The sudden death of 37-year-old Chinese actor Yu Menglong, who reportedly fell from a high-rise in Beijing on Sept. 11, has shocked the entertainment industry and the public at home and abroad. While police concluded the case was an accidental fall under the influence of alcohol, widespread skepticism persists — many believe the truth behind his death may be far more complex.
According to reports, actress Yang Mi, who once co-starred with Yu in the hit drama Eternal Love (Three Lives, Three Worlds, Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms), had previously tried to sign him to her own talent agency. However, Yu’s management company, Tianyu Media, repeatedly refused to release him from his contract, imposing strict clauses that left him professionally trapped — a move some say ultimately doomed his career.
Yu’s death occurred in the early hours of Sept. 11 at Beijing’s Sunshine Upper East residential complex. Following the news, Yang Mi mourned him on Weibo, writing: “Fourth Brother, may you rest peacefully in another world.”
Yang Mi, who founded her own studio Jiaxing Media, was reportedly eager years ago to bring Yu on board, planning to groom him alongside rising stars like Dilraba Dilmurat and Zhang Binbin. Yang was known for her firm stance against the entertainment industry’s dark culture — insisting her artists should avoid “banquets and backroom deals.” Many fans now lament that if Yu had joined Jiaxing, he might have avoided being sidelined after refusing to play by the industry’s unspoken rules.
An entertainment columnist writing under the name “Daily Hotspot Highlights” on Sohu.com revealed that after Eternal Love became a massive success in 2017, Yang Mi’s team made an aggressive push to recruit Yu. They offered generous terms and even flew to Beijing, ready to sign him once his contract expired. Yet Tianyu Media, Yu’s agency, stonewalled the effort with a single response: “Wait.”
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Yang Mi’s team tried to negotiate through intermediaries, even proposing a higher revenue share and top-tier acting opportunities. But Tianyu refused, allegedly invoking a “priority renewal clause” buried in Yu’s original 2013 contract — effectively binding him to the company. One blogger, “Lun Xiaoyu”, claimed on Tencent News that Tianyu even rushed to renew Yu’s contract after Eternal Love aired, scheduling his projects through 2023.
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State ties and a silenced star
Reports also allege that in 2018, Tianyu assigned Yu to star in The Love Lasts Two Minds, during which he suffered broken ribs on set — yet the company did little to promote the show or allow him media exposure.
Public records show Tianyu Media, established in 2004 in Shanghai, is China’s only state-owned talent management agency, operating under Mango Media, which is part of the Hunan Broadcasting System — a major state-run media group with strong political affiliations.
Industry insiders note that because of Tianyu’s official background, even major private studios like Yang Mi’s have little power to “poach” its artists. This revelation has stirred alarm online, with many netizens speculating that Tianyu never intended to give Yu Menglong creative or contractual freedom — and that his tragic death may have deeper roots than a simple “accident.”
According to a report by Hong Kong 01, Chinese actor Yu Menglong’s once-promising career took a sharp downturn after he was allegedly blacklisted by his management company. In 2020, Yu reportedly refused “inappropriate demands” made by a female producer or investor, prompting his agency to deliberately freeze his career. For nearly three years, he had almost no new projects released.
Yu made a brief comeback in 2024 with the fantasy series Eternal Star River, which rekindled public interest in him. At the time of his death, the drama had not yet aired, while his other project The Long Night Walk had just wrapped up filming in June. Tragically, Yu was scheduled to appear on a CCTV live broadcast the very next day after his death — a fact that many fans found haunting.
Online discussions have since exploded with speculation surrounding the actor’s final hours. Multiple unverified accounts claim that on the night of Yu’s death, he attended a private gathering of 17 people, including director Cheng Qingsong, producer Fang Li, screenwriter Ji Guangguang, several actors identified as Gao and Song, as well as Yu’s own agent and assistant. Among those allegedly present was Xin Qi, rumored to be the illegitimate son of senior Chinese Communist Party official Cai Qi — and, according to these claims, a powerful figure behind Tianyu Media, Yu’s management company.
Further online rumors — which remain unconfirmed — allege that Yu may have possessed incriminating evidence related to criminal activities within the entertainment network, and that he was placed under soft detention and transferred across several locations before his death, which some suspect involved brutal foul play.
By XiaoKui Li
