@atmosphere
IMO she doesn't have the charisma or skills to successfully carry off main lead roles. I'm constantly surprised how different international cdrama viewers' opinions are to Chinese viewers about almost everything. Zhou Ye seems much more well-liked and popular internationally than she is domestically. She has her own fandom in China, but people have pointed out how her acting is quite lacking especially to be doing all these main lead roles, I guess international viewers have different expectations and different things they're looking for when it comes to what they consider good acting.
This is interesting, because I also heard about this often. What make you said that someone is bad actress/actors other than their limited expressions?
Is it maybe the line delivery ? Line delivery is definitely something that we international viewers can not judge, but most idol actors are dubbed anyway. For me it‘s the other way around, where sometimes I found it jarring if the dubber‘s voice doesn‘t match the actor‘s face/vibe.
PS: I do believe that there is also the chemistry between audience and the actors on screen, because often I heard how people praised an actor‘s acting and I can see why he/she was praised but I don‘t connect with them emotionally so their scene/character failed to move me.