I was solely covering K-dramas in 2012 but even then I heard of the infamous Backstabbing (Sword Stabbing) Yin Xiao Tian Incident that year. It’s so famous it even has its own Baidu page haha. It spawned factions, memes, accusations, denials, betrayals, and true friends emerging. In 2012, then one of the four top male leads Yin Xiao Tian was filming a drama with actress Bian Xiao Xiao. Her assistant made a post accusing him of hitting her and demeaning her on set. It blew up and immediately lots of C-ent stars took positions claiming to believe her unequivocally and demanding he apologize or saying they believe in his character and he would never do this. The ones who immediately took Bian Xiao Xiao’s side of the story with zero proof were called the Backstabbing Sect with Sect Leader being Du Chun (who was one of Yin Xiao Tian’s good friends), the four male lieutenants were Li Chen, Jia Nai Liang, Bao Jian Feng, and Huang Jue, and the four female lieutenants were Xue Jia Ning, Wang Lu Dan, Li Xiao Lu, and Dong Xuan.

Yin Xiao Tian immediately spoke up that he never hit Bian Xiao Xiao on set or ever, there was nothing physical, she went at him in a tirade causing him to lose his temper and speaking back to her, that was it. The ones who voiced their support for Yin Xiao Tian included Nie Yuan, Yang Zi, and Han Xue. Yin Xiao Tian searched far and wide for videos on set to clear his name and once it was released in its entirety proved his side of the story. Bian Xiao Xiao went silent along with all her supporters afterwards. But C-ent is saying that justice/karma plays the long game and the members of the Backstabbing Sect have all ended up with poor careers while the righteous supporters careers have flourished. It sure looks like it. Yin Xiao Tian’s career was basically tanked for ten years even after his vindication until he won an acclaimed Best Supporting Actor award in 2022.