C-actress Li Kai Xin’s Voice Recorded Scandal Delays Release of Big Budget Period C-drama The Journey of Legend with Cheng Yi and Could Lead to Further Complications
Talk about a huge mess on the eve of a big budget high profile C-drama release. The period male lead centric C-drama The Journey of Legend (Chinese title 赴山海 Fu Shan Hai or Go to the Mountains and Seas) starring Cheng Yi was on deck for a May 2025 this month premiere on iQiyi and Tencent but that’s now delayed or even on hold. It’s a strong male lead centric story and the female lead is Guli Nazha with relative newcomer Li Kai Xin (Eleanor Lee) as the second female lead, and that was already causing some conflict as scene counters have noted that Li Kai Xin has double the screen time as Guli Nazha and also has the love live with Cheng Yi. But nothing could prepare for the maelstrom this past week as a video recording was posted reportedly of Li Kai Xin, who was born in Taiwan to Singaporean entertainer parents and raised in Singapore, badmouthing China – she said acting in China was just to make money and she called the majority of Chinese people 傻逼 Sha Bi which in slang translates best to “dumbass” or “stupid cunt” or “dumb twat”. Basically, it was very crass and demeaning. The recording was released by someone claiming to be a fan and former assistant and was intended to share how Li Kai Xin’s true nature, and the person also claimed Li Kai Xin had an affair with a married man knowingly. Li Kai Xin’s side responded within two days saying it was all false and apologized for her issue creating a fuss. The production of the drama reportedly moved fast and removed the tag of Li Kai Xin’s SNS from the promotion for the drama which has also been pushed back (for now) to the end of the month. There is also concern she may need to get edited out or replaced with another actress in which case the drama will get delayed for even longer.
I know this actress…not a fan but no dislike. I really doubt this actress would say it. She worked so hard in this industry for many year. She is no newcomer at all. She will treasure what she has. She left her home in Singapore to work in China, all cannot be done if she hates it there.
I do believe this is works of sabotage.
Even her long time Chinese fan announced that she’s unstanning her, because she recognised her voice from the recording. Ironically enough, this recording was actually first found and spread by Cheng Yi fans. Then the drama silently removed her name from the cast list but still kept her scenes.
This only blew up because Cheng Yi’s bots wanted to leech onto Xiao Zhan’s new drama (as usual) and thus dug their own grave. Now the rest of the internet knows about it.
Oh dear…if it was Cheng Yi’s fans that started it.. shooting themselves in the foot.
I do wonder what will happen now.
Don’t think the drama can air unless they already replaced her face with AI, then all these fuss kicked up will then actually just be a marketing ploy. Cheng Yi bots are still gleeful claiming that their drama gets higher attention than The Legend of Zanghai, but with such negative attention? I wonder if they have rocks for brains.
It’s her on the recording. It has been known for months. Seriously it’s just embarrassing. Stop.
If she really said it…she is stupid to have done so. I have not listen to recording but even if I have, I would not know he difference. I dont know her voice well.
She can say goodbye to her career in China now.
Im not familiar with her but heol, this case reminds me of Jay Park, a Kpop idol who once was a member of 2PM. He talked bad about Koreans when he was young and people found ot about it.
Just read a novel about entertainment world, duh, never thought that this will happen in real life. 2nd lead got double screen times and now having a scandal.
Is Guli Nazhar ok with being 2nd in term of screen times despite being the lead?
Girl has sponsors, she’ll survive in Sg or Tw… but definitely not in Mainland anymore. But who knows.
Wow there was something like that about jay park?? I guess koreans have forgiven him now somehow
Eve of release? LOL this drama doesn’t have a broadcast date at all, but Cheng Yi’s agency and fans (bots) kicked up a big fuss, threatening to report other dramas which had rumors of broadcast date set in May, trying to force the platform to air their drama in May. Because they desperately want to stick themselves onto Xiao Zhan’s The Legend of Zanghai which will also broadcast in May on CCTV. They even bought hot searches claiming these two dramas will be competing against each other. Like please, The Legend of Zanghai is a national TV broadcast drama whereas that journey drama is a platform web drama.
I even heard that the drama’s chinese title 赴山海 is stolen from the song title that XFXs made for Xiao Zhan.
