Tencent to Put Age Caps on Leads of Historical Chinese Dramas
Just as Chinese dramas have been enjoying a rise in popularity, a rumor is being spread on Weibo that streaming platform Tencent will set an age caps of 35 years old on leading actors in costume idol dramas. The rumor has come as a shock as many netizens discuss its impact.
The rumor appears to be linked to the lukewarm reception to historical drama The Princess’s Gambit <桃花映江山> which stars Liu Xue Yi (劉學義) and Meng Zi Yi (孟子義). Tencent has attributed the drama’s low rating to the leading actor’s age being unsuited for the drama’s settings. To address their concerns, Tencent is planning to implement an age cap limit and will not cast artistes over the age of 35 years old to lead costume idol dramas.
If the rumor is true, netizens believe that 34-year-old actress Wu Jinyan (吴谨言) will the greatly impacted. The actress shot to fame in 2018 for her role in Story of Yanxi Palace and became many producers’ first choice for roles. After giving birth to a daughter this year, Wu Jinyan was rumored to be making a comeback with costume drama Yu Ting Yao <御廷谣> alongside Chen Zheyuan (陳哲遠). Since the drama has yet to announce its release date, many netizens are wondering if the delay is related to the age cap policy.
Netizens React to Age Cap Policy
Many netizens are divided over the appropriateness of the age cap with some arguing that costume idol drama are more suited for younger artistes who are better at portraying the passionate and consuming love. Some wrote, “Do things that suit your age. If you play a mother in an historical idol drama, no one will bat an eye. You can’t always play the leading role or act the age of 18 years old. You can film other genres.”
Another group of netizens rejects having age caps and believe that poor ratings are not due to the age of the lead actors. They wrote, “What’s wrong with being 35 years old? Wu Jinyan and Wang Xingyue (王星越) have an age gap of 12 years and that didn’t affect the ratings for The Double <墨雨云间>. I think the script and screenwriter should be carefully selected. This is actually the flaw.”
At present, Tencent and Wu Yinyan as not responded to the rumors.
Source: [1]
This article is written by Sammi for JayneStars.com.
WJY is fine as she is doing script reading right now with CZY, the delay of her drama was due to first bill issue. It seems to be resolved.
The reason why princess gambit did so badly is because of the script, n the non existing chemistry! You can’t expect ppl to like something as dry and as lifeless as princess gambit! N it has nothing to do with the age, it has more to do with the ML. LXY can’t do main lead. As a support/SML, he is fine. I have never been that over the moon for him, I appreciate his character n think it’s ok, but never for once, I ship him with FL (I know I’m the minority on this boat). But he has zero charisma for being the lead, and he can’t do chemistry with whoever he partnered with -.-
N as the matter of fact, costume period drama has the “idol” attached to it because they only get pretty-cant-act actress in it! They need to start booking actresses who can act, actors who can act, with a good proper script! The reason why the costume period drama isn’t as booming because it always lacks in something. Try make a real polished drama n it’ll boom!
LXY is a better actor compared to many. He stole the entire stage from the ML in Destined.
In A Moment But Forever, he proved himself to be a ML.
Wang Xing Yue and WJY did make a great couple in The Double despite the 12 year age gap. Bad writing and producing plus directing in addition to limited marketing budge should not be blamed on the actors and actresses ages. You cannot control what year you were born dude…
Thats so dumb. The problem with Princess Gambit was the script.
Li Yitong and Liu Yuning are both 34/35 and did fantastic with A Dream Within A Dream. Love In Pavilion had Leon Zhang and Liu Shishi, The Legend of Shen Li had Zhao Liying and Lin Gengxin. I much prefer these mature actors with skills over young actors in popular scripts and productions.