LayarHijau.com—In March this year, Chinese short drama actor Ke Chun participated in the variety show “Memories Beyond Horizon,” signaling his desire to enter the long drama market.
During a livestream on March 12, faced with numerous questions from fans, Ke Chun revealed, “I have liked Zhao Liying since I was 15 years old, and I have been working hard to improve my acting skills to get closer to her.” According to statistics from a platform, the peak viewership for this livestream reached 777,000, with over 500,000 comments.
That night, the topic of “Ke Chun and Zhao Liying” trended in the top five hot searches on Weibo for several hours. The related CP super topic alone added 240,000 new fans for the actor. Ke Chun has starred in several short dramas, including My CEO Husband is My Biggest Fan and My Baby Girl.
Practitioners Analysis
As this issue develops, some supporters believe that Ke Chun’s “ten years of chasing stars” can inspire positive resonance among young fans. The sincerity, enthusiasm, and respect for his predecessors demonstrated during the livestream garnered a lot of positive attention.
Currently, short dramas are gaining remarkable popularity not only in China but worldwide. Videos discussing Ke Chun’s efforts to improve his acting skills for his idol quickly amassed 300 million views in China, according to Sohu.
At the same time, industry practitioners interpret this as a potential signal of cooperation from the short drama sector toward the mainstream film and television industry, symbolizing the need to “break down walls” between niche fields and traditional large-scale productions.
However, some have questioned whether this confession is too dramatic, with some viewing it as a marketing gimmick exploiting a famous actress. After all, top stars and emerging talents are well aware that “emotion is the code for traffic”: as long as they are linked with a national-level actor, it can spark discussions.
Looking at the data, Ke Chun’s Weibo followers exceeded 800,000 within just two days, and the number of business cooperation inquiries increased by 40%. Notably, Zhao Liying has yet to make a clear statement regarding the so-called “ten-year secret love.” If the other party does not deny it, public opinion tends to assume that the matter is real. However, a star’s “acceptance” does not necessarily mean “recognition.”
Promotional models using romantic declarations during livestreams can trigger chain reactions at moral and legal levels if boundaries are not properly assessed.
Observing the trends in the entertainment industry, emotional interactions among celebrities have always been an eye-catching tool. This not only helps newcomers gain attention but also provides new topics for more established actors. It is also a common path for actors in short dramas to choose partners with high traffic to break through in today’s industry ecosystem.
Based on previous cases, emotional hype can indeed bring significant traffic in the short term, but if there are no strong follow-up works or sincere responses, it is often quickly forgotten by the market and can even face backlash from public opinion.
Zhao Liying’s team has chosen not to respond to Ke Chun’s confession, instead focusing on promoting her film, The Unseen Sister.
