Beijing Pops: Break up, Surrogacy, Abandonment… Chinese Actress Condemned for Leaving Children

Feeling left out when your Chinese colleagues are gossiping about a trending star? Puzzled by those glamorous Chinese faces in subway ads, but can't even tell who they are? Beijing Pops will help you get through it all with the latest pop culture and celebrity news.

Trending now: Break up, surrogacy, abandonment… Chinese actress condemned for leaving children

Millions of Chinese netizens are obsessing over a very real break-up drama that took social media by storm yesterday, and the protagonists are 29-year-old Chinese actress Zheng Shuang and her ex-boyfriend Zhang Heng.

Zheng, who has made a name for herself acting in numerous TV shows and is currently one of the faces of Prada's new CNY ad campaign, has been accused by her ex-boyfriend of callously demanding in 2019 that a US-based surrogate mom they had hired abort the fetus.

Boyfriend Zhang aired his grievances on Weibo yesterday, saying he has been stuck in the US for a year because his former girlfriend has decided she no longer wants the two children the couple paid two different surrogate moms to carry to term, simultaneously. It is unclear as to whether the surrogate moms were using the couple's egg and sperm for the conception.

Surrogacy is illegal in China, forcing many couples to turn to women in the US as an alternative. 

Along with the post, Zhang shared several photos that back his claim, including US birth certificates that list Zheng Shuang as the mother. Shortly thereafter, a 2019 recording originally posted by NetEase Entertainment surfaced online, allegedly featuring Zheng demanding an end to the pregnancies – which at that point were in their seventh month – or to give the babies up for adoption.

The children were eventually born on Dec 19, 2019, and Jan 1, 2020, respectively and Zhang is currently caring for them in the US while riding out a visa that is soon to expire.

This afternoon, Zheng finally addressed the controversy, however, much to the public's disappointment, the statement largely lacks substance. “It's written in Chinese, yet I can't understand a single word she says,” reads one comment. What's more, the phrasing is unlike anything that Zheng has said before, leading some to suspect that the statement was written by a team of US lawyers, sloppily translated into Chinese, and published on her behalf. 

Celebrity of the week: Female stand-up comedian targeted online for jokes about men

Western-style stand-up comedy has taken off in China in recent years, thanks to the success of the online show Rock & Roast, which largely features amateur comics.

Its third season, which wrapped in September, saw more and more female comedians taking to the stage, eager to share their opinions and perspectives. Needless to say, some of these comedians have caught the ire of male viewers.

Yang Li, for example, has been the target of relentless cyberbullying after one of her jokes touched a nerve with some men. In the sketch, the 28-year-old comedian wittily observes that her male friends are prone to giving people lectures (what those of us in the West refer to as mansplaining). “Men are adorable but mysterious. You never know what’s inside their teeny-weeny heads. After all, they can look so average and yet be so full of confidence.”

During the performance, the show landed with a bang, however, as the gag spread online, some male netizens began to cry foul, claiming Yang's humor created gender opposition, while others went so far as to say the show was an insult to all men.

Last month, a group of people even reported her to the television administration for “sexism,” and a professor at Renmin University – who has a sizable online presence himself – escalated the battle by posting a video reply to Li, saying “Men don’t need to be special to show confidence to you. They might be average, but you’re uglier when you remove the makeup.”

In a recent show, Yang used the backlash against her to create a new gag: a male colleague jokingly remarks that she has been testing the limits of men. Yang replies with exaggerated disbelief: “Do men have limits?”

The "King of the Children’s Tale" leaves personal replies for fans, much to the delight of netizens

Beijing-based children’s literature author Zheng Yuanjie, known as the “King of the Children’s Tale,” recently landed in many netizens' good books thanks to his witty, personal, and touching replies to his fans’ comments. In fact, Zheng values interacting with his readers so much that he claims to have invested in ten properties in Beijing just to store all the fan mail he receives. More recently, when one fan asked him to wish her success on her postgraduate qualification exam, Zheng replied, “Sorry, I can only wish you second place, because I’ve wished another reader number one.” 

Born in 1955, Zheng's life is a fairytale in and of itself. He dropped out of school at the age of 11, but nonetheless found his passion for literature and started writing children's stories in 1979. In 1985, he started production on his own magazine, King of the Children’s Tale, which is still being issued to a devoted following today. Zheng’s work is frank, real, and full of imagination. His well-known masterpiece Shuke and Beita depicts a series of fantastic adventures for two mice. The story has been adapted into animated films and is nothing less than a classic for many of the post-80s generations.

Girl group member accused of violating Langfang lockdown

Yu Shuxin, a member of popular girl group THE9, was targeted online last week for allegedly violating local COVID-19 lockdown protocols in Langfang, a city 50 kilometers south of Beijing. On Jan 12, Yu had just finished recording a program in Langfang when an outbreak was discovered and the city all but shut down. Given that she had recently received a negative nucleic acid test, Yu decided to depart the city that afternoon, arriving in Shanghai later that evening. Unfortunately, however, some netizens were quick to point out that she violated the policies, citing her privilege as a means to flout the rules. The following day, her PR team released an official announcement, attempting to prove that Yu didn’t violate any rules, claiming that the travel ban was formally enforced at midnight, Jan 13. However, according to Shanghai's policies, she will still be subject to a 14-day quarantine.

Born in 1995, Yu rose to prominence last March when she starred on the hit talent show, Youth With You. She placed second in the competition and eventually teamed with nine other top candidates to form the girl group THE9.

READ: Beijing-Native Chloé Zhao Poised To Become First Female Chinese Director To Take Home an Oscar

Images: Weibo, iQiyi, Douban