The summer drama season of 2025 is in full swing, and Li Yitong's (李一桐) latest series A Dream Within A Dream (书卷一梦) is generating serious buzz. Despite lacking the support of a big-name IP, this historical fantasy comedy has carved out its place in a crowded market with a gutsy, genre-bending premise—and a lead character who refuses to follow the script, quite literally. At the heart of this surge is Li Yitong's standout performance as Song Yimeng.
According to multiple tracking platforms, Li's meticulous interpretation of the character has significantly boosted the show's reach. Her understated yet precise acting style allows the character—a fictional "paper doll" given life—to leap off the page. It's a compelling, layered portrayal that has become a new career milestone for the actress.
A Character Who Fights Back
A Character Who Fights BackA Dream Within A Dream is an original series that had already gained traction before its premiere, with over 3 million users signing up to watch on both iQIYI and Weibo. Once it aired, the show's unusual blend of genre self-awareness and quirky charm quickly caught fire. Within a day, it passed a heat index score of 2 on Datawin, a key metric in Chinese TV ratings. As the plot progressed and the stakes increased, the show kept climbing, securing a solid place in one of the most competitive summer lineups in recent years.
The show also broke records on its first day, becoming the most-watched premiere on iQIYI in 2025. At the time of writing, its in-app heat score peaked at 9516—a striking figure. It topped numerous rankings across iQIYI, including trending charts, rising stars, costume dramas, and more. It also grabbed the number one spot on other major platforms like Weibo, Douyin, and Douban, where it dominated real-time TV and entertainment charts.
But it wasn't just the show's metrics that caught people's attention. Li Yitong's performance exploded across social media. Fans flooded platforms with re-creations of her scenes, soundbites spliced with Nezha (a beloved animated character known for defying fate), and edits highlighting key emotional moments. One of the most popular clips racked up over 1.62 million likes and was shared more than 2.03 million times.
Several trending hashtags on Weibo focused solely on her acting, such as #LiYitong'sSparkle, #LiYitongNezhaMode, and #ImitatingLiYitong. Clearly, her portrayal became the emotional and promotional anchor of the series. Her synergy with the role and the story's core themes is a major reason why the show managed to punch above its weight.
From a character perspective, Song Yimeng (real identity: Song Xiaoyu) is central to everything the show sets out to do. She's a blend of slapstick comedy and a serious question: what does it mean to take control of your fate?
Here's the setup. Song Xiaoyu is a struggling actress at the bottom of the food chain. One day, she's inexplicably thrown into the world of a historical costume drama called Dream of Peace and Serenity (清宁一梦). There, she becomes Song Yimeng, the high-born daughter of a military official. According to the script, she's supposed to be killed off by the male lead, Nan Heng, who's also the villain.
Determined to rewrite her own ending, Song Xiaoyu—now living as Song Yimeng—starts a string of clumsy, hilarious, and occasionally brilliant survival schemes. But it's not that simple. The world she's trapped in runs on strict narrative rules: iconic scenes must happen, male leads are always forced to rescue damsels in distress, and deviating from the script brings punishment. Every time she steps off the rails, the system fights back.
But she doesn't back down. Instead of playing it safe, she evolves—from a passive player to someone who actively challenges the system. She becomes a "fate rewriter," eventually helping other characters (the "paper people") wake up to their own agency.
There's a moment where she and her allies exhaust every possible trick to save Shangguan He, and somehow, it works. Or the quiet, moonlit scene where she drinks with her sister Song Yiting and says, "I write my own story." Or the time she draws her sword against a predatory man harassing a dancer at the Jiangyue Pavilion. These moments aren't just for flair—they're what define her.
What makes Song Yimeng so compelling is that she uses absurdity to fight back against a rigid system. Her body becomes the site of rebellion. She crashes headfirst into a world designed to keep her in place—and refuses to stay in her lane. Instead of fighting on behalf of some grand narrative or ancient prophecy, she's simply trying to live as herself.
As Li Yitong put it in an interview, every character in A Dream Within A Dream is "someone behind a mask." And sometimes, just being yourself—even in a fictional world—can be the most joyful rebellion of all.
A Performance That Flips Expectations
A Performance That Flips Expectations
If you scroll through audience reactions online, some key phrases keep popping up to describe Song Yimeng: hilarious contradictions, meme-worthy lead, lively and pure, brave and clever, fragile but funny. These layers don't come together easily, and for Li Yitong, A Dream Within A Dream posed a major challenge—how to portray a character who's waking up to her own agency, while also questioning the "script" of life itself.
