46-year-old Chinese actor Zhang Yi has been in the industry for many years, starring in numerous classic film and television works, and has won multiple Best Actor awards. His excellent acting skills are widely recognized. In the suspense drama 'Who is He,' which aired last year, he played a detective responsible for investigating a serial murder case. However, the plot was adapted from the real case 'Nanjing University Dismemberment Case' without the victim's family's consent, causing them secondary harm. The victim's family wrote a long post on Weibo, calling for Zhang Yi to help uphold justice.
It is reported that the 'Nanjing University Dismemberment Case', known as 'China's First Suspense Case', occurred in January 1996. A 19-year-old first-year female student, Diao Aiqing, went missing after going out at night and was later found brutally murdered. The cruelty of the crime shocked society, but due to the lack of surveillance equipment and immature DNA identification technology at the time, the case remains unsolved 29 years later.
On the 17th, a netizen wrote a long post on Weibo addressing Zhang Yi, claiming to be Diao Aiqing's brother-in-law. He said he wrote the letter because the plot of the 2023 drama 'Who is He', starring Zhang Yi, 'brought the most fatal harm to our scarred family.' When the drama aired, the producers promoted it as being based on the 'Nanjing University Dismemberment Case'. The 'Yu Aiqin Case' in the drama bore a high resemblance to the 'Nanjing University Dismemberment Case', with the timing of the crime, and the victim's name 'Yu Aiqin' sounding similar to 'Diao Aiqing', even replicating the killer's brutal methods on screen.
Diao Aiqing's brother-in-law angrily questioned, “Did you consider our family's feelings? What makes it even more unacceptable is that the drama fabricated a storyline about Yu Aiqin's private life involving an 'extramarital affair.' These baseless fabrications are not only a great insult to my deceased sister-in-law but also caused enormous harm to our entire family. My in-laws couldn't bear the blow and have been bedridden!” He stated that they have already appointed a lawyer, explaining that the delay was due to their lawyer's initial concern about them being subjected to public scrutiny, hence advised a low-profile pursuit of justice.
Diao Aiqing's brother-in-law also appealed to Zhang Yi, the male lead in the drama, “I earnestly request that you, as a person of righteousness, stand up and speak for us,” and urged him to be more cautious in choosing scripts and roles in the future, 'to avoid touching on similar sensitive topics again, causing unnecessary pain to unfortunate families like ours.'
Source: China Times News Network