For years Chinese actor Qin Hao has better known for being the young husband of Taiwanese singer Annie Yi Nengjing (who is 10 years his senior) than for his acting.
That’s about to change. Thanks to the phenomenal success of recent Chinese TV drama The Bad Kids, in which Qin plays the male lead, the 41-year-old is emerging from Yi’s shadow.
Broadcast on video platform iQiyi over 10 days in June, the 12-part series racked up more than 200 million views in China and attained a score of 9 out of 10 on fan review website Douban, the country’s equivalent to Rotten Tomatoes. It is the highest-rated Chinese TV series on Douban so far this year.
The suspense thriller revolves around three children who unwittingly witness a murder and how the incident upends the lives of several families. The drama touches on a number of social issues, including runaway children and single-parent families.
Qin plays Zhang Dongsheng, a soft-spoken maths teacher and devoted husband who leads a double life as a serial killer. His portrayal of the show’s villain has been widely praised.
Qin told Communist Party newspaper People’s Daily (people.cn) that creepy scenes in which Zhang removes his wig to reveal his bald head when alone at home were his idea.
Playing the villain has its down sides, Qin said. He had only played a villain once since the birth of his daughter four years ago, in 2017 film .
“After that, I didn’t want to play the villain any more. I wanted to maintain a positive image in the eyes of my daughter. I turned down the chance to play [Zhang Dongsheng] multiple times,” he said. “I am worried now I will no longer be invited to parent-teacher meetings at my daughter’s school,” he quipped.
Qin, a native of Shenyang in northeast China, studied at the Central Academy of Drama, where he counted stars such as Zhang Ziyi and Liu Ye among his classmates. He is a versatile actor and has taken on roles as diverse as a pole dancer in Chongqing Blues (2010), a blind masseur in (2014) and a real estate tycoon in Cloud in the Wind (2018).
Yet, before his appearance in The Bad Kids, Qin was largely unknown in China despite a 15-year career and roles in more than 30 films and TV series. Now Qin is finally getting the recognition he deserves.
He told People’s Daily he had high hopes for the TV series. Even during its shooting, the actor said, he felt the series would have an impact, and everyone, especially director Xin Shuang, had worked hard on the show, he said.
“Xin stayed up the whole night for two to three consecutive days amending the script for next day’s shooting. One day, Xin told me he felt he was about to die a sudden death … but I told him this series was worth all his efforts,” Qin recalled. “I hope I will get more recognition and encouragement from the audience,” he added.
Riding on Qin’s popularity, on July 1 Tencent Video launched period drama series The Song of Glory, which stars Qin as a righteous emperor. Early critics’ reviews of the show are good.
With Qin’s star rising, viewers in China are certain to see more of him in future.