One of the most replayed scenes is the "spinning love triangle" moment, where chaos meets comedy. Li Yitong nails the deadpan sarcasm and offbeat quirkiness of Song Yimeng without overdoing it. Take that now-iconic line from her "blade-forging" speech:
"Slice me a slice-slice, what kind of slice?
Slice me a slice-slice—why, a pig-cutting slice!"("刀了个刀刀，那是什么刀？刀了个刀刀，一把杀猪刀"——a nonsensical but catchy pun around the word "dao" [knife or slice], turned into meme material.)
With her raspy mezzo delivery and teasing tone, the moment had fans calling her "Mo Tong Descends" (a Nezha reference meaning "the magic child has arrived").
As the show progressed, so did the buzz. A one-breath monologue challenge, the now-famous "cat-like flirting" scene—anything tied to Song Yimeng went viral in minutes. It's safe to say, Li Yitong wasn't just meme bait inside the drama—she was delivering meme gold outside it too.
There's the rooftop scene, for example, where Yimeng gets tipsy. No actual alcohol was involved, but Li's portrayal of a tipsy state—scattered gaze, flushed cheeks, unstable steps—was so believable it felt real. When Li Shiliu (the second male lead) suddenly shows up, she breaks into a tipsy rant: calling him out for being "immune to women" while half-drunkenly confessing to him with an adorable level of boldness.
Then there's the misunderstanding scene, where Li Shiliu says, seriously, "I don't like men," and Yimeng's eyes go wide:
"So you just purely like Shangguan He!"
Her confusion clashes hilariously with his awkward silence. This is exactly the kind of "alive and breathing" performance that makes audiences feel connected—not just entertained.
Another scene that drew attention: Song Yimeng fails miserably at inventing a forging method, ending up covered in grime like a human steamed bun. Li Shiliu applies medicine to her wounds, and in that one lingering glance, you can see mutual attraction simmering. Their chemistry doesn't need any narrative push—it just works.
And then there's that moment on a boat, with Yimeng in a red flowing dress, dancing in the moonlight. Her sleeves spin, her waist bends, fingers rise with grace and power—every movement a reminder of Li Yitong's Beijing Dance Academy training. Beauty and strength coexist seamlessly in the shot.
According to a breakdown of audience impressions of her performance:
25% highlighted her natural comic timing
20% praised her relaxed, unforced acting
19% mentioned strong role control
15% noted emotional layering
11% pointed to fine detail work
10% felt her portrayal was vivid and energetic
In short, it was Li Yitong's tight grip on comedic rhythm, emotional subtlety, and this role's upside-down logic that made her such a perfect match for Song Yimeng. And it stuck with people.
On the demographics side, A Dream Within A Dream helped Li Yitong gain a major boost among 18–23 and 24–30-year-old women—young and semi-young urban female viewers. Her blend of visual charm and positive word-of-mouth is now pushing her visibility into China's lower-tier cities (三四五线城市), a key area for audience expansion. She's not just winning fans—she's gaining serious commercial value.
So why is this working so well?
The answer might lie in the character she plays: Song Xiaoyu, a background actor who doesn't want to try too hard. Her "lying flat" lifestyle philosophy (a slang term in China for opting out of societal pressure) and refusal to be consumed by romance become a kind of emotional relief for women aged 18–30. Many viewers say they see their own workplace anxiety and relationship fatigue reflected in her—only funnier, braver, and more cathartic.
And there's another element at play: A Dream Within A Dream doesn't follow conventional long-drama pacing. It uses what Chinese fans call a "short-drama insanity mode" (短剧式癫感)—meaning it moves fast, breaks rules, and throws in wild twists nonstop. Think:
108 death-loop scenarios
Breaking up with family over wild vegetables
Catching your sister-in-law having an affair with your brother-in-law
Each of these plot turns is outlandish, unpredictable, and perfect for the short-form video ecosystem where most viewers now consume dramas. On platforms like Douyin or Kuaishou, where attention spans are brief and tastes lean chaotic, this drama's "a gag every five minutes" pace makes it easy to go viral and reach viewers far beyond the typical costume drama crowd.
Unlocking a Thousand Faces
Unlocking a Thousand Faces
Take a look at the current online chatter about Li Yitong, and you'll see a familiar pattern: discussions about her acting, her chemistry with co-stars, her interaction with fans, her career trajectory, past performances, and upcoming projects. From her early days as a newcomer finding her footing to the mature and versatile performer she is now, Li Yitong's growth is easy to trace. She's tackled urban dramas, thrillers, military series, police procedurals, spy stories, wuxia, Republican-era narratives, and of course, historical costume dramas. In short, she hasn't boxed herself in.
