China celebrity crackdown: regulator issues new ruling to rein in sky-high pay for stars in television productions
- Actors’ pay can account for between 50 and 80 per cent of the cost of a TV show in China, compared with 30 per cent in Hollywood
- Actress Zheng Shuang received 160 million yuan (US$25.1 million) for appearing on just 77 days in one TV show
After the National Radio and Television Administration released a blueprint earlier this week for the next five years of TV productions, which includes setting a cap for actors’ pay of 40 per cent of the total production budget and stipulating top actors’ fees not exceed 70 per cent of all actors’ earnings, it has become one of most searched items on social media. On Weibo, the pay limit clause was viewed more than 200 million times on Tuesday.
The Chinese public has been outraged in recent years by how much actors and actresses are paid for appearing on domestic TV series.
Although the pay stipulation was first mentioned in a 2017 rule guiding TV shows’ costs, it was loosely followed.
In April last year, actress Zheng Shuang was exposed for having received 160 million yuan (US$25.1 million) for appearing on just 77 days in one TV show.
It’s not clear what that TV show’s total cost was, but Zheng’s huge payment infuriated the public. The national authority soon ordered its branch in Beijing municipality to investigate, saying the TV production team that hired Zheng had violated the cost proportion requirements.
Besides the pay limit, the authority said in the latest guidance that it will seriously deal with actors and agencies having evaded taxes or signed dual contracts, a common tactic known as yin yang contracts. The ruse involves having one contract as a “secret” one for the actor with the real payment while the other one that indicates a lower amount is intended for tax authorities.