This is like getting called out by the school principal, embarrassing as heck but whether there are broader implications it’s not clear yet. This past weekend the Chinese Central Television official website published an article by a news reporter discussing the scourge of young actors who are “The Hopeless Illiterate” after that term started trending. The trend started due to Wang Yibo whiffing at the press conference of his movie Hidden Blade, when asked what he learned after playing a character he hemmed and hawed and then said he didn’t know how to answer that question. The article also discussed another star who did a period drama and mistook the era of the forming of the Communist Party with the era of Liberation which was after WWII. That was a pointed dig at Zhao Lu Si who made that mistake promoting the drama Hutong. After this article came out C-netizens noticed that CCTV deleted all links to Wang Yibo so searching him on the site comes up empty and it also deleted links of Zhao Lu Si related to Hutong.
Not surprisingly, in China, one can be canceled for anything. They couldn’t find anything scandalous, so they decided to cancel two actors on the bases of them not being super smart….
Poor people of China….
Nobody is cancelling either one of them. They are still filming.
People of China value education. I don’t think it’s them who are poor when they advocate for basic literacy and at least some reasoning from public figures in 2023 but it’s you who are the problem when you think people who can’t sign their own name – and they have had all the advantages in life, this is the big one – should somehow be celebrated.
They are not being cancelled but they are influential idols with big fanbases thus they should improve themselves because youths idolise them. Read the article or don’t be presumptuous if you can’t read it, CCTV doesn’t even name Yibo or Lusi but refer to their behavior or what they said in interviews (Liu Haocun’s interview where she couldn’t answer a simple question and asked “Will this be broadcast?” is also featured); CCTV’s conclusion is that actors need to be able to undertand the script and analyse their role to act well. Problem is a lot of people including Lusi think that anyone can be an actor as a last resort if their grades suck, and this is dragging the industry’s standard down. Kids will think they too can emulate Wabg Yibo as long as they have a good face, even the ability to read the script is unnecessary because assistants can feed him the lines.
Award-winning actor Hao Lei said she gets messages from parents asking if she can help their child get into acting because they don’t like to study, and she gets frustrated because her profession is viewed lowly and so many people think actors can be illiterate if they look good, but it’s a basic skill to read and understand the scipt unassisted.
This. OMG This! I second this. It’s so common now that when your grade sucks instead of racking your brain to try more or exploring things to find your talent people just find a shortcut to become influencer, artist, youtuber thinking that those things require less effort thanonventional jobs when in fact to be professional in every field you need to put much effort and engage in lifelong learning process
Anon, you don’t understand the context of the article and apparently you do not know Wang Yibo at all. As a professional (reporter of CCTV) Yang Rui violates the basic ethics of being objective, doing the real and comprehensive coverage. Wang Yibo is not only capable to read & speak the lines by himself in Chinese Shanghainese dialect, but also in Japanese, English and Cantonese! His excellent acting performance is highly appraised by the director, Mr. Cheng Er and the audiences that have watched the movie in china, US. and canada…if the CCTV reporter is meant to urging young actors to study to be literate, I believe he has picked the very wrong model, ended it up with so much controversial debate, as well as the damages to the reputation of the affected actors. It shows the report’s Prejudice, Arrogance, Ignorance. He owes an apology to the public!!!
Yes,they just like to memorize and pass exams,thats why you will only get mediocre copycat work that’s never going to be original or artistic if you continue to shun the genuinely talented and artistic people
It was not the official CCTV account. It was an impostor account paid by his jealous rivals to blacken him. That account is audited by Tencent and 3rd media parties while the official CCTV account is audited by the government.You really should investigate more before writing an article. If Yibo doesn’t really understand the character he portrayed, he would not deliver an “immpecable, soulful knockout” as expressed by film critics. I have to laugh with all the einsteins in the replies. It’s like saying that if one cannot answer a specific question in her/his exam paper coz they don’t know the answer, people should already label them as illiterate.
