Written by Jin Mandou.
The day after the Golden Rooster Awards, the trending topic was “Zhong Chuxi’s Positioning”. A photo of her in a pink dress was shared over 80,000 times, with supporters praising her and critics lining up to condemn her. In the screenshot, she was caught in the middle of the Best Actor and Best Actress, with the caption “The scheming woman is stealing the spotlight again, how satisfying??????”.
Misunderstandings: Who is Really Making the Peace Sign?
Upon watching the video, it was revealed that she was in the second row the entire time, pushing the director forward—this half-step forward was captured as “stealing the C position”. This maneuver was truly skilled. Last year’s VOGUE gala was exactly the same; wearing a 1920s antique dress that was too heavy to walk in, she stood on the left as arranged by the event organizers, only to be criticized the next day for “deliberately taking the center position”. In the backstage video, staff were crouching to adjust her dress, and she quietly reminded them, “Don’t step on it, it’s borrowed”—this part went unnoticed. A picture speaks a thousand words, saving time.
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Label Generator: One Picture, One Hat, One Trending Topic, One Load of Glue
During the year of “Youth”, the press release accused her of “stealing Miao Miao’s scenes”. When a reporter asked Feng Xiaogang, he replied, “There are only so many pages for Xiao Suizi, who is she stealing from?” The headline writers immediately twisted his words, turning it into “Feng Xiaogang subtly criticizes Zhong Chuxi”, and the emotions were laid out on the table while the facts were thrown in the trash. The platform—understands the accounts better; controversy = traffic, traffic = advertising. A trending topic criticizing her can bring Weibo seven figures, who would dare to lower it?????. Thus, “stealing the C position” is like a barcode stuck on her, scanning it brings up old news, and tearing it off still leaves glue.
The key point is coming.
Female celebrities can sustain marketing accounts for three days with a screenshot, while male celebrities can only sustain the comment section for three minutes. Zhou Dongyu was also criticized when she was placed in the C position, Yang Mi was scolded for bowing her head to hand over the trophy, Huang Bo was praised for standing off-center as humble, and Shen Teng was laughed at for cutting in line to sign autographs as a “down-to-earth comedian”—the magnifying glass of tolerance only focuses on males, isn’t this truly double standards?
Who Benefits from the Script of the ‘Female King’?
Having relationships displayed in the window sells better, with Li Xian, a Russian model, Zhang Yunlong, and Hou Wenyuan. Each of her public relationships ended without drama, four relationships in four years, averaging eleven months, with no cheating or interference. Data websites lay out the numbers clearly, yet the comment section loves to use “female king”. In the same period, a certain 85 flower had five relationships in three years, and the press called it “daring to love and hate”—the terms change with the person, and the standards are flexible. She openly admits to having loved, gracefully says goodbye, yet is criticized for having a “chaotic private life”, while male celebrities are praised for their new relationships as having “good taste”, a single comment flips gender stereotypes back a decade.
Emotional checkpoints.
Daring to love and to part is not a crime, daring to take responsibility is not original sin.
Invisible Efforts Always Lose to Visible Pink Dresses
Last year, she donated 2 million to medical care for rural children, with the receipt posted on the foundation’s website—she didn’t buy trending topics. For “If Running is My Life”, she stayed in a rehabilitation hospital for three months, learning to wear prosthetics and practice going up and down stairs. In the wrap-up photo, her left leg was bound with a prosthetic model, and her knee was chafed—this news only received three thousand likes on Douyin—algorithms don’t care for people, they only care for controversy. She later learned to be more cautious, standing at the edge of the red carpet when possible, saying less during interviews—being low-key only leads to accusations of being guilty, and the more she explains, the more she is accused of trying to clear her name, creating a cycle like a bottomless well.
A sentence flashes by
The algorithm is tougher.
Can Works Break Labels, or Will They Be Stuck Back with the Next Screenshot?
This year she has three films awaiting release: one about a deaf-mute, one about a drug enforcement officer, and one about a rural teacher, with a small budget and heavy roles—this is a difficult path. She bets that the audience will recognize “Xiao Suizi”, “the amputee girl”, and “the deaf-mute mother” in the cinema, rather than “stealing the C position”. But the table across from her is the algorithm—it only recognizes the duration of stay, not character names, and it will push the next red carpet “half-step” back to trending topics. To break this, we can only make one more move: click on the video, check the donation records, ask, “Where’s the evidence for my accusations?”—but most people don’t have that time; it only takes three seconds to criticize “scheming”, while clarifying with a video takes three minutes, which is already too long.
Contradictions are also very real; she may not care about her position, but she does care about her work. She may not want to explain, yet she is forced to appear time and again, and this contrast is very much like the norm in the industry.
The ending needs to be strong.
—Next time you see a screenshot of “stealing the C position”, will you directly start cursing, or will you first click on the video?????