《监狱来的妈妈》翻车：一场关于"洗白"的讨论

On Weibo, Wang Han

posted an apology.

Who is Wang Han?

If you've watched Chinese TV,

you've definitely heard of him.

Day Day Up, Happy Camp, I Am a Singer —

several of Hunan TV's most important variety shows of the past 20 years

can't be separated from him.

Many people call him "the host of the nation."

But on this day,

he was apologizing.

The thing he was apologizing for

is called "Mother From Prison."

It's a movie.

The director is named Qin Xiaoyu.

It was originally going to release on May 30.

The movie is adapted from a true story.

The lead actress is the real person of that true story —

Zhao Xiaohong.

Zhao Xiaohong

is, in fact, a killer.

Let's start from the beginning.

The night of April 16, 2009,

Shaanxi.

Zhao Xiaohong and her husband Zhang Bo

got into an argument over a small household matter.

How small?

The court verdict wrote it down:

"propping up the bed."

A matter of how to set the bed up properly.

In the middle of the argument,

Zhao Xiaohong went to the living room,

got a fruit knife,

returned to the bedroom,

and stabbed her husband once in the chest.

That single stab

pierced his aorta.

Zhang Bo died on the spot.

The Shaanxi High People's Court later determined:

Zhao Xiaohong committed intentional injury (causing death).

Sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment.

Deprivation of political rights for 5 years.

15 years is the maximum sentence this crime can carry.

We call it "the maximum sentence."

Note this:

in the court's findings,

there are no words "domestic violence."

Nor "long-term abuse."

No "resistance" or "self-defense."

What the court found

was a single act of intentional injury — losing control over a trivial matter.

Zhao Xiaohong served 15 years.

She was released around 2024.

If the story ended here,

it would be an ordinary criminal case.

But a director

found her.

Qin Xiaoyu.

An independent film director.

He'd made a few documentaries before.

Qin Xiaoyu decided

to turn Zhao Xiaohong's story into a movie.

And to have Zhao Xiaohong

play herself.

The movie started filming in 2019.

Note —

at that time Zhao Xiaohong was still in prison.

The director himself later said so in an interview.

The film crew went into the prison to shoot.

This in itself is a legal problem.

Chinese law provides

that a person deprived of political rights,

during the deprivation period,

cannot take part in "publishing, public speaking, assembly" and similar activities.

Film performance and promotion

are generally counted within this scope.

But let's set the procedural issue aside.

The bigger problem

is that the story this movie tells

and the court's verdict

are two completely different stories.

The movie's promotion says:

"She is a wife who was abused for years.

"That night she could bear it no longer,

"and in resisting, lost control.

"She served 15 years in prison.

"After release,

"she wants to return to her son and mother-in-law.

"She wants to be forgiven.

It sounds

like a story that makes you want to cry.

But in the verdict,

there is not a single mention of domestic violence.

Not a single mention of long-term abuse.

Not a single mention of self-defense.

In the verdict there is only:

one small household matter,

one fruit knife,

one stab,

one dead husband.

And a wife given the maximum sentence.

That is to say,

the movie is "adapted from a true story" —

but it wrote in, out of nothing,

things that weren't in that true story.

More precisely:

the movie erased what she actually did,

then invented a reason for her that means she shouldn't have done it.

Chinese netizens call this "whitewashing."

In early May,

the movie began large-scale promotion.

Yao Chen recommended this movie on Weibo.

Later she deleted that post,

and apologized.

In mid-May,

a lawyer dug out the verdict,

and put it side by side with the movie's promotion.

Netizens exploded.

The boycott spread from Weibo and Douban,

all the way to Bilibili, Xiaohongshu, and Douyin.

People said:

"Beautifying crime.

"Turning black into white.

"Using a victim's death to sell tickets.

"Using the topic of 'domestic violence' to scam sympathy.

Note one thing:

Chinese society

genuinely has a consensus about domestic violence.

Many women truly have suffered in domestic violence.

There are real cases of women jailed for resisting abuse.

Precisely because that consensus is real,

using "domestic violence" as a false cloak

makes people especially angry.

On May 19,

China Central Television stepped in to review it.

This is a clear official signal:

this movie has a problem.

On May 20,

the production side announced the film was pulled.

That means it won't be shown.

Zhao Xiaohong's social media account

was shut down by the platform.

Also late at night on May 20,

Wang Han posted his apology.

In his apology Wang Han said three things:

One,

"I deeply apologize for failing to seriously review the project's background and content.

Meaning:

I didn't do my homework as a producer.

Two,

"I did not take part in investing in this film.

Meaning:

I wasn't actually putting money into this project,

I just lent my name.

Three,

"I have cut off all contact with the production team,

"and the production has removed my credit.

Meaning:

please erase my name from this.

It sounds like all three things are made clear.

But netizens still aren't buying it.

Why?

First,

Wang Han and Qin Xiaoyu have collaborated several times before.

They aren't strangers.

Saying you never looked carefully

doesn't quite hold up.

Second,

as a producer,

your name itself is a credibility endorsement for this movie.

Your "host of the nation" halo —

how many people did it make willing to trust this movie?

Now that something's gone wrong,

saying "I didn't look closely"

can responsibility really be brushed off that cleanly?

Third,

in recent years the Chinese public has seen too many

celebrity-endorsement "crash" cases.

Endorsing fake diet pills,

endorsing unscrupulous hospitals,

endorsing investment scams.

Every time something goes wrong,

the celebrity says "I didn't know,"

"I was deceived too."

The public is tired of hearing it.

For Wang Han this time,

the biggest danger isn't the movie itself.

It's that this cycle of "lend your name → it blows up → apologize → move on"

makes everyone feel

that the identity of "host of the nation"

has become not so clean either.

But,

we should also say something fair for Wang Han.

He isn't the director.

He didn't write the script.

He didn't alter the verdict.

He really didn't take part in the investment.

And,

on the very same day he was attacked,

he posted a clear apology,

and had the production remove his credit.

From a PR standpoint,

this response counts as fast,

and clean.

So,

what's the meaning of all this?

I think it's this:

a movie is a special kind of product.

It tells the audience:

"This is a true story.

"This is what happened.

When the audience believes that sentence,

they hand their emotions to the people on the screen.

But if the words "true story" are fake,

then those emotions

have been deceived.

Zhao Xiaohong can live on.

Zhao Xiaohong can slowly rejoin society after prison.

Zhao Xiaohong can even write an autobiography.

But you cannot take a real murder case that actually happened,

repackage it,

tell it as a warm story of resisting domestic violence,

and then have the audience cry for her.

The dead man is still there.

The verdict is still there.

The truth is still there.

Finally,

I want to ask you a question:

If one day,

someone wants to take a story you don't like,

make it into a beautiful movie,

and tell everyone "this is real" —

what would you do?

Think about it.

Okay.

That's all for today.

Talk tomorrow.