This is not news, it’s been known for a while that she said it, it’s just that Huanrui has been suppressing it successfully before.
It comes from Cheng Yi’s side who dug it up because they wanted to use it to stabilise his screen time by pressing the production with it.
The problem arose when they first attacked Zhou Ye like the crazies that they are and then went after Legend of Zanghai right after that, after having leeched from that drama for weeks. They bought a black hot search, XZ fans had enough, they dug up that recording and aided by everyone it went viral. Over 100 media have reported on it by now. Government channels have deleted everything about this drama.
This is a classic case of CY shooting himself in the head.
Huanrui is still pushing that it will be broadcast because they invested an insane amount of money into bundling this with Zanghai but both Tencent and iQiyi would be crazy to risk their own dramas for this.
I see…
That’s crazy.
@lilith
You’re showing your true face as a crazy XZ’s fan. This drama is dual platform, summer slot is reserved for exclusive dramas of each platform and dual platform dramas don’t have a chance to air in summer. FSH was always supposed to air in May around CY’s birthday it’s you that followed our schedule step by step. First FSH was supposed to air on May 7th, suddenly your drama was rumoured for 8th, then iqiyi aired Demon hunter instead of LIP which caused FSH to be pushed back to late May and it was rumoured for 18th and suddenly your drama got rumoured for 17th on CY’s birthday. Tell me, You claim your drama to be the biggest project of youku this year then why on earth would they air a day after CY’s brithday in the lousy May schedule before college exams instead of hottest summer vacation slot? It’s because youku predicted iqiyi and tencent would air FSH around CY’s brithday so they scheduled your drama exactly then.
Also save me the nonsense that cctv decides the airing schedule because it doesn’t and they choose a schedule that’s suitable for both the network platform and tv.
And also who are you even kidding? Who’s leeching on whom? Your drama’s reservations is 3.7, ours is more than 7 millions and you can also check who has the highest supertopic data, which is again us! So who’s leeching on whose popularity you crazy delusional fans??
PS, the person who leaked the recording first is a known xz fan who was sued by CY a few months ago. It’s well known this attack was organised by your crazy fandom to eliminate your competion. Your fans were all over all the black hot searches instead of minding your own business.
Oh… So to you, I’m still a XZ fan even though I gushed about many other dramas here like Love Game in Eastern Fantasy, Guardians of the Dafeng, and The Demon Hunter’s Romance?
What’s this about summer slots? All I know is that there has never been any word about this journey drama airing in May until rumors of The Legend of Zanghai airing in May. There has been past record of Xiao Zhan’s CCTV drama airing around the college entrance exams period (The Youth Memories), so it’s expected CCTV will choose to air The Legend of Zanghai in the same period too. Can’t say the same for Cheng Yi’s dramas. You’re seriously delusional to think that platforms don’t conform to CCTV’s broadcast schedule.
OMG, you’re crazy
You’re even denying being a xz fan
FSH was always supposed to air in May around CY’s birthday. His fans have already done so many offline promotions for it and 29 brand collaborations was announced for it this past month because it was ALWAYS supposed to air in may. Take you head out of a** and stop acting crazy for once
Just because you have your head up your a** and dont read news about other dramas, doesn’t mean they don’t exist you moron
And you pretend to be a know it all in cent but you dont even know the importance of summer vacation slot and having hit dramas in summemr??
Cheng Yi even filmed HI6 ep with some of FSH’s cast at the end of April and the ep will air next week on his birthday (May 17th) and FSH’s airdate was also supposed to be announced then. FSH was ALWAYS supposed to air in May around CY’s birthday you moron. How does it feel to be an embarrassment?
Because I’m not? No matter how much you want to shove the title of “XZ fan” on it, it doesn’t negate the fact that I love multiple celebrities and watch many different dramas. I do know about other dramas (someone on this site even lovingly calls me gossip queen
), just not brainwashing “news” that’s probably only circulated among Cheng Yi’s bot fandom’s echo chamber. The 29 brand collaborations have been debunked to be fake too, I saw screencaps of the brands denying of any collaborations. I know about summer vacation airing slots, but what has that got to do with our topic here? Did you regurgitate info from the leader bot or what?
