China's Most Popular Actress Throws Down With Tabloids

By Alexander Joenks | Celebrity | October 16, 2015 |

By Alexander Joenks | Celebrity | October 16, 2015 |

Yeung Wing is one of the most famous actresses in China, and goes by the stage name “Angelababy” because of mixing and matching and gluing together nicknames and English versions of names. You might recognize her from her role in Hitman: Agent 47, but I assume none of you saw that since you’re on Pajiba and therefore have pretension if not actual taste.

A few months ago, a clinic published an article claiming that Ms. Angelababy had extensive plastic surgery, which is relatively common in the right circles in China. And it’s even more common for there to be chatter over which famous person has had what work done, not entirely different from America’s own tabloid crap.

However, the actress was unamused by these particular allegations and took the clinic to court. Now one might expect this to quickly go away: a settlement, a meaningless retraction, et cetera. No, instead the clinic decided to throw down over this, and Ms. Angelababy refused to back down herself.

So what’s a judge to do? Ask the clinic to present a shred of evidence? Hah! Records can be doctored, paperwork disappeared. No, instead the court mandated X-rays and professional medical examinations of Ms. Angelababy.

The verdict?

No evidence of plastic surgery. And the Internet went insane. Over a hundred million views. Hundreds of thousands of posts on China’s version of Twitter.

We may sleep easier now, knowing that there are still some unsullied things in this world.