Agree with the comment above, and just adding that I think the context is different in ep 1 and ep 8. In ep 1, he’s xiao-Zhao in the context of the police force because of his dad. The university doesn’t have that connection so in ep 8 when he’s introducing himself as xiao-Zhao, it’s in relation to Shen Wei. It’s not an entirely inappropriate nickname - if Shen Wei is the type to go around referring to people with diminutives he might call ZYL that but this is Shen Wei. The degree of familiarity/informality ZYL is implying raises eyebrows, to say the least.
(It occurred to me that Shen Wei probably uses xiao-Guo and lao-Chu - I don’t remember if he actually does - but everyone in the SID calls them that and he likely will use their full names if talking to a non-SID person. Plus, GCC and CSZ would likely use full names if they had to call up the university.)
Adding a disclaimer that everything here is my own thoughts and interpretation and not necessarily what’s Right. China is huge, regional differences are a thing, and an even larger thing when taking into account migrant communities and I’ve not watched enough cdramas to know how to interpret things like this for dramaland.
no subject
(It occurred to me that Shen Wei probably uses xiao-Guo and lao-Chu - I don’t remember if he actually does - but everyone in the SID calls them that and he likely will use their full names if talking to a non-SID person. Plus, GCC and CSZ would likely use full names if they had to call up the university.)
Adding a disclaimer that everything here is my own thoughts and interpretation and not necessarily what’s Right. China is huge, regional differences are a thing, and an even larger thing when taking into account migrant communities and I’ve not watched enough cdramas to know how to interpret things like this for dramaland.