Chinese actress Zheng Shuang (鄭爽) yesterday was hit with a US$46 million tax evasion fine, while references to film star Zhao Wei (趙薇) were wiped from video streaming sites as Beijing steps up its campaign against celebrity culture.
Beijing is on a mission to rein in what it calls “chaotic fan culture” and celebrity excess, after a spate of scandals have in the past few months taken down China’s biggest entertainers, including singer Kris Wu (吳亦凡), who was arrested on suspicion of rape earlier this month.
Shanghai tax authorities fined Zheng 299 million yuan (US$46.2 million) for tax evasion and undeclared income between 2019 and last year while filming a TV series, an online statement said.
Zheng, 30, became a household name in China after starring in the hit 2009 remake of Taiwanese drama Meteor Shower, and a string of successful series and movies afterwards.
China’s state broadcasting regulator also pulled Zheng’s offending TV drama and ordered producers not to hire her for future shows.
The Chinese State Administration of Radio, Film and Television added that it had “zero tolerance” for tax evasion, “sky-high pay” and “yin-yang contracts,” referring to the shady contracts commonly used in Chinese showbiz to obscure actors’ real pay.
State media has gone into overdrive urging changes to China’s entertainment culture.
“For some time now, artists’ moral failures and legal violations, the cultivation of younger idols, and chaotic fandoms have attracted widespread attention in society,” state broadcaster China Central Television said on Tuesday. “We must restore a clean and upright literary and artistic environment to the public.”
On Thursday evening, search results for Zhao, an enormously popular actress also known as Vicky Zhao, were censored from major Chinese video streaming sites.
Her name was suddenly removed from the credits of major TV series, while a forum dedicated to the actress on a Chinese microblogging site was also mysteriously shut down, as the hashtag “Zhao Wei super-topic closed” gained 850 million views.
No official reason was given.
However, Zhao and her husband were banned from trading on the Shanghai Stock Exchange earlier this year, owing to a failed 2016 takeover bid that authorities ruled had “disrupted market order.”
China’s cyberregulator yesterday released new regulations that ban celebrity ranking lists, and tighten control over “chaotic” celebrity fan clubs and management agencies.
Video streaming site iQiyi on Thursday said that it halted all idol talent programs, while a Chinese boy band made up of primary-school children disbanded earlier this week after the performers’ ages sparked a public backlash.
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