Take her performance as Huang Rong in the wuxia classic The Legend of the Condor Heroes (射雕英雄传). Li Yitong combined looks and performance to create a Huang Rong who felt both mischievous and sincere—a tough balance for a character often described as "seven parts cunning, three parts kind." She nailed the essence so well that fans started calling her "Tong Rong'er," blending her name with the character's as a sign of affection.
Or her role in the palace intrigue drama Bloody Romance (媚者无疆). In that one, Li portrayed Wan Mei across three distinct arcs: the innocent girl at the beginning, the seductive and complex woman in the middle, and the cold, formidable survivor by the end. To make those shifts convincing, she didn't just rely on the script. She tapped into her own experiences, layered them into the character, and let the emotion guide her acting, crafting a full growth arc that hit home for viewers.
Then there's Royal Nirvana (鹤唳华亭), a historical tragedy where she played a noblewoman-turned-maid-turned-avenger. Li Yitong didn't need dramatic gestures; her eyes and microexpressions did the work. From the screen partition love confession to the self-defense with a hairpin to the heartbreaking farewell at Daxiangguo Temple—these scenes stuck in people's memories long after the credits rolled.
In The Knockout (狂飙), a breakout drama that won the 34th Feitian Award for Outstanding TV Series, she took a different route. Her character Meng Yu was reserved, even self-effacing. Li deliberately stepped back and let the role take over. With a low-key, almost documentary-style performance, she mapped Meng Yu's journey from innocence to disillusionment with subtle emotional shifts. That role opened up a whole new side of her range—and new possibilities in the eyes of both the public and casting directors.
Now, in A Dream Within A Dream, we're seeing that skill sharpened even further. To bring Song Yimeng to life, Li didn't just show up on set and deliver lines. For high-stakes scenes like the Lantern Festival fire rescue, she would actively collaborate with the director on details, making sure the character's emotional logic stayed clear. She even wrote a full character backstory explaining why Song Yimeng keeps pushing Nan Heng away, just so she could better understand and ground the role.
It's this kind of deep engagement that makes the performance resonate. The show itself revolves around three big ideas: "the mask vs. the true self," "rebellion vs. survival," and "comedy wrapped in darkness." So instead of just playing another self-aware heroine in a meta-comedy, Li Yitong turns Song Yimeng into something more: a mirror for how people today search for identity and resist being boxed in.
At this point in her career, it's clear that Li Yitong has been building a kind of personal acting philosophy—one that evolves with each role she picks. Her casting strategy has always leaned toward challenge and transformation, and it's paid off. There's a pattern emerging: whether she's funny, manic, unpredictable, or wildly out of left field, her performances tend to be described by audiences with words like "crazy," "hilarious," "unhinged," and "I didn't see that coming." These aren't just tags—they're signals that Li Yitong is becoming her own brand of performer.
It's worth noting that in recent years, several of Li Yitong's projects have made it onto national broadcast channels and top-tier streaming platforms. This dual exposure—both on TV and online—has significantly expanded her reach and helped strengthen her public recognition. At the same time, it also proves her increasing pull in the drama industry and her solid value as a lead actress.
Right now, Li Yitong has a diverse lineup of upcoming shows:
Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Wang Quan Chapter (狐妖小红娘王权篇) – a costume fantasy drama based on a hugely popular IP, which drew major attention from the content market even during early development. Since production began, it's repeatedly topped Datawin's anticipated drama index.
Melodies of Antiquity (古乐风华录) – a historical xianxia series (directed by Zhao Yilong, who helmed the breakout hit Stars of Eternal Night (永夜星河). The series challenges Li Yitong with a role that switches between divine detachment and human emotion—a combination that has already boosted viewer expectations.
The Wind Rises (长风起) – a Republican-era suspense drama (set in early 20th-century China), directed by Yang Lei, known for the sci-fi phenomenon The Three-Body Problem. This marks Li Yitong's second collaboration with actor Li Xian. Her character is described as an "anti-heroine," and paired with a striking qipao wardrobe, it's a fresh image that has intrigued audiences. The project is widely expected to inject new momentum into her career.
"An actor should be like water—taking the shape of whatever container they're poured into."
With A Dream Within A Dream in full swing, Li Yitong has used Song Yimeng as a launch point to overturn many people's long-held perceptions of her. Whether inside the world of the drama or beyond it, she's taken each step steadily and deliberately. And now, with all those small efforts adding up to something greater, she's once again proven to both the audience and the industry that her potential is far from capped.