@Yee Chen Too bad your illiterate Wang Yibo can’t even generate a sensible answer to simple interview questions about his movie. And he’s one big copycat too, or worse than a copycat, because apparently he is so inept at understanding Hidden Blade’s script that the director had to show him scenes from other movies and told him to replicate those actors’ expressions and actions in those scenes.
@May It IS the official CCTV account, other official news sites like 人民日报 and 解放日报 have also posted articles about it. Back when the same account posted somewhat positive news of WYB, you WYB fans went around bragging that WYB is so famous that even CCTV acknowledged him. Now then you claim it’s an imposter account?
Idk how bad hers was because I’m bad with my history. However, Wang Yi Bo’s was really bad! He can’t even answer questions about his character like really?…
It’s equivalent to not knowing your country’s founding date, i.e. an American not knowing the exact Independence Day. It’s not terrible imo, because there are indeed a minority who are completely clueless about such basic knowledge. The issue is she acted in a drama set in that period and meant to celebrate the history, so it shows that she didn’t even bother to do any research on the background (in addition to her ignorance).
As someone who quite like Zhao Lu Si and find her endearing, I think it’s clear she is more “street smart,” rather than “book smart”. She’s quick witted and her comedic timing is great, but maybe don’t expect her to know the odds and ends of history.
I mean, it is the background of her character, so the backlash is not undeserving. But at the same time I also suck at history, so shrug.
Wang Yi Bo, on the other hand, he can’t even conjure an answer regarding his own experiences? There’s practically no wrong answer. Is he a robot?
Idk, I beg to differ. Some people are really smart with math, but can be bad at history. Others can be smart in Chemistry, but bad at history. Lusi might have been bad with her history. However, I understand why she can be at fault because it’s her character so she should know the history and setting for that. However, I still can’t get pass Wang Yi Bo’s answer LOL.
The expectations are different. If you’re an American and you don’t know when’s the French Revolution, you can say you’re bad at history. If you’re an American and you don’t know 4 July 1776, then you’re plain ignorant and it has nothing to do with being your aptitude in history. People around the world celebrate their countries’ founding day every single year. It is basic common knowledge that everyone should know. I did mention in my comment above that it’s not terrible, but imo she’s just a tad bit better than WYB and I won’t associate her with the word smart at all.
@ilikehim
You don’t really know her so you’re confusing the characters she is playing with her, how do you know she’s quick witted irl? She doesn’t even do much varieties. Someone quick-witted would be charming in interviews. The reputation of her fanbase in China is that they are primary schoolers FYI because she is cute, the actressws with street smart vibes are Zhou Yutong, Bai Lu, Sun Qian, Guan Xiaotong.
This was weibo’s hot search #1 for a long time yesterday and stayed there for a bit longer. Despite the removal of the respective links/references, the desparate illiterate tag was already associated with wang yibo during the showing of his movie for simple questions he not only could not answer but came out as rude. Zhao Lusi’s “what is an actor” question has also been known (her answer being “it’s me”) so these cannot be denied.
True to the c-ent toxic fashion, wang yibo’s fans started overtaking the messages to the CCTV post, accusing YiYang QuanXi of being the one illiterate, to distract from this embarrassing CCTV tag. The fanwar b/w wyb and yyqx fans is still ongoing. Meanwhile on Twitter, wang yibo fans calls every melon account who posted and commented as st@pid, saying the CCTV who posted is really not the true CCTV. They’re practically eating mushrooms it seems, to defend him.
A big mess. The article was written by a CCTV correspondent with incredibly impressive educational background (this info was also pointed out in one of the comments). The desparate illiterate call is not focused on the educational background or capabilities, rather the lack of effort of certain artists to learn cultural and informational aspects of their job/role/background, which implies that it isn’t a good public example as all these artists have to do is find the way to be popular and so fans will boast their capabilities even if they are lacking. That’s the gist of it.
The lenovo livestream late last year where wang yibo, when asked what lenovo product he uses, answered iPad, which is a competitor product should have been a rude awakeningmoment for him and his agency. That went into hot search too but was wiped cleaned by his agency. That and other interviews or situations in the past should have been a wake up call for him and his agency but no. With his fans defending him at every turn, he does nothing.
