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.