At the 38th edition of the Golden Rooster Awards for Popular Movies, Wang Baoqiang was nominated for Best Actor for his role as “Ah Gui” in the box office hit “Tang Detective 1900,” which grossed over 36 billion RMB. However, he received 0 votes from the 101 public judges present at the event. This quickly became a hot topic on Weibo, with netizens questioning the selection process of the awards and expressing support for Wang Baoqiang.
In “Tang Detective 1900,” Wang Baoqiang portrays the character of Ah Gui, a Chinese-Indian hunter, in a departure from his usual comedic style in the “Detective Chinatown” series as Tang Ren. He showcased the sorrow and complexity of a marginalized character through precise eye movements and subtle actions, marking a significant breakthrough in his acting career. The film’s tremendous success, grossing 36.12 billion RMB in China, made Wang Baoqiang the first post-80s male lead to surpass 20 billion RMB in box office earnings in Chinese film history.
Despite the widespread recognition and acclaim for “Tang Detective 1900,” at the recently concluded 38th Golden Rooster Awards for Popular Movies in August 2026, Wang Baoqiang’s portrayal of Ah Gui earned him his first Best Actor nomination but ultimately received “0 votes” and was eliminated by the 101 public judges present.
The significant disparity sparked controversy, with netizens baffled by the fact that although initially millions of netizens had voted to nominate him, he ended up with zero votes in the final assessment. Many expressed outrage at the perceived disconnect between the public’s taste and the award selection system, with comments like “Regardless of Wang Baoqiang’s performance, zero votes are unacceptable,” “This is humiliating,” and “An honest man is being bullied.”
In the Best Actor category, 25-year-old Yi Yangqianxi won with 48 votes, followed by Tony Leung Chiu-wai and Zhu Yilong with 43 and 7 votes respectively. Jackie Chan received 2 votes, while Wang Baoqiang’s co-star in the same film, Liu Haoran, received 1 vote.
The Golden Rooster Awards, formally known as the Golden Rooster Awards for Popular Movies, emphasize the inclusion of “public” in their name. During the preliminary selection phase, actors with high popularity are nominated based on audience votes, and the final assessment is entrusted to 101 so-called public judges for real-time voting at the event. Wang Baoqiang’s placement at the bottom with “0 votes” has led to widespread questioning of the award’s selection criteria, with netizens asking, “Where is the public in the Golden Rooster Awards?”
Notably, this is not the first time the Golden Rooster Awards have faced controversy due to 0 votes. In the 36th edition in 2022, Shen Teng was similarly nominated for Best Actor for “My Father and Me” but received 0 votes. Shen Teng is the first actor in Chinese film history to exceed 40 billion RMB in box office earnings, yet he has not won any awards at the mainland’s major film awards.
For two consecutive editions of the Golden Rooster Awards, Shen Teng and Wang Baoqiang, two of the most popular comedy actors, received “precise zeros,” prompting many to ponder whether the public judges of the awards hold biases against comedic actors. This led to discussions on Weibo about not relying on Shen Teng and Wang Baoqiang to boost ticket sales in the future, with users questioning whether the “public” in the Golden Rooster Awards still holds significance.