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Lee Jong Suk's Korean-Chinese drama titled "Jade Lovers" might not air anytime soon.
The female lead Zheng Shuang is currently involved in a controversy which may greatly affect the release of the Korean-Chinese joint drama "Jade Lovers". The original air date for the said series was previously cancelled and the drama was pushed to the archive due to the Hallyu ban being implemented in China. The Chinese actress has been accused by her former partner, producer Zhang Heng, of abandoning their two children.
Jade Lovers drew attention in 2016 with its 40 billion South Korean won (approximately 36 million US dollars) in production cost and the collaboration of famous stars from Korea and China.
Producer Jin Hyeok who previously worked with Lee Jong Suk in "Prosecutor Princess" and "Doctor Stranger" directed the said drama.
In 2017, the Hallyu ban was lifted and Youku released a 57-minute long trailer that excited fans from both Korea and China. Set in the 1930s, "Jade Lovers" tells the story of Shen Chen Xi, the daughter of a former magnate, who meets Bai Luo Han after her family falls into ruin.
After Lee Jong Suk's discharge from the military, Zheng Shuang followed the official Weibo account of the actor raising viewer's expectations on the airing of their drama.
However, Zheng Shuang's scandal broke out which led to another crisis for the said drama. China's National Radio and Television Administration (NRTA) declared the actress as a problematic celebrity and has ordered for all her related content to be taken offline.
On January 18th, a friend of Zheng Shuang's ex-husband (they married secretly in the US) exposed the actress on Weibo by posting birth certificates stating that they hired surrogate mothers who gave birth to two children, born a month apart, in the states of Colorado and Nevada.
Complications arose and the couple broke up before the birth of the children. The shocking part is that Zheng Shuang did not want to take any responsibility for the children and had previously considered asking the surrogate mothers to perform a late term abortion at 7 months. Her ex-husband greatly opposed this request. Audio recordings also surfaced where the actress could be heard suggesting that her ex-husband had agreed to give the children up for adoption. The actress has been active in China while her ex-husband was raising the children. The children were unable to migrate from America to China due to visa issues as the actress is unwilling to sign the papers allowing their father to bring them. The children may end up in adoption if the actress will not cooperate.
Zheng Shuang, who has 11 million fans on Weibo, became an overnight sensation after appearing in the 2009 romance TV series "Let's Go Watch Meteor Shower" and its sequel in 2010. In 2016, she was named one of the four most popular Chinese actresses born in the 1990s by Southern Metropolis Entertainment Weekly.
