Recently, the popular iQiyi drama “Bleach”, starring mainland Chinese actors Guo Jingfei, Wang Qianyuan, and actress Zhao Jinmai, has become embroiled in a plagiarism controversy, sparking discussions among viewers and the media.
On January 20th, former reporter Wang Meng of Southern Metropolis Daily published an article on his WeChat public account titled “iQiyi’s ‘Bleach’ Whitewashes Southern Metropolis Daily’s ‘Bleach'”, accusing iQiyi’s online video platform of plagiarizing his in-depth investigative report “Bleach”, which he published in Southern Metropolis Daily in 2012.
Wang Meng stated that the television drama production team did not contact him or Southern Metropolis Daily before creating the series, and promotional materials did not credit the original work. He claimed that the title “Bleach” was from Southern Metropolis Daily’s editorial team, and he, as a reporter at the time, spent over two months interviewing nearly a hundred people to fully reconstruct the process of four fugitives being “bleached”.
According to Jiemian News, the executive producer of “Bleach,” Ms. Ma, responded to Wang Meng’s allegations, stating that the series was adapted from the novel “Bleach” by Chen Ping, published by a writer’s publisher, with complete copyright rights. However, they are actively handling and communicating about this matter.
Public information reveals that the TV series “Bleach” is based on the novel of the same name by Chen Ping, who is also the screenwriter for the series. The drama follows Police Chief Peng Zhaolin, who embarks on a thousand-mile journey to catch a suspect he missed, consumed by self-blame. On the other hand, the news investigation report “Bleach” related to the “Yang Shubin case” was written by Wang Meng.
On the evening of January 20th, screenwriter Chen Ping responded on her personal social media account, stating that in 2016, she was invited to create a movie script based on the “Yang Shubin gang 911 murder and dismemberment case,” which she later adapted into a novel. She mentioned that the core concept of “Bleach” came from the term “identity whitewashing” heard during interviews with case handlers, with evidence to support her original work and advocating for a legal resolution.
However, Wang Meng remains unconvinced. On January 21st, he accused screenwriter Chen Ping of alleged plagiarism. He highlighted seven parts of Chen Ping’s novel “Bleach,” with the core chapters being the fourth and fifth parts, which he claimed “heavily plagiarized Southern Metropolis Daily’s reports,” known in the industry as “copying drafts,” with some statements even being identical.
Wang Meng provided 17 examples where the novel allegedly replicated phrases, such as using the headline “The end returns to the beginning” previously used in Southern Metropolis Daily. He argued that original descriptive elements like “Four drops of water merge into the sea” were copied, changing phrases from “The machine is broken, can’t pay” to “The machine is broken, can’t charge,” and even leaving typographical errors unchanged.
Moreover, Wang Meng believed that exclusive details he provided were also “copied.” For instance, details sourced from interviews he conducted with neighbors of the criminal area in Baotou and Yang Shubin’s nephew, verified by the neighborhood security, were considered his exclusive material absent in police records.
This incident is not the first time iQiyi has been involved in such controversies. In 2021, the iQiyi web series “Northbound and Southbound,” directed by Feng Xiaogang and written by Chen Ping, faced criticism from a social media figure “Ge Thirteen” for significantly overlapping dialogue and key phrases with their work “Incredible Middle-aged Women,” ignored by the production and Chen Ping at the time.
Unlike many past copyright disputes in the film and television industry, the focus of this dispute lies in how to define plagiarism and intellectual property rights between an adaptation of a real-life news report and an original TV drama based on real events.
Beijing lawyer Mi Xinlei told Jiemian News that simple facts themselves do not have copyright, but if news reports express enough originality, they are protected by copyright. Wang Meng’s article “Bleach” not only details the case but also presents his own creative expressions, making it a work protected by copyright law.
“Bleach” is co-produced by Beijing iQiyi Technology Co., Ltd., Jiangsu Straw Bear Film Co., Ltd., Nanjing Good Friends Film Co., Ltd., Shanghai Shoot Better Film Co., Ltd., directed by Cao Kai, and starring Guo Jingfei, Wang Qianyuan, and Zhao Jinmai. The drama premiered on iQiyi on January 17, 2025.
As of now, the involved parties have not resorted to legal action to resolve the issue. iQiyi, as the platform provider, has not publicly responded to the allegations of plagiarism regarding “Bleach.”