The more you deny the more you stink like a shrimp
For your information, Cheng Yi even filmed HI6 ep with some of FSH’s cast at the end of April and the ep will air next week on his birthday and FSH’s airdate was also supposed to be announced then. FSH was ALWAYS supposed to air in May around CY’s birthday you moron
Also the 29 collaborations are real, your fans just photoshop fake screen shots and brainless shrimps believe it
You are an embarrassment
Note how you couldn’t refute the part about Xiao Zhan’s past drama also airing during college exams period?
No big deal about Hi6 either, many celebrities had went on Hi6 and promoted their dramas even when their dramas didn’t have a broadcast date yet. Go on and continue sharing your ridiculous claims, 29 brand collaborations LOL.
It’s very obvious who needs to leech on to who. Xiao Zhan surpasses Cheng Yi by far in everything – good acting, good looks, versatility, popularity. Except the amount of marketing, I guess, since he doesn’t have a big agency like Huanrui behind his back.
Like I said brainless shrimp
Those brands have posted about their collaboration but ofcourse your fake screenshots is more reliable than what the brands themselves have posted and why do I even need to refute your stupid claim about xz’s past dramas airdate? Do they air dramas based on the previous airdates of the ML’s dramas nowadays? Like I said, brainless shrimp with stupic arguments
Also no matter how much you try to deny, it wont change the fact that dramas that are close to air will record HI6 and all melon pages in weibo have been posting about FSH’s airdates for months, even melon accs in X have been posting them too, everyone can search the hashtag and see for themselves but since you brainless shrimps only follow xz’s marketing accs and their lies ofcourse you wouldn’t know about anything else but the lies they feed you
PS, xz surpasses cy in two things, first dirty marketing and watering data, second creating flops after flops even if he works with the biggest directirs and most famous ips
Like I said brainless shrimp
Those brands have posted about their collaboration but ofcourse your fake screenshots is more reliable than what the brands themselves have posted and why do I even need to refute your stupid claim about xz’s past dramas airdate? Do they air dramas based on the previous airdates of the ML’s dramas nowadays? Like I said, brainless shrimp with stupic arguments
Also no matter how much you try to deny, it wont change the fact that dramas that are close to air will record HI6 and all melon pages in weibo have been posting about FSH’s airdates for months, even melon accs in X have been posting them too, everyone can search the hashtag and see for themselves but since you brainless shrimps only follow xz’s marketing accs and their lies ofcourse you wouldn’t know about anything else but the lies they feed you
PS, xz surpasses cy in two things, dirty marketing and watering data, second creating flops after flops even if he works with the biggest directirs and most famous ips
Like he destroyed poor Tsui hark’s reputation of decades after just one collaboration
Lol liar liar. Cheng Yi’s dramas are infamous for being free of commercials because advertisers know how watery his data is
29 brand collaborations is ridiculous for even the top actors/actresses like Sun Li, there’s no way brands will suddenly collaborate with a watery nobody like Cheng Yi.
You can stomp your feet all you want, it doesn’t change the fact that this drama won’t be able to air anytime soon unless they swap out this actress’s face.
LMAO as cheng yi who didn’t even land movie as big ML for his very long career in cent and whose dramas mostly only web platforms with 99.9% and produced and homemade dramas by huan rui don’t have right to talk about Xiao Zhan and his fans. We are on different level.
Also as your informations, XZ drama ALWAYS have may rumors since CCTV announce the drama on CCTV conference last year. Do yo think CCTV as stupid?
It is your cheng yi drama who never have fixed date and want to leech soo much to us.
Also it was cheng yi fans who leaked that girl video because you dislike her and want the production to replace her when she was announced. You did the same to other actor as well in other dramas. It is your fandom hobby. It is your own karma mow
Go fxxk off.
Is it really her voice of a case of slander? Or perhaps c netz isn’t interested to know and moving towards k entertainment where people can’t defend themselves.
It’s not cent, this was a preplanned attack from xz’s fans to stop fsh from airing and damage cy a much as they can. They’re even attacking CY’s personal endorsements and calling him anti china and calling everyone who saying they want to watch this drama anti china eventhough the drama team had removed her from the cast since last month. This isnt about her at all. This is about damaging CY.
