Jing Boran's icy advertising boss in The Early Spring has taken first place in Storm Media's ranking of Chinese drama leading men who best embody the "stoic" hero, finishing ahead of Yang Yang's aerospace engineer in You Are My Glory and Miles Wei's statistics professor in Perfect and Casual. The type is known in Chinese fandom as "jinyu xi," literally "abstinent style": men who say little, bury their emotions and look distant in a suit and glasses, then win viewers over once love cracks the surface.
Storm Media drew up the top 10 from a 2026 shortlist of stoic leads that GQ China posted on Weibo, along with how fans on Weibo, PTT and Dcard talk about each character. It is an editorial ranking, not an audience poll. PTT is Taiwan's largest online bulletin board, and Dcard is a social platform popular with young Taiwanese.
Jing Boran's Luan Nian Wins On Restraint And Tension
In The Early Spring, Jing plays Luan Nian, creative director at an advertising agency. He is demanding, sharp-tongued and rarely seen out of a suit or shirt, with a flat expression that carries through most office scenes. Opposite Sun Qian's Shang Zhitao, he keeps drifting toward her without being willing to admit it first, and the show hides his pride, probing and attraction in his eyes and tone of voice.
Since the series aired, Jing's suited look and cold presence have been widely discussed, and one online fan dubbed him the most charged "stoic ceiling" in Chinese entertainment. A PTT viewer said he looks "ridiculously good" as Luan Nian, praised his voice as "very pleasant and very sexy," and admitted to being completely smitten. What makes the character work is not the cold face itself but the way Shang gradually chips away at his poise: the harder he tries to stay composed, the less he can hide how much he cares.
Yang Yang And Miles Wei Rank Second And Third
Yang's Yu Tu in You Are My Glory takes second place. A school star in high school, Yu is now an aerospace engineer going through a low point between his ideals and reality. When he meets Qiao Jingjing, played by Dilraba Dilmurat, again, he tucks his feelings away even as he falls for her, and the engineer's job, glasses and suits make him one of the genre's best-known examples.
Years later, Yu is still a favorite among fans. One described him as "rational and restrained, burning inside," another said his glasses give him a "scholarly restraint all his own," and a third wrote that after watching the show they "fell completely." His appeal lies in how he agonizes over whether he can give Qiao the life she wants, which makes his later pursuit of her all the more striking.
Miles Wei, known as Wei Zheming in Chinese, is third as Zhang Sinian in Perfect and Casual. The associate professor of statistics runs his life by data and rules, from his work to his coffee to his plans for the future, and his glasses, suits and almost wooden rationality make him a textbook case of the type. A contract marriage with Yun Shu, played by Xu Ruohan, throws his orderly world off balance.
A Dcard fan described Zhang as "cold, ascetic and a perfectionist," while another joked that he must have been "a safe in a previous life" because he gives so much security in love. Once the character finally falls, the professor who judges everything by numbers grows jealous and starts pursuing her, and that before-and-after contrast is his biggest draw.
Three Costume Leads Hide Feelings Behind Duty
Costume dramas supply three of the 10 entries. Gong Jun, in ninth place, plays Han Ye, crown prince of the kingdom of Dajing, in The Legend of Anle. He is gentle and upright, carries the weight of the throne and keeps his boundaries when Ren Anle pursues him boldly. A PTT fan first thought of him as refined and courteous, then realized he is "a hunter who bides his time," and summed up the pair with the line "she pretends to love him, he pretends not to love her."
Cheng Yi lands seventh as Yu Sifeng, a disciple of Lize Palace in Love and Redemption. He first appears in a mask and is bound by sect rules and a lovers' curse, so he keeps pushing down his feelings for Chu Xuanji until the barriers of the sect, identity and past lives start to give way. A PTT viewer praised his "amazing" eye acting, which carries Yu's changing emotions through white-robed scenes with little dialogue.
Cheng Lei, known in English as Ryan Cheng, is sixth as Gong Shangjue in My Journey to You. He is the cool-headed, decisive master of Jue Palace within the Palace Gate clan, strong in both martial arts and strategy, and never fully lowers his guard around Lu Yuxiao's Shangguan Qian even after affection sets in. A Dcard viewer said Cheng was the biggest takeaway from the show and that his "eyes are really great."
Zhu Yilong And Chen Zheyuan Trade Words For Glances
Zhu Yilong takes 10th place for The Rebel, in which he plays Lin Nansheng, a young trainee who is drawn into a dangerous intelligence war. Lin has none of the cool distance of an idol-drama hero. His pull comes from silence and years of suppressed emotion, and Zhu works mostly through his eyes and small changes of expression in suits, military uniforms and Republic of China-era costumes. A Dcard fan said that "steady men have a certain charm" and that Zhu looks "great in a suit or a uniform."
Chen Zheyuan is eighth as Li Zan in The White Olive Tree, a demolition engineer who rescues journalist Song Ran, played by Liang Jie, when she runs into danger on assignment. Li stays calm under long stretches of pressure and rarely expresses love in dramatic ways. A Weibo fan called him "composed and restrained" and said he is "calm yet hides tenderness, restrained yet full of deep feeling," a more mature turn than the boyfriend roles Chen played in earlier youth romances.
Liu Xueyi And Wei Daxun Hide Feelings Behind Suits And Glasses
Liu Xueyi ranks fifth as Mo Lingze in Love at Night, a polished executive who meets Zhang Yuxi's Xu Qingyou by chance, and the two move from testing each other to becoming a couple. With his many suit, shirt and glasses looks and a mature sense of boundaries, Mo carries a cool, controlled air. A Dcard fan, though, was struck by his softer side once he was in love, writing that "Mr. Mo being cute is super adorable, I rewatched this part three times!"
Wei Daxun is fourth as Meng Yanchen in Fireworks of My Heart, heir to a family business who has long been held in check by family rules and duty and keeps his feelings for Xu Qin to himself. Meng does not have the most screen time in the series, yet his suits, gold-rimmed glasses and repressed, aloof manner made him a breakout. One Dcard fan described him as "both repressed and aloof" and said that in gold-rimmed glasses and a suit, "every entrance is charged with tension," while another admitted to watching the second half "only for Meng Yanchen," whose screen time is "pitifully small."
Across all 10 picks, the common thread is the same: the less a character says, the more weight every pause, glance and slip of composure carries once he finally lets someone in.
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