), Mountains May Depart (2015), De Lan (2015), and At Cafe 6 (2016).

Dong Zijian
Born	(1993-12-19) December 19, 1993 (age 31) Beijing, China
Alma mater	Central Academy of Drama
Occupations	Actor producer
Years active	2013–present
Spouse	Sun Yi ​ ​ (m. 2017; div. 2022)​
Children	1
Parent(s)	Dong Zhi Hua Wang Jing Hua

Early life and education

Dong is born in Beijing, China. His father, Dong Zhi Hua is also an actor; and his mother, Wang Jing Hua is an artist manager in China.^[1][2] He studied at the Beijing Haidian Foreign Language Shi Yan School, Yew Chung International School of Beijing and Beijing No.80 Middle School in his earlier years.^[3][4] In 2014, he was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama.^[4]

Career

Dong made his debut in the youth drama film Young Style by Liu Jie,^[5] for which he won the Best Actor award at the China Movie Channel Media Awards.^[6]

In 2014, Dong featured in the horror film Bunshinsaba 3, directed by Ahn Byeong-ki;^[7] followed by the youth drama film The Ark of Mr. Chow.^[8]

In 2015, he was nominated for the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival for his performance in Mountains May Depart, a realistic melodrama pic directed by Jia Zhangke.^[9] Dong reunited with director Liu Jie to star in his film, De Lan, a rural tale that revolves around a loan officer who travels to a remote village and strikes up a complicated relationship with a Tibetan woman. De Lan won the Best Feature Film award at the Shanghai International Film Festival.^[10]

In 2016, he starred in the Taiwanese coming-of-age film At Cafe 6.^[11] He also had a supporting role in the thriller film Hide and Seek which co-starred Wallace Huo.^[12]

In 2017, Dong starred in Young Love Lost, a comedy film by first-time director Xiang Guoqiang. He was praised for his excellent portrayal as a young roustabout who has no clear goals.^[13] He also featured in Han Han's drama film Duckweed,^[14] and patriotic war film The Founding of an Army as Deng Xiaoping.^[15] The same year, Dong was cast as one of the three protagonists in Namiya, the Chinese remake of Japanese novel Miracles of the Namiya General Store.^[16]

In 2018, Dong starred in the comedy film Dude's Manual.^[17] The same year, Dong made his small-screen debut in the television series Like a Flowing River, based on the novel Da Jiang Dong Qu by Ah Nai and set in the period of Chinese economic reform.^[18] Forbes China listed Dong under their 30 Under 30 Asia 2017 list which consisted of 30 influential people under 30 years old who have had a substantial effect in their fields.^[19]

Filmography

Film

Year	English title	Chinese title	Role	Notes
2013	Young Style	青春派	Ju Ran
2014	Bunshinsaba 3	笔仙III	Zi Jian
2015	The Ark of Mr. Chow	少年班	Wu Wei
	Mountains May Depart	山河故人	Dao Le
	De Lan	德蘭	Xiao Wang
2016	At Cafe 6	六弄咖啡馆	Guan Min-lü
	Hide and Seek	捉迷藏	Lulu's boyfriend
2017	Young Love Lost	少年巴比伦	Lu Xiaolu
	Duckweed	乘風破浪	Xiao Ma
	The Founding of an Army	建軍大業	Deng Xiaoping
	Namiya	解憂雜貨店	Ah Jie
2018	Dude's Manual	完全男生手册	He Xiaoyang
	Ash Is Purest White	江湖儿女	(Fengjie) Police	[20]
2019	Youthful China in the Headlines	头条里的青春中国		Short film[21]
2020	My People, My Homeland	我和我的家乡	Dong Kexue	[22]
2021	Assassin in Red	刺杀小说家	Lu Kongwen	[23]
	A Writer's Odyssey	刺杀小说家	Kongwen Lu

Television series

Year	English title	Chinese title	Role	Notes
2018	Like a Flowing River	大江大河	Yang Xun
2020	Like a Flowing River 2	大江大河2		[24]
	Little Doctor	小大夫	Guo Jing	[25]
	My Best Friend's Story	流金岁月	Xie Hongzu	[26]
	Who Is Murderer	谁是凶手	Xia Mu	[27]
2024	Like a Flowing River 3	大江大河3	Yang Xun	[28]

Variety show

Year	English title	Chinese title	Role	Notes
2017	Give Me Five	高能少年团	Cast member	[29]

Discography

Year	English title	Chinese title	Album	Notes
2017	"Proud Youths"	骄傲的少年	Give Me Five OST	with Zhang Yishan, Wang Junkai, Liu Haoran & Darren Wang[30]
2019	"Starry Sea"	星辰大海		For China Movie Channel Young Actors Project with 31 other actors[31]

Awards and nominations

Year	Awards	Category	Work	Result	Ref.
2013	China Movie Channel Media Awards	Best Actor	Young Style	Won	[6]
	Chinese Young Generation Film Forum Awards	Best New Actor		Won	[32]
	Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards	Best New Performer		Nominated
2014	Beijing College Student Film Festival	Best New Performer		Won	[33]
	Changchun Film Festival	Best Actor		Nominated
	Chinese Film Media Awards	Best New Performer		Nominated
2015	Golden Phoenix Awards	Best New Performer		Won	[34]
	2015 Cannes Film Festival	Best Actor	Mountains May Depart	Nominated	[9]
	Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards	Best Actor	De Lan	Nominated
2017	Beijing College Student Film Festival	Best Actor		Nominated
2019	6th The Actors of China Award Ceremony	Best Actor (Emerald Category)	Like a Flowing River	Nominated	[35]
2021	27th Shanghai Television Festival	Best Supporting Actor	Like a Flowing River 2	Nominated
2024	29th Shanghai Television Festival	Best Supporting Actor	Like a Flowing River 3	Nominated	[36]