Pre-planned attack from XZ fans when there’s paid hot searches still comparing baidu’s heat index of the two dramas, with The Legend of Zanghai obviously being lower because the Journey actress’s scandal? Did you think people are fools?
Aren’t you exhausted always worried about perpetrators not being able to defend themselves?
Like no offense but this drama does not seem appealing due to the female lead choice but it sucks that this is happening and I quite liked Eleanor and she has been almost non existent in dramas lately. She was not terrible but if all these are true she is toast.
Agree…she has some enjoyable dramas…but if she did make those remarks..she is toast. She will have to pack her bags back to Singapore.
It’s such a shame. I loved her in The Big Boss and she has such great charm and comedic timing. She was fun in Fake Princess though that drama was blah. I can sort of see how she wouldn’t fit the preferred aesthetic of cdrama lead and didn’t expect her to become popular, but was happy that she got a part in this drama. And now we can’t see her in it.
People are counting scenes, rather the examining the quality and dialogue of the scenes. This is a male-centric drama. Watch her just be in scenes where she’s just standing with a bunch of supporting casting members as part of the male lead’s posse.
Yes, I do think she has acting skills. But if she does not know how to mind her mouth, she will have to use those skills elsewhere. Such a shame.
Agree! I was actually looking forward to her involvement, but if this is true then she can say bye bye to her career in China.
Fans of these traffic stars compete to see who can be the worst. This week it’s CY and XZ. They bully, then they play victim, then they attack, rinse and repeat. They all need to go to therapy. Passerbys must be sick and tired of these actors and avoid their dramas like the plague.
I personally like both actors and feel they both have hits and misses. In fact this drama and xz dramas both don’t sound very appealing to me. Like I’m over here waiting for other drama news for both of them. Sometimes male centric dramas can be fun and others seemingly potentially boring for me or simply not my taste. These crazy fan wars are something else and frankly weird and rediculous since I am American and just could not stan like that for any celebrity.
Well Said
Why can’t these people just enjoy both dramas?
I know I watch dramas for the dramas itself. I may have artiste I like but if the drama does not hold me attention, I will drop it. Similarly if I like a dram with unknown leads, I will watch it too. I have enjoyed Cheng Yi and Xiao Zhan’s dramas, but have dropped drama with both actors too.
@HL very well said. I also have my favorite dramas that I enjoyed and like the cast who participated in those dramas (based on the role they played). But it doesn’t mean I would force myself watching all of their works for supporting them. Actually I am not a fan of any particular actor and don’t understand all these fusses. I have seen great movies/dramas with obscure cast and vice versa. Why can’t people just enjoy what they are watching or criticize it fairly. I simply follow this blog to get news about nes c or k dramas broadcasting and see if any one of them is to my liking (I understand neither Chinese nor Korean this blog is my only resource). I don’t want to judge anyone but this amount of rumors and scandals is just shocking and saddening. I used to think social media’s worst side effect have manifested itself in my country and generally in our region but I can see we are not alone.
I thought female actresses fans already like crawlers from dumpster, apparently actors fans a lot more crazy
Things like this, that made stop reading C-ent news, and just pick any drama that caught my eyes without seeing the casts…..if it’s bad, oh well.
Cheng Yi fans pushed the audio recording to drag the actress when she was announced as part of the cast. And now it backfired in their faces. They got exactly what they deserved. They should suck it up and stop brining unrelated artists into the sh!tshow they caused for their fave’s noonecurr drama.
To the cy fan above
1) cy’s drama hasn’t passed the 2nd review yet so how could it aired in May without license?
2) yes, cctv8 does decide zhz timeslot. legend of zenghai had passed review a few weeks ago in March/April, hence the rumors that it will air soon in May, specifically May 18 on cctv8. The only reason why zhz was rumored for May8 was because sun li’s drama was ending on May7 and days of detective, the drama to follow sun li’s drama hadn’t passed review yet. So if days still hadn’t passed review, zhz would moves into the may8 time slot. However, days did passes review the following week and air in its original timeslot on may8 successfully. Zhz is back to it’s original timeslot of may18. And may18 zhz timeslot is confirmed by yangship and in official newspaper. It’s May airing slot has nothing to do with your idol.
