Born: May 11, 1991 | Hometown: Jianagxi, Xinyu | Alma mater: Shanghai Theatre Academy | Height: 181cm
Career: In 2010, Zhang made debut in acting with the romance drama Why Love You. Soon after, he became an actor in Yu Zheng's studio. He played the leading role in comedy web series Crazy for Palace and its sequel. In the years after, Zhang played the supporting role in multiple ancient dramas made by Yu Zheng including Palace 3: The Lost Daughter, The Romance of the Condor Heroes, and Love Yunge from the Desert. In 2014, he gained some recognition in playing the antagonist role in Cosmetology High. In the same year, he portrayed the role of young Lin Shu (Mei Changsu) in the highly acclaimed historical drama Nirvana in Fire. In 2015, Zhang played the leading male role in the historical drama Legend of Ban Shu. In the same year he played in spy drama Decoded and both seasons of fantasy series Demon Girl. In 2018, Zhang played the leading male role in Legend of Yunxi with Ju Jingyi. The series got many praises and recognition. In 2019, he played a supporting character in the movie The Bravest. In the same year, he went on reality show Actors Please Take Your Place. He worked with Wang Sen and put on a short film Brother, which earned him the award of Most Recognized Actor by Audience. In 2020, Zhang played in a modern drama series produced by Zhao Wei Everybody Wants to Meet You, as well as historical drama series The Blooms at Ruyi Pavilion alongside with JuJingyi. In 2021, Zhang and Gong Jun starred in ancient drama series Word of Honor, which aired in China at the end of February. His role of Zhou Zisou made him almost an overnight sensation in China. Word of Honor became the most watched show in China in the first half of 2021. Word of Honor also gained international popularity as it was was aired in Korea and Japan in April 2021, and became available on Netflix in May 2021. Zhang is a well known basketball star in the Chinese entertainment field. In 2015, he participated in variety show Lets Go! Dream Team Season 2. In 2016, he participated in Amazing Race China and got praises from Olympic Champion Liu Xiang who recommended him to participate in the variety show Beat the Champions in 2017. Also in 2017, he participated in the Tencent Star Basketball Competition, achieved 34 points and was awarded the Most Valuable Player of the game. Afterwards he went with Tencent to record the basketball based variety show Please Advise If I Can't Play Well. He also became the first Chinese whos was invited by NBA to an Opener Game and acted as a guest host。
Controversies: On the early morning of August 13, 2021, photos surfaced online of Zhang posing in front of cherry blossom trees at Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine premise in March 2018 as well as attending a wedding held at Nogi Shrine in 2019. Yasukuni Shrine is a controversial place that honors many Japanese class A war criminals from Second Ward World with China. Nogi Shrine honors a military officer also involved in invasion of China in the 1930s. It is also a extremely popular wedding venue in Japan. At the same time, other photos about Zhang continue to be leaked online including a modified car with a Rising Sun Flag emblem, though he did previously delete and apologized in 2018 after being told inappropriate, a photo of Mermaid Statue in YinChuan where Zhang was posing holding its nipples, a photo of Zhang sitting on the tombstone of ancient character Su Xiaoxiao, and a supposed 2018 Oct 1st instagram post of Zhang where he was posting pictures of himself in Japan and used the hashtag #Chaina. These pictures caused an uproar on social media platform Weibo (Chinese version of Twitter). Very soon after, Zhang issued an apology letter stating that he is ashamed of his once ignorant self, lack of research and misconduct. He was deeply apologetic for hurting Chinese people's feelings. He emphasized that he is not pro-Japan, he loves his motherland and he is proud to be a Chinese citizen. He acknowledges that as a public figure, he should always keep in mind the suffering of Chinese people throughout history. He vows to learn more about history and culture in the future in order to enrich himself and allow him to be a better actor. However, the Chinese society did not accept the issued apology. In response, Chinese News agency People's Daily stated : this apology is a bill for your own ignorance and plea for understanding from fellow Chinese citizens. But as a public figure, a lack of historical knowledge and suffering of the nation is absolutely unacceptable. If it was done on purpose, there must be a heavy price to pay. Almost immediately, all 26 of his commercial endorsements ended their contracts with him. All variety shows and TV series cut ties with him. The China Association of Performing Arts (CAPA), an NGO made up of voluntary members from the performance arts community, called for entertainment boycott on Zhang. On Aug ust14, Weibo blocked posting abilities from his personal and studio accounts. On August 15, his personal and studio Weibo accounts are shut down, as well as his Super Topic group. On August 16, QQ Music and Netease Music removed his songs. On August 21, all Chinese video streaming platforms including Bilibili, Youku, LeTV, iQiyi, Tencent, MangoTV etc voluntarily removed all of his work. Soon after, truths about Zhang Zhehan appeared on the internet. It turned out all the information released about him during Aug 13 to 15 were pure rumors initiated by competitors. Details about the event are listed in the 2021-8-13 Events and 2021-8-13 Truth pages on this website.