11-Year-Old Child Actress Cast as “Bride” Opposite Man 17 Years Older Sparks Massive Backlash Among C-Netizens

The short drama Forced a Lucky Koi to Marry the Living Yanluo, the Prime Minister’s Mansion’s Luck Is Completely Destroyed has ignited public outrage for casting child actress Dora Liu Xingchen, 11-years-old at the time of filming, opposite 28-year-old actor Jin Wang. The show has been criticized for having a very young female lead who’s not just underage but a literal child. It prompted mass reports from Chinese netizens, and has since been taken down.

She May be the Youngest Female Lead Yet

It’s adapted from a novel where the female protagonist is married at age seven and gives birth at fifteen. While early marriage existed in historical settings, many viewers argue that presenting such a narrative in a modern production is deeply disturbing, with some stating that watching the drama feels “like watching the male lead commit a crime.”

Some defenders claim the early episodes contain no explicit romance since the male lead acknowledges he is marrying a child under an imperial decree and intends to maintain a platonic relationship that would be more like “father-daughter” or “brother-sister.” However, scenes where they hold hands, where he carries her and even when their eyes meet as he saves her, still feel inappropriate given their ages, even if they are framed as non-romantic. Moreover, the story ultimately resolves with the two becoming an actual couple, reinforcing concerns that the narrative normalizes grooming and child marriage.

Unsurprisingly, Chinese netizens have reacted with outrage and searches for the title on short-drama platforms now return results stating that “content does not exist.”

In recent years, similarly extreme premises, such as a drama involving “one pregnancy conceiving 99 babies”, have exposed a tendency among some creators to pursue attention through shock value at any cost. In this case, viewers who expected the story to shift to an adult female lead managed to see a grown-up version of the heroine but she only appears briefly at the end.