Chinese actor Chen Zheyuan, who rose to fame alongside Zhao Lusi in the hit drama “Can’t Hide It”, was caught in a lip-syncing mishap during his performance on the New Year’s Eve special on Hunan TV. In a moment of forgetfulness, Chen failed to bring the microphone close to his mouth while lip-syncing, leading to his voice being broadcast over the sound system. The incident quickly became a hot topic on Weibo, with netizens buzzing about it.
At 28 years old, Chen Zheyuan gained popularity from starring in the web series “Can’t Hide It” with Zhao Lusi. On the night of December 31, he appeared on the Hunan TV New Year’s Eve gala, where he sang Jay Chou’s romantic song “Rosemary” in a duet with actress Cheng Xiao.
In the leaked footage, Chen Zheyuan and Cheng Xiao can be seen dancing together. When it came to the lyrics “you are as graceful as a cat”, Chen got so into the dance that his singing voice slipped out, but he had yet to bring the microphone to his mouth. After his voice was heard through the sound system, he quickly picked up the microphone in the next second. The whole incident was captured by netizens, and within an hour, it had garnered 3 million views online. The keyword “Chen Zheyuan lip-syncing forgot to bring microphone” quickly trended on Weibo.
Netizens criticized, “Clearly lip-syncing, no matter how good your lungs are, you can’t hold the microphone that far away,” “Give us some live singing! Stop acting,” “Either sing live or don’t sing at all,” “His mouth wasn’t even synced, and he forgot to bring the microphone, how embarrassing,” “Can we find someone who can sing live? Mango TV is losing face.” However, some fans defended Chen Zheyuan, saying, “He was probably too nervous and didn’t react in time, and he innocently brought some laughter to everyone.”
The Chinese Ministry of Culture and Tourism issued a specific document on September 18, 2021, requiring artists not to lip-sync, or they will be fined. Ironically, on September 21, 2021, just three days after the document was released, during the “Greater Bay Area Mid-Autumn Festival Gala” broadcast by CCTV to praise the Communist Party, one of the programs featured 22 artists from both sides of the Taiwan Strait performing Lo Ta-yu’s “Pearl of the Orient”. It was found that some of the performers couldn’t even sync their mouths properly, resulting in their mouths closing while the sound continued.
Netizens slammed the situation, saying, “CCTV is leading the trend of lip-syncing,” “The document was issued in vain,” “This is a massive lip-syncing scene,” “Lip-syncing, a tradition of CCTV.”