This is in addition to the very recent scandal where Tony Leung’s screentime and focus on their recently released movie was downsized and wang yibo expanded during its final cut so the production staff and TL (and the female lead) were supposedly all upset. As discussed here, TL abandoned this movie.
So yah, the dishonesty and corruption are glaring, due of course to capital behind wyb, but add this desparate illiterate tag, it’s a disaster. But let’s see. They make cook something again and this will be shov@d under the rags, again.
Toilets attacking YYQX has to be the best cent entertainment in years. They are as stupid and uneducated as their idol to go up against him. I don’t have enough popcorn for this amazing show.
I didn’t know WYB’s fandom tried to pull Yi Yang Qian Xi under the bus for this one. Like, who the f*%k in their right minds who mess with Jackson Yee’s mega top status and fandom?
https://www.sohu.com/a/640677257_121430342
Also, Full River Red is now the 7th highest grossing movie OF ALL TIME in the Chinese box office, its box office haul is over 5x the gross of Hidden Blade in the same time period.
You missed so much, actually they are still going at it. I don’t know what his fans are thinking but then, the real question is, are they thinking at all. They have been so protected by capital behind Yibo that they probably lost touch with reality and forgot there is always a higher mountain. And it doesn’t get higher than YYQX (except maybe ZYL who has major CCP connections).
And yyqx is one big big resources coffee with huge capital back up. He did improve his acting chops but I don’t think it’s proportionate to his mega stardom as you claimed it, but his capital is pushing him with all kinds of red resources which helps greatly with his high position now. Most of his film are with big-name actors and directors/producers. He has yet to prove his ability to properly carry a movie on his own.
The war between both fandom started during the premiere of Hidden Blade vs Full Red River (as far as I know) during Chinese New Year. Not sure about the details though
Oh…that explains why Tony Leung did not attend the post media conference of the movie. I would be very upset too. To share lead with a talented co-star is acceptable but with a co-star who cannot even describe what his role is…that is just a slap on the face.
@HL
Wang yibo was 3rd billing, after Tony Leung and the female lead. So, technically, wyb wasn’t the lead or co-sharing the top billing. He was supposed to be a support. The final cut though was changed, giving him more screentime. TL and the female lead did not promote this movie. It was very obvious they got him hooked up so his name is there during the initial production to help get it out for public awareness but wyb’s capital prevailed, downgrading tl’s role to a support one. It was unethical tbh.
It is the reason why wyb was left promoting the movie alone, by himself only. It’s how we got to this desparate illiterate saga.
Don’t slander and behave like an idiot yourself.WYB refusal to answer and no comment answer just mean you don’t want to answer. Even top professors say “I don’t know how to answer” you guys are sound totally low class and countrified if you continue to obsess over memorizing exams and fake answers. China will never improve if you are all stuck in passing exams
I had so much fun! Toilets are pissed and got into a major fight with jmj -bad, bad move. Jmj has even stronger resources than illiterate Yibo who now has the label of a social issue. Karma is so sweet, considering what he has done in the past.
ZLS fans at least had the smarts not to get involved with that mess.
Gosh, who is JMJ? And what has Wang Yibo done in the past? You guys knows so much!!
>ZLS fans had the smarts not to get involved
You spoke too soon, her team (I’m continually disgusted by them, recently they even bought a hot search “Zhang Songwen once gave Lusi a prize” to piggyback on Zhang Songwen’s success… everyone was bewildered) decided to divert away from the bad press of being called a “Hopeless Illiterate” by cctv by paying gossip accounts to spread rumors that “A post95 top liuliang is dating her CP costar” obviously giving herself the “post 95 top liuliang” tag. Her team then followed up immediately with a legal letter denying and warning rumormongers as if they already prepared it in advance because the whole dating rumor ruse is planeed to diffuse criticism towards Lusi by exciting crazy Leo Lusi CP fans.
