Mainland Chinese actress Nalan Xian, who rose to fame with the movie trilogy “Feng Shen,” has been blacklisted due to cheating incidents such as “college entrance exam migration” and “violation of directed training contract.” As a result, the upcoming martial arts film “The Escort: Wind in the Desert,” starring and invested by the acclaimed “Wolf Warrior” star Wu Jing with 550 million RMB, decided to remove Nalan Xian from the cast out of fear of box office failure.
China is currently amidst the college entrance exams, and actress Nalan Xian was exposed for using a quota intended for “directed training” to move from Beijing to Inner Mongolia for the exam, later attending the Shanghai Theatre Academy with low scores and violating the agreement by going abroad. Her father’s background at CCTV caused questions of privilege to be raised. Following the online uproar, the CCP’s official media promptly deleted a video of Nalan Xian sending blessings to the exam candidates.
Just before the college entrance exams, CCTV released a video of various celebrities sending blessings to students, including content from Nalan Xian, who was riding high on the success of the second installment of “Feng Shen”. Subsequently, netizens dug deeper into her background, uncovering multiple suspicious points related to her “college entrance exam migration” and “violation of directed training contract.”
It was revealed by a netizen that Nalan Xian grew up in Beijing, attended the prestigious Beijing No. 11 School but participated in the college entrance exam as a student from Inner Mongolia. Moreover, during a variety show appearance last year, she openly mentioned being a “directed training student,” stating that instead of working in Inner Mongolia after graduation, she went to study in Norway, even describing it as “cool.”
This statement resurfaced right before the college entrance exams, triggering a public outcry. As the public opinion intensified, the CCP’s official media swiftly removed the video of Nalan Xian cheering for exam students and quietly removed her from the list of well-wishers, leading to “CCTV News deletes Nalan Xian’s name” quickly becoming a hot topic on Weibo, with her father’s connection to CCTV also sparking privilege scrutiny.
Under immense public pressure, relevant departments in the Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region have formed a joint working group to conduct investigations. On June 21, the official announcement regarding the preliminary investigation into the “violation of the directed training contract” and related incidents involving Nalan Xian confirmed that she falsified her college entrance exam registration materials.
The announcement stated that when Nalan Xian registered for the 2008 college entrance exam, she listed herself as a graduating student from the Eighth High School in Hohhot City, but the investigation revealed that she had no academic record or attendance at that school; furthermore, despite being admitted to the Shanghai Theatre Academy through “directed training”, she failed to fulfill the associated obligations post-graduation, constituting a breach of contract.
With the news breaking out, the entire internet exploded. The incident quickly spread to the entertainment industry, hitting the Wu Jing-starring and produced martial arts film “The Escort: Wind in the Desert” the hardest. Sharp-eyed netizens noticed that on professional platforms like Maoyan and Taopiaopiao, Nalan Xian’s name has quietly disappeared from the cast and crew list of “The Escort: Wind in the Desert.”
Previously occupying a prominent position in the cast list, Nalan Xian seemed to have vanished with just a whisper of wind, leaving behind emptiness. In the original work, Nalan Xian portrayed the main character “Desert Goddess” Ayuya. This character plays a pivotal role throughout the film, propelling the storyline forward.
In the original manga, Ayuya is depicted as a youthful and charismatic 18-year-old girl full of vitality. Nalan Xian, born in December 1989, was almost 36 when she took on the role in the film. Such an age gap sparked controversy during the casting process.
According to mainland media reports, the highly anticipated film “The Escort: Wind in the Desert,” originally scheduled for release at the end of the year and with an investment of around 550 million by Wu Jing, was conservatively predicted to earn at least 1 billion RMB at the box office. With outstanding action design and cast appeal, it had the potential to reach 3-3.5 billion. However, with Nalan Xian inciting public anger, audiences have started to boycott her works.
Industry insiders analyzed that despite Nalan Xian’s name being removed from the cast and crew list, excising her role from the film is no easy task. The movie has already been filmed with her character intricately woven throughout, meaning that reshooting or AI replacement would require significant additional investment of both funds and time, undoubtedly substantially increasing the production cost of the film.