In the hit drama Awakening Age, a figure who has obvious conflict with the "new school" was created: Zhang. His image is a collection of many historical figures, and one of the prototypes is Zhang Houzai, a supporting role in the case-solving of the dispute between Lin and Cai.

Zhang Houzai, a native of Qingpu, Jiangsu Province, is a pen name film. When I was a child, my family had excellent conditions and received systematic old-school training. After graduating from primary school, he moved to Beijing with his parents and enrolled in Wucheng School. He was highly appreciated by Lin Shu, then the head teacher of Chinese studies, and was accepted as a disciple. Later, he entered Xue Xin Academy in Tianjin and was admitted to Peking University from here.

Zhang Houzai in History

Zhang Houzai's old plays are very accomplished. During his study, he often wrote drama reviews and published them in the north and south newspapers. Hu Shi called them "one of the people who studied popular literature" and Zhang Houzai was very concerned about the cultural development at that time. In his letter to the editorial department of New Youth, he said that he had benefited a lot ideologically from reading New Youth. He believes that "literature is an inherent concept of society and a natural phenomenon of evolution."

He has different views on the steps and rhythms of cultural development, especially the methods of drama improvement. During the period of1917-1918, Zhang Houzai showed his superb argumentation ability to the leaders of the enemy's new cultural movement, and inadvertently stood on the opposite side of the "new school".