Bai Jingting Lets Us Into His World

For some viewers, Bai Jingting is the young man trying to escape a bus explosion that keeps happening again and again in Reset. For others, he is Sang Yan, the seemingly aloof romantic lead whose unresolved feelings give The First Frost its considerable pull. At 33, with 12 years of acting behind him, the Chinese actor has built a following through characters who offer different routes into his appeal: intelligence under pressure, vulnerability beneath composure, affection that takes its time to reveal itself.

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Born in Beijing’s Huairou district, Bai initially pursued sound recording at the Music College of Capital Normal University. Acting presented another possibility. While still a student, he auditioned for the coming-of-age web drama Back in Time. Director Yao Tingting and producer Zhu Zhenhua had previously described how his rapid improvement during auditions convinced them of his potential. He made his screen debut in 2014 as Qiao Ran in Back in Time, a gentle young man navigating friendship and unspoken love.

Bai brought warmth and sensitivity to a character whose affections were not easily expressed, establishing an appeal he developed through The Whirlwind Girl in 2015 and Rush to the Dead Summer in 2017. From then on, he actively sought out film and television roles that departed from his previous characters and genres, including that of a special forces police officer in You Are My Hero in 2021.

His career saw a greater breakthrough with the release of Reset in 2022. He portrayed game architect Xiao Heyun, trapped in a time loop aboard a bus that was about to explode. Each repetition offers another chance to avert disaster while revealing more about the passengers. The series’ official account reported more than a billion cumulative views during its original run. Its success gave Bai a major showcase beyond youthful romance, in a suspense story grounded in recognisably human fear, hesitation and courage.

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Later that year, New Life Begins offered period romance and comedy, with Bai playing the reserved sixth prince Yin Zheng. In 2025, he earned renewed international attention and recognition for his delicate performance and nuanced interpretation of Sang Yan in The First Frost. Former classmates Sang Yan and Wen Yifan unexpectedly end up living under the same roof. As they spend time together day after day, the love that they believed they could bury deep down, surges again. That same year, he also portrayed police detective Ding Qi in Mobius. Trapped within a limit of five time loops, he wades through mysteries to track down the killer and uphold justice. The show has maintained a strong reputation and received wide acclaim.

These dramas suggest why Chinese television can be so absorbing. An ingenious thriller sits alongside a richly imagined courtship or a contemporary second-chance romance. Beneath their differences lies the pleasure of becoming closely acquainted with a character. In Reset, another journey changes how we understand a stranger. In The First Frost, familiarity gives a small gesture greater weight. Suspense invites us to anticipate what happens next; romance asks us to wait for someone to admit what we already suspect.

Bai’s following also extends beyond scripted roles. The travel variety game show Natural High, in which participants investigate fictional crimes, introduced audiences to his quick thinking and playful side. The romantic lead and resourceful variety show participant offer different pleasures, allowing interest in a character to become curiosity about the person playing him. That combination helps explain the attachment: viewers can admire the emotional precision of a performance while enjoying the wit and spontaneity he brings to a very different setting.

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I interviewed Bai via a phone call. He was on set in Shanghai with BAZAAR’s style editor Gracia Phang and a Chinese team including acclaimed photographer Liu Song. Thoughtful and introverted in person, he shares that he enjoys sports. Bai would like to learn tennis. Golf, too. “Perhaps I’m starting a little late,” he says. Alongside his hopes of refining his acting and travelling somewhere unfamiliar, it is a modest ambition, offered with the same consideration he gives questions about his career.

That introspective quality runs through our conversation. Taking a break has given Bai space to consider an industry in transition. “Artificial intelligence is having an impact on film and television, and these new ways of creating are very novel,” he says. “As traditional performers—as actors—I think we need to learn how we and these future forms of screen production can accommodate one another.”

Learning also shapes how he looks back. Ask which role changed his understanding of himself, and he resists choosing a defining moment. “Every major genre, and every new story, feels like a fresh experience for me,” he says. “I don’t particularly like doing things I already know how to do, or repeating the same kinds of roles.”

His appetite for unfamiliar material comes with an appreciation of its demands. Comedy poses an especially big challenge for him, and the film Keep Real in which he stars marks just such a new trial. “Bringing people joy, or making an audience laugh, can sometimes be more complicated than conveying other emotions.” He gives lightness serious consideration, conscious of the work required to make a performance feel effortless.

Beyond the set, conversations with friends across generations become opportunities to understand different lives. Listening also gives him a way through his own reserve. “I used to be very introverted, and I was afraid of communicating with other people,” he says. Asking questions (from a journalist’s perspective) makes conversation easier.

Curiosity gives those encounters a purpose, much as a role does at work, where he can be lively and outgoing. Away from that setting, he is more tentative. “In everyday life, I’m simply myself, and perhaps I can’t get into that same frame of mind,” he reflects. Understanding a character can sometimes feel more straightforward than knowing how to be himself.

Running his lifestyle label, GoodBai, has given him another perspective on working with those around him. Founded in 2021, Bai has found that expression comes with responsibility. “When you run your own brand, you have to oversee all matters, big and small.” Considering each detail has deepened his appreciation of the departments supporting his work as an actor. What began with a friend designing products has grown into a larger creative community. “Working with them is also a way for me to learn from the youth.”

Learning similarly informs his relationships with Cartier and Louis Vuitton. Alongside the clothes and jewellery, he sees the accumulated knowledge of houses that have evolved across generations. “Every collaboration with them is a learning process. I approach it as a learner,” Bai shares. “After all, GoodBai has only been growing for a few years, whereas they have a very rich brand history behind them.”

Time alone lets him turn his attention inward. Bai estimates that he spends 90 percent of his year in the collective rhythm of production. During breaks, he likes walking by himself. “A lot of things feel different when you do them on your own.” He enjoys sharing snippets of his daily life through vlogs, while also hoping to protect the quiet, peaceful life of his family.

There is care in that distinction: an awareness of what he can offer, what he owes others and what he needs to keep for himself. Away from a character’s demands or a founder’s decisions, a walk alone lets him follow his own thoughts. For someone whose work begins with understanding other lives, his own deserves that same patient attention.

Editor-in-Chief: Kenneth Goh
Photography: Liu Song
Styling: Gracia Phang
Cover look: Cartier and Louis Vuitton
Grooming and hair: SEON
Producer: Oolong Jang
Photographer’s assistants: Shixin Tian