Leo Wu’s fans got mad because he’s filming in Finland since January so obviously a false story and they started fighting Lusi fans by calling her Hopeless Illiterate and post95 top Illiterate in Weibo comment sections. ZlS’s liuliang is nowhere near Diliraba or even Yangzi so every single comment section is dominated by angry Leo fans upvoting their insults to the top. So much for not fighting huh?
this Lol user “loves” lusi so much lmaoo. you and ur assumption on Lusi. girl please go out and breath some fresh air. did lusi kill one of your family member or something ? lmaoo
This was so obvious to everyone not part of the zls fandom. Tye riming and the actions were to drag attention away from her issues like always. She is always trying g to use others to drag away attention from her issues or piggyback on others to gain attention. I mean she could work on her 2 expression action but I guess that would require some genuine love for acting, lots of hard work and intelligence to start with, all of which she lacks.
ZLS has a movie 1921, right? I guess it was a freudian slip. I kinda read a lot at that time about those issues and ppl pointed to many other actors with high degrees who were in difficulty at a certain moment. I guess it is normal and this doesnt prove anything. DD wasnt able to make a simple adding when she was asked to. It isnt like she skipped elementary school, right? Just put these rumors about d.i. in context: First was CFY’s dating rumors, then DD’s pregnancy rumors, then WYB’s d. i. rumors. HS are made to wash the previous ones. What was the reason for what CCTv would release such an article while they were airing Hidden Blade? it looked like a self-sabotage, it didnt make sense. About WL/ZLS Cp fandom…it had to be disbanded long time ago. I more then agree with that. But the way they chose to do it was a mess, it was a shame. They leaked that edited video (which has such a high quality) and under HS there was a heavy promotion for Nothing But You. Is this drama such bad to need such a promotion? I doubt. More, many wet vip members complained and post pics coz during the watching of LLTG they received NBU episodes. I live outside China, I am not so involved in CEnt. However, I understand ZLS fandom is very young and her fans are in their beginnings. This fandom will learn how to fight and how to protect their fav, it’s just a matter of time. More, she needs a better team behind, able to fight for her rights, able to defend and protect her better. I really hope that I will see this happening someday. I really bet on this girl
Yibo, you better stayed in Korea.You went famous for your talent, CNetz are so perfect that even a simple mental block can’t spare you. It’s not a pop quiz nor a graded recitation. Its so sad but your fans won’t care. We ain’t perfect. Live up to your infamous I don’t care charisma.
Sorry but since Yibo has problems with his own mother tongue, you expect he will work hard on learning another language and speak fluently enough to act, sing, host in Skorean entertainment industry? Gosh, you are putting too much stress and pressure on your idol. He is not talented as Harry. I bet he knows that too thus he did not stay in Korea. At least he is wise in making that decision.
The questions they asked during the roadshow are basics question about the characters he acted as. By refusing to answer and saying it as “meaningless question” or “I don’t know how to answer this” does not show that he is cool guy with idc attitude but more profounding highlights on his lack of respect and indepth understanding of the character. It’s okay for one to lack in the education department because not everyone have the means to complete one due to various reasons, but he should at least have the basic minimum knowledge about his job, which is acting.
The same group of people that praise live Douluo Dalu high heavens? 🤡🤡 i only trust 6th prinezs
Here’s a wang yibo fan right here, dragging another unrelated artist whenever the going gets tough. Toilet fandom is so predictable at this point. Where are you on your fight with the YYQZ fandom, btw? Are you about to cross over and getting ready to slander another artist to distract the public from this embarrassing mess? @Euphoria?
They tried Mindy. After they got the hot search washed by starting the YYQX fight, they tried but they got a major pushback because this is not 2019 and then they tucked their tails in and ran. Filthy creatures.
@ Mindy
I agreed with you. This article is about WYB & ZLS & somehow, some way they always steer it to the other artist. It’s just sickening!!!
Is that English? You should get educated yourself first, less time spent on Idols and more on books seems like a good idea.
Lol, what is this? Isn’t korea more harsh on rude ppl? Add that he seems to get roles because of his big fandom
rude + have big fandom like idol + not overly talented to make it up seems like recipe for disaster of acting career in korea.
