Hidden Love’s Chen Zheyuan joins When Life Gives You Tangerines’ ‘Kim Seon Ho smile challenge’ with fellow C-drama stars

C-drama celebs hop on When Life Gives You Tangerines trend 

Chen Zheyuan, who shot to global fame for playing Duan Jiaxu in Netflix’s beloved C-drama Hidden Love alongside Zhao Lusi, is the latest to join the trend. Earlier, celebs like Xu Ruohan, Bai Lu, Maxky, Lin Ziye, Liu Nian, Zhou Rui, Yang Chaoyue, Fan Zhixin, and others also took on the challenge. Celebs, influencers, and fans are recreating the iconic smitten smile, wink, and head tilt with eyes closed—just like Kim Seon Ho. While globally, the challenge is mostly set to Shaggy’s Boombastic, in China, it often uses the popular Meteor Garden track Ai Cun Zai. Despite Netflix being banned in China, When Life Gives You Tangerines has seen remarkable success in the country. According to South Korean media outlet Chosun Biz, it debuted on China’s review platform Douban with nearly 30,000 reviews.

In the 13th episode of When Life Gives You Tangerines, we see Kim Seon Ho’s character, Park Chang Seob, getting married to Ae Sun and Gwan Sik’s daughter, Geum Myeong. The couple arrives at one of Jeju’s wedding halls, where Gwan Sik appears concerned—but quickly melts away after witnessing the sweet exchange between Park and his daughter. When Geum Myeong enters the hall wearing her bridal dress, she steals a glance at her groom, who looks back at her, completely smitten and dramatically tilts his head in awe. And that’s exactly the scene that sparked the now-viral smile challenge.

Also read: When Life Gives You Tangerines hit with illegal streaming surge in China amid Netflix and Hallyu ban

Other Chinese celebrities who joined the smile challenge include Zhai Zilu, Jeno and Jisung from NCT Dream, Shen Yu Jie, Zhou Yutong, and Yang Mie Mie. Stars like Chen Feiyu, Xu Yiyang, Zhuang Dafei, and Cai Guoqing also took part, along with Yan An, Huang Yu Bo, Shen Tai, Lil Ghost, Fang Xiaodong, and Yu Long, according to SK pop.

However, multiple Chinese media reports point out a deeper issue behind the show’s viral success: much of its popularity in China comes from unauthorised access. With no official distribution rights, people are sharing the pirated version across the country. According to KBIZoom, what’s more troubling is that viral clips are now being used to boost tourism, turning this unlicensed streaming into a marketing tool.