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| Fans Spot Striking Similarities Between Chen Zheyuan and The First Frost’s Wen Yifan (Weibo/Sohu) |
In Hidden Love, Duan Jiaxu’s world crumbles while he’s still in his teens: his father ends up killing someone in a drink-driving crash, only to slip into a coma while trying to dodge responsibility.
Then his mother passes away from illness, leaving Duan orphaned, burdened with a criminal’s reputation, and drowning in debt while he struggles through uni on his own. Chen Zhe Yuan’s honest, moving performance hit audiences right in the heart — and won him a legion of new fans.
But after folks picked up the novel The First Frost and clocked its drama adaptation, some reckon Chen ZheYuan’s personal background is far closer to that story’s heroine, Wen Yifan, than anyone realised.
Wen Yifan’s life is a string of gut-wrenching misfortunes: her dad dies while she’s still at school, she’s bounced around different relatives’ homes, and one of her aunt’s younger brothers tries to assault her. In her desperate escape, she falls from a balcony, destroying her dream of becoming a ballerina.
On top of it all, her mum takes her stepfather’s side rather than defending her. With no one to properly protect or love her, Wen Yifan grows up guarded, wounded, and deeply mistrustful of the world.
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It’s not hard to see why Chen Zheyuan’s own story feels eerily similar. Back in 2024 on Travel Any Door, when chatting with Guli Nazha, he casually mentioned that he had two younger sisters from his dad’s second marriage — siblings who only came along while Chen Zheyuan was still in high school and uni.
That throwaway comment sent viewers straight into a deep-dive on Chen Zheyuan’s background. Born in Shenzhen in 1996, with a Chaoshan dad and a mum from Hubei, he was shuttled off to live with his grandparents in rural Hubei after his parents split while he was still tiny. Like so many so-called “left-behind” children in China, he grew up without either parent truly by his side.
He’s spoken quite plainly about it before. “If I had to describe my childhood, I was a chubby little boy,” he once laughed, though he admitted there was precious little joy in those years.
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Beneath the jokes, Chen Zheyuan opened up about being painfully shy and anxious: “I was quite timid, honestly.” He reckoned children raised by grandparents often turned out more withdrawn, lacking confidence and stability.
He even admitted that looking back on that time made him feel genuinely sorry for his younger self: “Teenage years are confusing for anyone, but for a child with low self-esteem, it’s even easier to be led down a negative path.”
That aching gap in his family went especially deep with his dad. In one heartbreakingly honest moment, Chen Zheyuan shared, “I’m not the type of person who really needs a father’s affection.”
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Even before his two younger sisters were born, he never felt close to his dad — and once his father started a new family, Chen Zheyuan confessed he couldn’t understand it at all.
“It felt like he had completely given up on me,” he admitted.
Possibly the most gut-punching revelation was about a moment when his dad once told him “I love you too” — and Chen Zheyuan, taken aback, could only answer, “Really?” That one awkward, hesitant word summed up a lifetime of wounds that hadn’t quite healed.
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He’s also shared that their relationship today is still distant and stilted. On a talk show, he described how once he greeted his father warmly, only to get a cold, polite “Thank you” back — a far cry from the affectionate bond most sons crave. Little is known about his mother’s situation nowadays, but Chen’s relationship with her doesn’t seem much closer either.
Considering all that, it’s no wonder fans reckon Wen Yifan, scarred by neglect, forced to grow up too soon, and wary of trusting others, might mirror Chen Zheyuan’s own scars more accurately than Duan Jiaxu ever could.
His acting resonates because, perhaps, he isn’t purely acting at all — he’s drawing straight from the raw, painful pages of his own life.
Pics: Weibo