“Yu Menglong’s Career Under the Shadow of Tianyu Media and Hunan TV”

On October 18th, an article shared by netizens criticized Tianyu Media for failing to support Yu and for its poor management of him. Since 2013, when Yu joined the show Superboy with big dreams and signed with Tianyu Media, he received little to no support. Tianyu later shifted its business strategy, focusing on artist management and entertainment production, while abandoning the music division due to a shrinking market.

Because of his good looks, Yu was transferred to the film and television department, yet Tianyu made no real investment in him. In 2014, Yu began acting. By 2015, he rose to fame for his role in Go Princess Go, but in 2016, he had no new projects. In 2017, he appeared in Three Lives, Three Worlds, and between 2018 and 2019, he finally became a leading actor, not through Tianyu’s backing, but through his own perseverance. Later, Yu collaborated with iQIYI on several projects.

By 2021, his contracts with both iQIYI and Tianyu were nearing expiration. Then followed by his silent hiatus.Fans accused Tianyu of incompetence and lack of investment, urging Yu to leave the company or establish his own studio. However, Yu could not break free. Leaving would have required him to pay a huge amount of penalty, a sum he could never afford. Tianyu’s ability to act so aggressively stemmed from its deep ties to Hunan TV, supported by Li Dong, daughter of Li Chongchun, and Li Ruigang, said to be her husband.

Li Chongchun, a former Politburo Standing Committee member who oversaw propaganda and media, was a close ally of Jiang Zemin. His children, Li Huede and Li Dong, exploited their father’s political influence for personal gain. Li Dong serves as the executive director of BOC International Holdings and manages the China Media Capital CMC Cultural Investment Fund, focusing on the media sector. Her husband, Li Ruigang, once head of the Shanghai Municipal Party Office, left politics in 2012 to help manage the fund for Li Dong.

That same year, the fund launched The Voice of China on Zhejiang TV, which earned 1.7 billion RMB in just three months, but also became mired in controversy. Singer Coco Li revealed that contestants were required to pay 500,000 RMB to participate, and that the show’s coaches had to follow the producers’ instructions. Coco Li’s sudden death in July 2023 at age 48, shortly after her expose, led many to suspect that her passing was not accidental.

In 2018, the China Media Capital Fund rebranded as CMC Group, expanding into technology and consumer sectors, investing in IT, Bilibili, Kuaishou, NetEase Cloud Music, Mango TV, and many other companies. That same year, Yu Menglong signed a contract with CMC through a director training program. By February this year, CMC invested in CAA, the world’s largest talent management agency, and Li Ruigang became a director of CAA. This web of connections shows that Tianyu Media, Mango Media, and Hunan TV all fall within the network controlled by Li Dong and Li Ruigang, leaving Yu Menglong trapped with no way out.

When you look at Alan’s career timeline, it’s impossible not to notice the pattern. In most companies, when an artist suddenly gains popularity, management immediately provides resources — new projects, endorsements, and exposure to help their star rise even higher. But with Alan, it was the opposite. Every time his career began to take off, there was a push and pull as if they were deliberately holding him back.

It feels like they didn’t want him to become too popular or attract too much attention. Instead, they kept him in the middle — known, but never allowed to truly shine. Not forgotten, but not free either. If he became too famous, people would follow him everywhere, watch his every move, and that’s exactly what they didn’t want.