Tough questions get honest answers

The man has asked tough questions in the torrent of an eventful era. He has done this for 10 years across more than 100 episodes of a documentary-style talk show, without pausing.

This is not a traditional talk show where the host and guests sit impeccably dressed and behave politely in a studio.

On the program 13 Guests, host Xu Zhiyuan appears with a tousled, slightly chaotic head of curly hair.

He often wears flip-flops, a white shirt and jeans — a discordant combination — while chatting with his guests over coffee, drinks or barbecue skewers.

Each season, the show invites 13 guests from diverse fields, generations and backgrounds for in-depth discussions.

Since its debut in 2016, its guests have included composer Ryuichi Sakamoto, historian Xu Zhuoyun, writer Pai Hsien-yung, writer and food critic Chua Lam, singer-songwriter Lo Ta-yu, and such influential directors as Woody Allen, Christopher Nolan, Ang Lee, Zhang Yimou, and Jia Zhangke.

Xu Zhiyuan's guests also include former miner-turned-writer Chen Nianxi, former rural teacher-turned-painter Cai Gao, and teacher-writer Huang Deng, whose nonfiction works focus on the struggles of second-tier college graduates, a group often overlooked yet representative of most ordinary young people.

Their conversations take place in bookstores, cafes or the guest's kitchen, living room or balcony, and at times in more unconventional locales: a cramped stairwell, the edge of a serene lake, or even amid graves in a mountain wilderness.

Xu Zhiyuan, a journalist-turned-writer, publisher, and cofounder of One Way Space bookstore, stands in stark contrast to the conventional host who maintains an objective, neutral stance. Instead, he does not attempt to conceal his personal views and attitudes; he engages in deep dialogue and verbally spars with his guests through a distinct individual lens.

Equally distinctive is how the program embraces his personality, capturing Xu Zhiyuan's visible nervousness, occasional hesitation, prolonged silence, or sharp verbal clashes with interviewees with profound honesty.

"In a state of genuine thought, one is often at a loss," he explains. "You simply don't have all the answers. Only performative conversation flows smoothly. But real thinking is seldom smooth, cannot be smooth, and perhaps should not be smooth."

The program's producer Xu Chanjuan observes that Xu Zhiyuan shows almost no difference between his on-camera and off-camera personas.

She believes this lack of "camera mask" and his inherent authenticity form the very core of compelling video content.

"When someone who isn't a performer is placed in a new environment, their first reaction is genuine," she analyzes.

"This creates not only a surface-level dramatic effect but also a deeper, more substantive tension."

As a host who persistently questions the times, maintains a wary skepticism toward the present, occasionally poses "untimely" questions, and often exposes his own awkwardness on camera, he once made the program inherently controversial.

Yet, this very authenticity has gradually found an audience.

A testament to its resonance, the show's seventh and eighth seasons earned exceptional scores of 9.4 and 9.3 out of 10, respectively, on the Chinese review platform Douban.

For Zhang Ying, a devoted viewer of the program, the show offers value through its more thoughtful dimensions in interviews with successful individuals.

For instance, in the episode featuring former miner-turned-writer Chen Nianxi, Xu Zhiyuan also interviewed Chen's wife, Zhou Shuxia.

When asked whether she felt proud of her husband's sudden fame as a poet, she replied with quiet dignity: "I believe we are husband and wife, and marriage should be about equality, regardless of status or background." Asked if she would like to travel with her husband, Zhou answered candidly, "No, because he has a bad temper."

"The program not only focuses on the achievements of these men but also pays close attention to the sacrifices made by their wives, while highlighting the women's independent identities. It is precisely this kind of content that moves me the most," says viewer Zhang Ying.

The program's ninth season recently aired on Tencent Video.

Its first episode offers a glimpse into the rich inner world of Chinese basketball legend Yao Ming.

Strolling across grasslands and chatting over coffee in a bookstore, Yao reflects on the evolution of his mindset during his NBA years, how he faced constant public scrutiny, his understanding of historical figures such as legendary strategist Zhuge Liang (181-234), and how his own smoothly paved career led him to overlook the subtle complexities of human relationships.

The new season also features discussions with art historian Xu Xiaohu (Joan Stanley-Baker), acclaimed Italian director Giuseppe Tornatore, and Oscar-winning filmmaker Jimmy Chin.

Xu Zhiyuan shares the core ambition for this season, inspired by rereading Hemingway's A Movable Feast, where the author suggests, during creative blocks, to "write one true sentence, and then go on from there".

The host has anchored this season's interviews on capturing that "one true sentence" from each guest.

"To capture a single sentence, a single moment that truly moves you, and then to deepen and broaden that sentence, that moment — that is the most precious thing," he says.

At the end of Yao's episode, Yao recalls his first Olympic journey to Sydney in 2000.

He bought a souvenir photo of the opening ceremony's grand assembly, thinking his height would make him easy to spot, but he failed to find himself.

"That was the first time I felt so small. Imagine that coming from someone over 2.2 meters tall. The feeling of smallness is a good one. It offers a kind of strength," says Yao.

For Xu Zhiyuan, that was Yao's "true sentence".