3) cy’s own fans dug up lkx’s rh (insult china) audios a few months ago to threaten the production team to reduce her screen because she has the 2nd highest in the cast after cy. The production team didn’t cut her screen time, just only removed her name in the drama profile. The drama team is protecting her knowing full well what she had said.
4) the audio are real from 2017-2019 and were released by her assistant, which were dug up and spread by cy fans
5) cy bots and drama team are desperate to leech onto zhz (youku’s largest and most expensive drama (releases by Hengdian official)) since its known everywhere it will air in May. That’s why cy bots and drama team sending many black hot searches binding zhz.
6) yesterday it’s pretty funny Hanrui bots and marketing team release the drama Douban score and heat indexes even though the drama hasn’t aired yet. Now who’s embarrassed?
My bad, the chat recording is suspected to be from 2022 and was exposed by her former assistant.
Xiao Zhan drama always have rumors of May broadcast since last year and already heard since CCTV conference last year when they announced the drama to be on CCTV.
It is Cheng Yi drama who want to leech so much without even have fixed date. Yikes. Also the video recording leaked by Cheng Yi fans themself when they refused and tried to eliminated her when she was announced as 2nd fl.
Go take the karma with how much they attacking XZ and his fans for months.
You know cheng yi fans don’t have the right to mention Xiao Zhan,his fans and his works. We are on different level.
1. His very long career, cheng yi didn’t even cast as big ML in movie.
2. 99.9% cheng yi dramas on web platforms
3. 99.9% cheng yi dramas = homemade dramas by huanrui.
4. They can’t even beat XFX supertopics, they should shut up.
Don’t talk about movie and CCTV, until you get big ML movie and drama on CCTV primetimes, imagine chengyi fans to attack CCTV now,well go ahead, attack CCTV and all the state media, full support for you.
How devious of you sending those brainless tarts to their own destruction
Cheng Yi fans already know about the girl issue for months, they did leave comments under her post and Huan Rui post to replace her even since january and february. all the receipt still there. But HR didn’t do anything to save the drama repuations.
And since last month, HR marketing accounts provoking XZ fans and buying many HS to give impression that FSH will go againts ZHZ (XZ drama) in May.
And brainwashing CY fans to fight and provoke XZ fans so that XZ fans will use the girl to fight back, which will work faster, because XZ fans are big fandom with many followers, so the issue get noticed more now and HR and CY fans will wash their hands, act innocent and pretend that the girl issue is not true, but just fandom fight, but in fact they KNOW this for many months.
Very dirty tricks from HR and CY fans.
Now they still continue to attack and use XZ name to white washing their dirty issue.
Poor XZ, I am glad that his drama already confirmed by CCTV now and I hope his fans will focus to the drama more, let HR and CY fans wash their own dirty things
Cy is just a bad actor with an aggressive and idiotic marketing team.
I read about this issue before I even knew what web drama the actress was starring in.
These days I saw HS on Weibo, Beijing Daily’s post, and even some posts on western social networks by Chinese users.
I didn’t see anything about anyone’s fans in official news, but I have to say, these fans of the male lead seem to care more about fandom querelles than their own country and the Chinese people being insulted.
This issue, and the negative attention it got, isn’t about this or that other celebrities’ fans, it is about a tasteless and vile comment made by someone who should be grateful instead.
And people apparently already knew, if it’s true that many asked for her to be removed months ago.
This isn’t some fans querelle, it’s a matter of national pride.
well,
who is Cy? i think he is so boring, and old, ugly and bad actor
This article about li kai xin scandal delay the journey of legend, but the first person who mentioned xiao zhan is Lilith on May 11th 2025, 01:30 am
She said, “this only blew up because cheng yi’s bots wanted to leech onto xiao zhan’s new drama (as usual)”
and continued later she said, “xiao zhan surpasses cheng yi by far in everything – good acting, good looks, versatility and popularity.”
LOL it happened before on article about the journey of legend wraps filming last year. she commented that cheng yi is not the same level with wang hedi, that guardian of dafeng is the project that cheng yi’s fans were salivating over.
(i check douban score for guardian of dafeng is 5.6 from 174.858 reviewer so i decide not to watch it)
never watch xiao zhan but i will check Zang Hai Zhuan douban score later before decide to watch it.
she may have many favourite actors but the way she brings cheng yi down in every article about cheng yi’s drama is so obvious LOL
Looks like someone is unhappy that their leech-style of marketing on Chinese platforms is made known on international sites.
