On September 11th, 37-year-old mainland Chinese actor Yu Menglong tragically fell to his death in Beijing, shocking the public. Despite the police swiftly concluding the case and stating there was “no criminal suspicion,” numerous allegations surfaced claiming that Yu Menglong was targeted for resisting the unwritten rules in the entertainment industry, with some even implicating high-ranking officials in the Chinese Communist Party.
As official censorship intensified, with the CCP’s Cyberspace Administration imposing the strictest “ban on celebrity gossip” in history, many internet users flooded into the live stream of Hong Kong entertainment tycoon Stanley Ho’s wife, Angela Chan, leaving messages like “Help Yu Menglong,” only to receive silence and sighs in response.
Due to the multitude of doubts surrounding Yu Menglong’s cause of death, a wave of online revelations emerged, implicating not only the alleged illegitimate child of a state-level CCP official but also several scriptwriters, directors, and producers in the entertainment industry, shedding light on power struggles within the entertainment circle and the upper echelons of the Party. Many netizens exclaimed, “The plot is astonishing, and upon closer inspection, downright terrifying.”
Despite the authorities’ efforts to suppress information and divert attention, netizens resorted to various tactics to demand the truth behind the Yu Menglong incident, such as relentlessly commenting on official platforms like CCTV’s comment section with messages like, “We are not fans, we are just some of the millions who remain… “Everyone shout together: investigate 911!” inundating the police hotline.
As public opinion continued to ferment, the government attempted to control the spread of information through high-pressure measures to suppress dissent. Initially targeting the Xiaohongshu platform under the guise of “spreading negative information about celebrities’ personal lives and trivial matters,” officials summoned, ordered rectifications, issued public warnings, and rigorously dealt with responsible parties following a crackdown. Subsequently, on September 20th, mainstream platforms such as Weibo and Kuaishou faced similar penalties for their failure to enforce content management responsibilities effectively, with punishments for social media platforms being inadequate in addressing the Yu Menglong case.
In addition to the stern “ban on celebrity gossip,” the CCP’s Cyberspace Administration announced the arrest of multiple individuals involved in “fabricating and disseminating rumors” on September 21st.
With mainland Chinese netizens feeling increasingly stifled within the Great Firewall, many turned to the live stream of Hong Kong entertainment mogul Stanley Ho’s wife, Angela Chan, overflowing into her stream with messages like “Help Yu Menglong” and “Please, we beg you,” hoping to leverage her influence in the mainland entertainment industry to shed light on the incident.
Faced with the overwhelming flood of comments, Angela Chan deviated from her usual sharp discourse on other topics during the live stream, initially remaining silent before eventually sighing and responding via her official account: “Everyone, please stop flooding the chat, this is not something we can talk about.” This brief statement seemingly further confirmed the enigmatic and sensitive nature of the Yu Menglong falling incident.
Currently, discussions and videos related to the incident continue to disappear from major social media platforms, with even the words “Yu Menglong” and its acronym “YML” being deleted.