What shock me is all of those veteran big actors that try and pretend Wang Yi Bo can act. Granted he is a hardworker but a good actor ? On this matter he is part of the Song Wei Long group
When you watch cuts of WYB’s IDC attitude, it’s borderline between hilarious and rude. But nonchalantly saying he uses Apple products at a Lenovo event? Who hired him!? If there wasn’t a contractual clause for Lenovo to seek reputational damages from WYB, it should be a lesson for any company seeking to hire him to add it in the future.
Also, answering basic questions about your role and film is standard professionalism. The fact that he doesn’t even understand his character or the film well enough to answer those questions is very questionable. Did he not prepare for the interview? Did he even prepare for his role or just showed up on set to film without basic character analysis?
His DDU cast members have mentioned how hardworking WYB was before, so what happened here?
He wasn’t even a bad actor in CQL and showed basic character understanding. What is going on?
I’ll never take words said by celebrities on camera at face value. They will lie through their teeth to pander to the capital sponsors backing the other celebrity.
And WYB doesn’t appear immensely bad in CQL because Lan Wangji is stoic and has very few lines, therefore easy to act. As for understanding…he actually said that Lan Wangji is a cool guy when asked for his interpretation of the character…
I don’t understand this sh!tty fandom behaviour. they always dragged other ppls to justify their favs’ bad actions. i remembered last time abt zls who mistook the year of her drama. her fans blamed her staff and studio for not reminding her abt the drama setting and descriptions before the interview. and now wyb fans dragged yyqx for the mistake he did? wtf? somehow I wish zls and wyb will have a drama together. i bet the fanwar will be so intense. both in mainland and ifans. their fans’ behaviour in twitter really mirror to each other lol
That’s not a post by CCTV but a yxh account impersonating as fake CCTV. Miss Koala hates Wang Yibo so much, but she keeps posting about him. It’s such a mystery. Fake CCTV posted a slander article about Wang Yibo but then CCTV tv channel broadcasted a special segment on Wang Yibo’s new movie on the same day, mentioning him and praising his movie. Oh, posts about Wang Yibo on their account are also still up, you can search them yourself so I don’t know where his antis came up with that lie. Miss Koala is already so old but hating on young actors who are probably almost the same age as your children, aren’t you embarrassed?
Ah, toilet displaying itself in full toilet glory. It’s actually good none of you are even remotely self-aware because this way you show the world your true, filthy, colours so, so easily.
No, the posts are not up. Yes, it’s real CCTV. Oh look, ageism. Btw your precious darling was dropped by Lenovo.
I watched the interview, to be honest, I was very surprised and shocked by his answers. I do not understand why he could not even give a acceptable reply and understanding on his role in the movie…. I thought he was just too moody to even bother with the reporters. Unprofessional.
It never occured to me it was because he may be “illiterate”. Anyway, this label will follow him from now on. He will have to work very hard to shake it off….
Who are his sponsors, he must be very well loved by them to get away with such behaviour.
Lord there much much handsomer and betteryoung actors than frowny Yibo ! They are wasting roles on that guy.
Those who speak illiterate to Wang yibo are themselves illiterate nonsense and toilet specially c-netizens
@samira
Because he was called out for his laziness to learn a bit about his role? He was also called out for promoting iPad on his lenovo livestream. That’s not ok for the company he’s endorsing, you know that.
This is exactly the point of cctv’s post about. He is a celebrity with huge fanbase and influence. If, by being lazy to learn basics about his job, he is practically influencing the young public that it’s ok not to learn and just half-@ss everything and it’s ok. His fans, e.g. you, supporting this laziness makes it worst. Obviously in their country it is still frown upon.