Lol at douban scores, if anything, popular actors always get low douban scores because rival actors put in effort (money) to drag them down. High douban scores mean that actor is of no threat to others.
I think you are the one who practicing leech marketing strategy here in o.c.koala’s blog?
Your style is provoke then promote.
First you say something bad about the actor you dislike (which is cheng yi) on his upcoming drama related article (which is the journey of legend), then you compare him to your favorite actor, later promote your favorite actor’s upcoming project.
At least I found you did this twice.
First in cheng yi’s the journey of legend wraps filming article (you provoke cheng yi fans then praising WHD and his upcoming drama TGOD) and second time in this article.
You are the first person mentioned xiao zhan here, provoke o.c.koala’s cheng yi fans to come out and xiao zhan fans come out later worship him up to the sky compare cheng yi’s down to the earth level.
I’ve never watch any xiao zhan drama, so I check on douban.
Your favourite actor’s latest period drama is the longest promise. The douban score is 6.3 from 312.203 reviewer. Well, although the score is not high, actually I expect the number of reviewers is higher for the sake of his popularity.
If you want to promote your favorite actor’s upcoming drama then promote it properly, maybe some people (including me) give a chance to watch it. Instead, you just lower cheng yi and praise your favourite.
To me, douban is just one of many references to watch c-drama. 7.9 douban score from 1 million reviewer means something. 8.6 douban score from 200.000 reviewer also means something to me, but 6.3 douban score from 312.203 reviewer doesn’t interest me. I will not watch c-drama based on good looks, versatility and popularity only, that will waste my time and my money.
So you agree this kind of posts is leech marketing, yeah?
Cheng Yi’s bots initiated this whole thing though, making tons of such posts on Weibo comparing their journey drama with The Legend of Zanghai since last month, and other dramas before this. Guess you are unhappy now that it’s reversed? LOL Then ask your fellow Huanrui bots to stop doing it to other actors and promote their own dramas properly. What you’re doing is hitting a person then complains when the person hits you back.
I know this site is selective on publishing entertainment news and that there’s many Huanrui bots here. But it won’t stop me from posting facts to give others a clearer picture on what had happened in C-ent.
If your working in China you should stop bad mouthing Chinese. The girl is just stupid.
I was really hoping to watch Fu Shan Hai. It seems like it has the vibes of MLC which I loved. The production team should just replace the girl’s face with AI, or get someone to reshoot it like Hu Yixuan did for Love Never Fails.
I’m not really interested in Legend of Zang Hai since it seems really serious with the political drama. The only political drama I enjoyed was Nirvana in Fire. Rumor has it that Tencent is releasing Prisoner of Beauty instead which is great news. If anything I’m more hyped about it than FSH – the trailer had me hooked since two years ago.
Just watch Prisoner of Beauty, it’s a gem.
Not many updates about Kdrama except for C gossips as usual that got gossipers excited! And this time Xiao Zhan was dragged in even nowhere he’s got mentioned in the post. WTF!
Xiao Zhan advised his fans to mind their own business, not meddling in celebs’ lives and work like busybodies. I guess he’s just an idol to satisfy rabid fans’ delusion in their unfulfilled dreams LOL, not someone whose wise words got taken seriously. Look at this thread of cesspool !!!! LOL.
This site has become boring with way more boring Cdrama updates than interesting Kdrama updates. And it seems the only way Koala would get traffic nowadays is frivolous gossips besides KSH scandals. LOL. I’m spending less and less time on this site that used to be my fave Asian drama blog.
And again, you who proclaimed to be a Xiao Zhan fan is focusing on dragging Xiao Zhan fans down.
You should stan Cheng Yi instead, his Chinese fans claimed there’s no issue with Eleanor Lee bad-mouthing China, I’m sure you will be happy there since you share the same stance LOL. Ironic of you to berate gossip as I see you had fun with the gossips on that Kim Soohyun – Kim Saeron case. LOL
if you like xz even a little bit, please don’t bring him up in posts that are not related to him.
I honestly hate XZ fans and this making me hate XZ too.. Seriously they slander everyone.. I mean everyone for their pathetic flop!