In 2006, she teamed up with writer Wang Shuo to make her third movie Dreams May Come (Meng xiang zhao jin xian shi). The movie cost only 6 million yuan (US$879,000) to produce and features a debate between an actress (played by Xu) and a director (played by Han Tongsheng).

Before she became a director, Xu won fame as a TV actress in the 1990s. Indeed she was an idol for the young people on Chinese mainland. She debuted in her first movie Tough Guy (Hu ran zhang fu) in 1996. She later appeared in popular productions such as Spicy Love Soup (Aiqing mala tang, 1997), The Storm Riders (Fung wan: Hung ba tin ha, 1997), Spring Subway (Kaiwang chuntian de ditie, 2002), Confession of Pain (Seung sing, 2006) and The Warlords (Tau ming chong, 2007).

In addition to her movies, Xu's blog is another factor in her gaining vast popularity in China. Since she launched the blog on web portal Sina in 2006, it has been visited more than 270 million times. According to Technorati, her blog has the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet. She is undoubtedly the most popular blogger in China.

In 2008, she launched an online magazine Kaila which has also been eagerly embraced by the public.