This is why China will never advance in their artistic endeavour and continued failing in their soft power if they continue to favour exam certificate and memorising fake-sounding speech rather than natural spontaneous creativity and talent. That writer, like many others have zero understanding of the arts only memorizes and copying, they will never achieve in original work
Sorry, there’s a thing called natural talent that top grades and hours of memorizing for exam will never achieve.WYB and ZLX are amongst the BEST artists in China yet their countrymen observed over copycat products from “studying”over genuine original artistry thats why Chinese entertainment industry will always be rigid and old fashioned as they just don’t understand studying isn’t the way to success in certain artistry. The writer is a failure and continue to lead more mediocres and failures,the real stars are talented and ORIGINAL without the need for certificate based on memorizing and be robotic
Too bad WYB and ZLS both of them aren’t original. WYB was so inept at understanding Hidden Blade’s script that the director had to show him scenes from other movies and told him to copy those actors’ expressions and actions. Meanwhile ZLS is busy imitating IVE’s Jang Wonyoung.
Sorry, there’s a thing called natural talent that top grades and hours of memorizing for exam will never achieve.WYB and ZLX are amongst the BEST artists in China yet their countrymen observed over copycat products from “studying”over genuine original artistry thats why Chinese entertainment industry will always be rigid and old fashioned as they just don’t understand studying isn’t the way to success in certain artistry. The writer is a failure and continue to lead more mediocres and failures,the real stars are talented and ORIGINAL without the need for certificate based on memorizing and be robotic
Rote learning and memorizing is what they like in China? The writer can get as many certificate as he wants but he will never be able to produce any real artistic work like WYB and ZLS, China needs to understand that artistry is creating original work that you can never learnt from studying exams Boy I thought China has matured but sadly still stuck in the copycat mentality
“Amongst the best artists in China” is so subjective and slights the actual most celebrated and clearly acclaimed actors that the country produced. It is true that China’s censorship severely limits those that can actually bring the country fame in terms of talents, but wang yibo and zhao lusi are way far in comparison. They are barely in the radar for anything that resembles great acting. WYB has not proven himself anything. He has no project yet that he can claim as his own, with his own merit only – always with a senior or veteran actors to provide support. He was previously called out for his paralysis acting (this phrase was mentioned in the CCTV article). There may be some improvements with his latest project but any of that got taken away by his inability to verbalize what his role means, and the unethical treatment in the final production of the movie against in his (wyb) favor (this in itself is a separate scandal). The most effective actors are the ones that understand their role, no matter their educational background, because that means they are able to convey to the audience what their role requires. He clearly answered he doesn’t understand the question, when asked about his role.
If these basic requirements are a must for any actor, why would wyb be excluded from these requirements? Because he has the blind support of his fans, his agency can cover these misses, and he has strong capital to back him up no matter what? He doesn’t seem to care to learn the basics, when every actor, young and old, in whichever country or place, is expected. His lack of college education is not important when it comes to how he demonstrate his seriousness and understanding of his job. And this issue didn’t just happen overnight. He’s been labeled like this for as long as he entered, which means that he never did do anything to improve.
WYB barely started. One movie, this one, where he isn’t even the lead, but look how controversial it is. His last two TV dramas, where he was also a 2nd billing, tanked and riddled with nasty fights perpetrated by his fans. His most notable work, The Untamed, which was shown 4 years ago, remains the most highlighted one of all his works. The notoriety his fans established in the world of fanwars started with TU, and they held on to the tag until this very day. His fans are known was the nastiest in the c-ent, no kidding. They are called toilets for a reason; fought with many fandoms even they probably lost count as to how many. And WYB does nothing to curve this nastiness.
And ZLS? Great acting? I don’t know what kind of grass you are eating. She unraveled after 10 episodes of her drama with Leo. It was exhausting to watch a very, glaringly unmatched acting b/w her and Leo. She couldn’t keep up. She, also, needs to clearly understand her roles so she can deliver properly.
Ive watched love like the galaxy and nope both of them are bad not only zhao lusi. even leo wu. he can barely act despite has been in the industry since 4 yo ? u make it sound like he is too good in fact they are at par lmao
Man green tea fans trying to drag wu lei’s acting is always hilarious to me. 4 years in the industry 😂😂 try harder, he is known as one of the best actors and not just among 95 line by almost everyone in the industry and most of the gp