Zhang Yi: From a poor boy, disparaged as a "hungry monkey" to a rating king

Zhang Yi is considered a powerful actor of the Chinese-language screen. For Vietnamese audiences, Zhang Yi is not exactly a familiar name, but in China, he is the face of TV drama ratings.

Zhang Yi is an actor who is highly appreciated for his powerful acting and has a private life, his whole career is almost scandal-free. Not only television, he also bagged many big winning movies outside the box office such as Home coming, Red Sea Agent, My Beloved, ...

With outstanding ability, Zhang Yi became the 4th "Emperor of the Three Greats" (i.e. the winner of all 3 prestigious television awards Fei Tian, Bai Yulan, Jin Ying) of China after Wang Zhiwen, Zhang Guolap and Sun Honglei.

Zhang Yi (born 1978), whose family was poor, never thought of letting his children pursue art. However, Zhang Yi was fascinated with acting since childhood, and it took a lot of hard work for him to be exposed to the profession. After dropping out of college, he ran away from home to Beijing to audition for actors everywhere, at all stations, large and small. But everywhere he went, he was rejected, not chosen to act. According to page 163, a director after seeing his appearance immediately told him to stop casting and send him back, because he looked like a "black hungry monkey" who should only go home and farm.

At this time, Zhang Yi's first love girlfriend was always by his side, encouraging and supporting him to go on tour. After a long time, Zhang Yi was accepted into the military troupe, but he was often laughed at and bullied by his co-stars because of his ugly appearance. Although he loves acting, when he goes on stage, pressure from many sides makes him constantly forget his lines and do not do well. However, his girlfriend is still with him and shares, comforts, is a solid back for the actor to rise even though she is forbidden by her parents to fall in love.

By 2004, Zhang Yi's acting career seemed to improve, starting to have his first screen roles. However, at this time, the news of a "lightning strike" struck Zhang Yi: his girlfriend was critically ill because of the accident. According to page 163, Zhang Yi spent the next 10 years going back and forth, going to the hospital to visit his girlfriend who was living vegetatively, hoping for a miracle. But the miracle didn't happen, and she passed away in 2014.

When Zhang Yi won his first prize, Jin Ke 2015, he was giving a speech when a butterfly landed on his tie. Many netizens felt touched, wondering if it was the embodiment of the deceased first love, now returning to congratulate the talented boy named Zhang Yi.

The incident in 2004 dealt a painful blow to Zhang Yi's psyche, but also a great motivation for him to plunge headlong into acting. 2006 was the time when he first learned that he was famous for playing a project on the topic of military service with Wang Bao Cuong, Tran Tu Thanh ... Later, Zhang Yi scored points with many film and drama projects, but only when participating in the movie Dear Son, Zhang Yi officially became widely famous, also won the Golden Ke Award. At the same time, he became Emperor Bai Yulan and Jin Ying thanks to the film Feathers Fly into the Sky, a step into stardom.

Currently, Zhang Yi has become a leading actor on the Chinese screen, as well as a rating guarantor of many works, most recently Hurricane Feng and Who He Is. He also won many times the Golden Millet Emperor, Bach Hua ... thanks to the male lead role in Above the Cliff by Zhang Yimu. The film is set in 1930 about the battle of a squad of 4 commandos. They were trained in the Soviet Union, returning to their homeland on a secret mission.

Actor Truong Yi said that his career turned the page after having a fateful meeting with director Truong Yimu. He was invited by him to take on the main role in the film. "At the age of 10, I watched director Truong Yimou's "Red Sorghum" and unexpectedly at the age of 40, I would be able to participate in his film project. This award I received is largely thanks to the dedicated support and guidance of the director. A word of gratitude that I wish to send to Zhang Yimu," Zhang Yi said.

The film "Above the cliff" also received 2 other awards including "Best Director" (Zhang Yimu) and "Best Cinematography" (Zhao Xiaoding).

In 2018, the film "Red Sea Action" starring Zhang Yi achieved a large gross in Asian cinemas. In addition, Zhang Yi was honored as "Best Actor" in the 2018 Golden Falcon Awards system with the drama "Ke Mao Fei Shangtian".

The Golden Millet Award is likened to the "Oscar of Chinese-language cinema". This is also the most prestigious award of the Chinese entertainment industry, besides the Golden Statue Award (Hong Kong) and Golden Horse (Taiwan).

In early 2023, the film with the main starring Dam Tung Yun is of particular interest to the people. It was thought that she and her film would top the prestigious charts, but in fact, actor Zhang Yi was the name that was most interested at that time.

On Vlinkage, Zhang Yi continuously topped the character index while his drama "Who He Is" also topped the drama rankings. In second place of both these rankings is Dam Tung Van and Quy Highway.

On the other hand, at present, Zhang Yi is having a happy family life with Tien Linlin - the beautiful female MC of CCTV. The two came together naturally, not because the other had a past, but ignored each other (because Tien Linlin also divorced her husband and had a son).