Jiang Wen
Ma Xiaojun's character bears a strong likeness to Jiang Wen as well as to Wang Shuo, whose novella ‘Wild beasts’ provided the origin for Jiang's script. Xiaojun's family, like Jiang Wen's, is from the city of Taishan; the novella's author and the film director are the same age as the fictional Xiaojun and, like him, grew up in Beijing in the idiosyncratic environment of military family housing. Their parents worked for the Communist Party in military, political and scientific fields, so Jiang Wen and Wang Shuo lived in one of the more luxurious courtyards — and much like their characters — were known as the Most Privileged Young People of New China.