On November 17, 2024, the winners of the 37th Golden Rooster Awards in mainland China were announced. 24-year-old actress Li Gengxi won Best Actress for her performance in “We Dance with the Sun.” However, during the award ceremony, there were shouts of “fraud” from the audience, and discussions about the award being out of line and favoring certain individuals also became a hot topic.
“We Dance with the Sun” tells the story of Li Gengxi’s character Ling Min, a patient with uremia who suffers greatly from undergoing long-term dialysis. In the film, she posts a message in a tumor patients’ group, expressing her willingness to marry anyone who donates their kidney to her after their passing, promising to take care of their family. The male lead, Lu Tu (played by Peng Yuchang), is a brain tumor patient who could deteriorate rapidly at any moment. His biggest worry is leaving his mother without anyone to care for her. Upon seeing Ling Min’s message, the two decide to support each other through their struggles and develop feelings for each other.
The announcement of the award winners caused dissatisfaction among netizens, particularly due to the omission of some seasoned actors, with some claiming it to be the year with the most “lost gems” in the history of the Golden Rooster Awards.
Li Gengxi, who won Best Actress, is a post-2000 generation artist with only 6 years of experience in the industry and at the age of 24, she is the youngest recipient of the Best Actress award at the Golden Rooster Awards. Despite the judges’ commendation for her portrayal of the characters’ pain, resilience, struggle, and hope with vivid and nuanced expressions, demonstrating a young actress’s sharpness and maturity in her performance, there were audience members shouting “fraud” when the award was announced.
Furthermore, social media platforms exploded with discussions about the award being unfair, having too much hype, and favoring influential individuals. Keywords like “Golden Rooster Awards are out of line,” “Golden Rooster Awards are watered down,” and “resources favor” trended on Weibo. Some online users even wrote poems criticizing the situation, saying “Golden Rooster lacks power, hundred flowers wither, water overflowing, golden eagle carving a jade magnolia,” expressing disappointment in the winning results and the state of Chinese cinema.
Li Gengxi, born in 2000, was discovered and trained by Xu Jinglei in 2016 and signed with the “Blooming Flowers Film Industry” as an artist in 2017. She has appeared in TV dramas such as “Little Joy,” “Twenty and Confused,” “Swords of Legends,” and “The Long Season,” gradually gaining popularity in the industry.