Recently, the news that “Yundo sued her former mentor Daolang five times over song copyright” has been making waves in mainland China. In response to this, senior media figure Du Enhu released a statement on the evening of the 25th, stating that the news is “purely fabricated false news.” While Yundo’s innocence has been defended, the road to restoring her reputation remains challenging. Some businesses have immediately removed the products she endorsed in their live broadcasts, and even a star-studded concert directly removed her from the lineup.
Renowned singer Daolang (real name Luo Lin), who gained fame again last year with the song “Raksasa Hai Shi,” had a widely known duo with his disciple Yundo over a decade ago. However, Daolang’s current copyright company recently announced that the management contract signed with Yundo on May 5, 2010, was “mutually terminated in a friendly manner on July 1, 2014.” Furthermore, Daolang stated that the copyrights for Yundo’s offline performances of the songs “Love is You and Me,” “My Loulan,” “Four Seas Love Song,” and “Yundo” will expire at the end of this year, while Yundo can sing the song “Stubborn” until April 9, 2044.
Daolang’s announcement of the contract termination with Yundo ten years ago has sparked significant public attention. Despite the long history of their contract termination, Daolang had never previously mentioned it in the past decade. Back when Daolang took Yundo as his disciple, he personally tailored several songs for her, including the aforementioned four songs, which made Yundo hugely popular. Daolang, who comes from a grassroots background, faced exclusion from the Chinese entertainment circle in 2014 and has since withdrawn from the scene. Insiders revealed that the year of Daolang and Yundo’s contract termination in 2014 was during “Daolao’s lowest point,” and at that time, when Yundo left, she joined another management company.
This year, Daolang embarked on a tour in mainland China, starting from Chengdu and attracting full-house audiences in Guangzhou, Nanjing, and beyond. However, some netizens noticed that Yundo, who had always referred to Daolang as “Teacher Daolang,” did not perform as a guest singer at Daolang’s concerts and did not endorse him on social media. This caused confusion and dissatisfaction among many of Daolang’s fans.
At the same time, Daolang’s company officially announced that the contract with Yundo had been terminated ten years ago. While many netizens expressed pity for this mentor-disciple relationship, the topic of “Yundo suing her mentor Daolang five times over song copyright” became a hot search, triggering a wave of questioning on Chinese social media, with many speculating, “Is Yundo really turning ungrateful?”
On the evening of October 25, senior media figure Du Enhu clearly stated that the news of “Yundo suing her mentor Daolang five times over song copyright” is “purely fabricated false news.” To verify the authenticity of the facts, Du Enhu claimed to have checked recent court judgments online and found no documents of Yundo suing Daolang. Additionally, several fans of Daolang and Yundo have stated that they have never heard of any legal disputes between the two.
Despite the media clearing Yundo’s name, her reputation continues to plummet. Even though Yundo quietly watched Daolang’s concert in Nanjing and expressed admiration for her master in a post, even going as far as kneeling in reverence during her own Kunshan concert and declaring, “I will forever be grateful to my master and mistress,” it seems to have not appeased Daolang’s fans. In fact, from October 17 to 26, Yundo’s short video account lost 200,000 followers within ten days.
Affected by negative rumors, Yundo appears to have been abandoned by brand partners. In addition to a certain white liquor brand she endorsed being immediately removed from live broadcasts, it was surprising that a video promoting her commercial performance in Huanggang, Hubei on October 27 was excluded by the organizers shortly after.
After Yundo’s promotional video was released, the official account of “Huanggang Observations” removed Yundo’s name from the performance lineup, only retaining her image in the promotional material. On the evening of October 26, in the latest event announcement by “Huanggang Tourism,” Yundo’s name quietly disappeared, and even her personal image was removed from the promotional material. Subsequently, the organizers of a star-studded concert sponsored by a white liquor brand announced on social media: “Due to certain factors, changes have been made to the list of participating singers. Yundo was simultaneously removed by three parties, evoking deep sighs of regret.”