Director Wong Kar-wai
Photo: Criterion Channel via YouTube
Wong Kar-wai’s first-ever TV show, Blossoms Shanghai, premiered on the Criterion Channel on November 24, a little over two years after it started airing in China and became a critically acclaimed hit. The 30-episode epic, set in 1990s Shanghai and based on a book of the same name by Jin Yucheng, marked Wong’s first major project since 2013’s The Grandmaster. But the long-awaited North American release of this period drama was preceded by weeks of modern drama offscreen, with the auteur behind films such as In the Mood for Love, Chungking Express, and Happy Together facing accusations of engaging in workplace exploitation and making controversial comments. The controversy stems from a series of allegations and purported recordings shared on Chinese social media by a former member of the Blossoms Shanghai crew. Here’s what we know about the scandal so far.
The initial controversy traces back to a yearslong dispute over the screenwriting credits for Blossoms Shanghai. In 2022, ex-crew member Cheng Junnian began sharing WeChat posts under the pen name Gu Er, detailing what he said was his experience working on the show. After the show premiered in 2023 with Qin Wen listed as the sole credited screenwriter, Cheng started attaching accusations to his real name. Per World Journal, Cheng asserted that he was originally supposed to be Blossoms Shanghai’s writer and director and had worked extensively on scripts for the series for three years. He alleged that Qin — who won Best Adapted Screenplay for Blossoms Shanghai at the 2024 Magnolia Awards — made minor revisions and passed his work off as hers. Instead, he claimed, he was demoted to Wong’s personal assistant with a monthly salary of 3,000 yuan (about $424). While Cheng was credited as a preproduction script editor, he said his actual responsibilities included everything from writing main storylines in the show to cooking steaks for Wong and bringing him late-night snacks. Cheng, who has a degenerative neuromuscular condition called Kennedy’s disease, claimed he faced workplace bullying from the production team. In addition, he alleged that when he requested time off and explained to Wong that his symptoms worsened while working long, stressful hours for the show, the director brusquely responded, “What do you want from me?”
Cheng’s long-standing claims gained public traction in August and September 2025, bolstered by his sharing of alleged audio recordings of crew members to back himself up. The recordings reportedly included conversations in which Qin and Wong appear to ask questions or give instructions that imply Cheng was writing key parts of the plot. In one tape, Wong purportedly called it a “bargain” for Cheng to be writing and performing assistant duties for such low pay. Cheng’s accusations prompted discourse on Chinese social media about workplace exploitation and the difficulties people face when trying to achieve upward mobility and progress beyond entry-level jobs. Eye on Digital China reported in October that Xiaohongshu commenters expressing support for Cheng had framed his alleged mistreatment as a prime example of “class solidification.” The next month, a user on the Quora-esque Q&A platform Zhihu theorized in an answer that Cheng’s story evoked so much sympathy because it “accurately captures the tragic fate of the younger generation in today’s extremely competitive world.”
Cheng continued to share batches of alleged tapes in October and November. In these audio recordings, Wong purportedly made a sexual innuendo about actress Jin Jing’s body and spoke negatively about Blossoms Shanghai star Tang Yan, as well as several other actors he’s worked with. Wong was also seemingly heard making critical comments about the Chinese Communist Party’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, criticizing the government and at one point blaming “a greedy one-party state.” Another recording that made headlines involved Qin seemingly telling Wong she had once assaulted a police officer and used a personal connection as a get-out-of-jail-free card. Wong purportedly advised her to keep the story low-key and quipped that she could work the experience into a script; Vision Times reported that the Chinese public viewed this alleged conversation as an upsetting confirmation of the rich and powerful considering themselves above the law.
Not from Wong himself, although Blossoms Shanghai has issued three statements from its official account on the social-media platform Weibo. Most recently, a November 11 statement attributed to the show’s crew condemned Cheng’s recordings as purportedly having deliberate edits, containing numerous inaccuracies, and being illegally taken and released without the consent of the involved individuals. The statement accused Cheng of spreading rumors because he was dissatisfied with the “reasonable” credit the production had given him and said it has submitted evidence against the former crew member to judicial and law-enforcement agencies. It goes on to claim Cheng has avoided investigation because he is now living overseas, urging him to return to China, and say the entire Blossoms Shanghai team believes the law will offer the most truthful and decisive response.
Previously, in a September 23 statement, the show confirmed that Cheng had been part of its preproduction team but denied that he was ever attached as a screenwriter. According to the production, Cheng left the project without notice three months into filming and didn’t contribute afterward. That statement also broadly claimed Cheng’s posts contained defamatory or distorted information and that his audio recordings were unverified, illegally recorded, and edited, saying relevant parties had taken legal action. Following the release of that statement, Shanghai-based state outlet The Paper reported that Cheng’s WeChat account, where he’d shared many of his posts, had been taken down for suspected guideline violations. (It’s worth noting that Blossoms Shanghai aired on streaming service Tencent Video, which is owned by the same parent company as WeChat.)
Meanwhile, Qin announced in a September 20 Weibo statement that she had engaged a lawyer to file litigation against those who had recently published, distorted, or spread “defamatory” information about her, including claims related to Blossoms Shanghai’s screenwriting credits. On November 11, the Shanghai Municipal Public Security Bureau formally denied that Qin had leveraged personal connections to secure her release after assaulting a police officer. According to the statement, Shanghai police conducted a review into the 2019 incident and concluded that Qin’s release was handled in accordance with the law and the nature of the offense. (The police asserted that Qin had patted an officer on the back after a traffic violation and said that although she and a friend were taken to a station and fined for said violation, a penalty for the pat wasn’t deemed necessary.) The statement also quoted Qin, who said she’d been joking about her connections while drinking with friends. She alleged that the recording had been taken without her knowledge and edited.
While this scandal has yet to gain significant traction outside of China, some international cinephiles are concerned that Wong’s future filmmaking prospects will be limited if Chinese audiences — or Chinese authorities — permanently turn on him. World of Reel’s Jordan Ruimy, for example, suggested that Wong’s alleged critical comments about the Chinese government are “enough to end a filmmaker’s mainland career,” even before factoring in the other accusations that have upset Chinese fans. “Wong Kar Wai’s work is deeply rooted in the culture and atmosphere of old Hong Kong and China,” a Reddit user wrote earlier in November. “If Wong gets shut out of the industry in China, I’m worried this could be the end of his career.”
Depends who you’re asking. As Cheng’s claims about workplace exploitation and bullying circulated, some pointed out that Wong already had a track record of being called difficult to work with. For example, Leslie Cheung, who was bitten by a scorpion during the famously long and taxing desert shoot for Wong’s Ashes of Time, described Wong as a “very talented” but “very selfish director” who “always goes over budget and over schedule” and “never really has a plan” to the Los Angeles Times in 1997. Korean actress Song Hye-kyo has claimed that Wong asked his team to take her passport and hide it because he sensed that she wanted to return to Korea after spending long stretches in her hotel room waiting to film scenes for The Grandmaster. She ultimately had a brief appearance despite the project becoming a three-year commitment. “Wong Kar-wai has long been known for procrastination, perfectionism, and ‘torturing actors, but the stakes of this reputation now feel different,” Ruixin Zhang of Eye on Digital Media wrote in October.
So far, the North American rollout of the show seems unaffected by the headlines and social-media discourse happening overseas. The first three episodes of Blossoms Shanghai premiered on the Criterion Channel on November 24 as scheduled, and a new episode is set to drop every Monday at 8 p.m. ET until January 26.
