LayarHijau – An amusing behind-the-scenes story from the Chinese drama Against the Current has been making the rounds in entertainment media in China and Taiwan, as well as on social media. In the drama, Kong Lingmei plays Liu Xueyi’s mother. In real life, however, she is the wife of one of Liu Xueyi’s close friends.
Kong Lingmei is also Liu Xueyi’s senior at the Central Academy of Drama, and the two are only about seven years apart in age. In Against the Current, Kong Lingmei plays Qin Shunhua, while Liu Xueyi plays her son, Lin Jinqi.
Sweet Osmanthus Sauce
Osmanthus sauce that is made from dried osmanthus flowers, sugar and honey.
It's perfect to make milk with osmanthus honey like what Luke makes for Flora in The Early Spring.
We earn a commission if you make a purchase, at no additional cost to yo
The story reportedly began before Kong Lingmei took the role. Her husband, who is a close friend of Liu Xueyi, asked the actor to guess which character his wife would play in the drama.
Liu Xueyi reportedly joked that he would be fine with any role, as long as Kong Lingmei did not play his mother.
That was exactly the role she ended up getting.
When filming began, Liu Xueyi and Kong Lingmei reportedly struggled to keep a straight face during their early scenes together. Since they already knew each other well outside of work, they had to get used to portraying a mother-and-son relationship in front of the camera.
They eventually agreed to keep their on-screen and off-screen relationships separate. When the cameras were rolling, Kong Lingmei was Liu Xueyi’s mother in the story. Once filming ended, they returned to their usual senior-junior relationship.
The unusual situation later became a source of jokes on Chinese social media. Since Kong Lingmei’s husband is Liu Xueyi’s close friend, some users joked that once Kong Lingmei became Liu Xueyi’s mother in the drama, her husband had effectively become his father as well.
Others joked about how Liu Xueyi would address his friend after the drama: Would he still call him “brother,” or would he now have to call him “dad”?
Liu Xueyi was also said to have joked about the situation, saying that he had “got the short end of the stick” because his best friend’s wife ended up playing his mother.
Kong Lingmei’s transformation into Qin Shunhua has also attracted attention. Although she and Liu Xueyi are only about seven years apart, she manages to look considerably older on screen.
To build the character, Kong Lingmei reportedly spent around three months practicing her physical movements. She trained herself to walk while placing more weight on one side of her body, making her right shoulder appear lower. She also adopted a slightly hunched posture and a deeper voice to portray a mother who had experienced many hardships in life.
The result made some viewers find it difficult to believe that the two actors are only about seven years apart. On screen, Kong Lingmei and Liu Xueyi appear convincing as mother and son.
The story has since spread from entertainment reports to discussions on social media in China and Taiwan. However, no direct interview with Liu Xueyi, either in text or video form, has been found during the search to serve as a primary source for the remark about him feeling he had “got the short end of the stick.”
The anecdote should therefore be understood as a behind-the-scenes story reported and discussed by various entertainment media outlets and social media users, rather than as the result of a recent exclusive interview with Liu Xueyi.
