Hao Jingfang
郝景芳 Hao Jingfang is a Hugo Award-winning science fiction writer. In 2021 during the height of Word of Honor's popularity, she became known in the fandom for publicly declaring herself a fan and posting chapters of a book that she said was inspired by Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun.
Timeline of Activities
On May 6, 2021, Hao published an essay on her WeChat public account analyzing the performances of the two main leads in Word of Honor. Many Gong Jun fans were critical of the essay because they felt that it overly diminished his acting ability and made him dependent on Zhang Zhehan, giving the latter credit for his performance on the show.
Hao apparently asked Nada (Word of Honor script writer and Hao's friend) to pass along apologies to Gong Jun. She later posted screencaps of the private conversation which were sent to her by Nada:
Nada conversation with Gong Jun
Posted by Hao Jingfang
On the evening of Aug 13, 2021, Hao made a Weibo post about her book, stating that in any film adaptations, the main leads must not have blemishes on their character. She had previously stated that she hoped Zhang Zhehan and Gong Jun can be the main leads in a film adaptation of her novel. This post, considering the timing and content, was widely considered by fans as an accusation against Zhang Zhehan. She deleted the post hours later.
From Wechat conversations posted by Hao:
- Nov 23, 2021: she contacted Haixi requesting a meeting with Gong Jun to ostensibly apologize again for her previous essay (despite the fact that she had already apologized via Nada 6 months ago and Gong Jun had accepted her apology).
- Dec 3, 2021: she contacted Haixi again offering to help write quality script for Gong Jun to help him win awards (after he was not nominated in the 32nd Hua Ding awards).
- Jan 2, 2022: she contacted Haixi asking if they are interested in buying the film rights to her book, and stating that she hopes Gong Jun and Zhang Zhehan can be the main leads.
On May 5, 2022, Hao's Weibo was muted for an essay she posted on her WeChat account that touched on sensitive political topics. She blamed her muting on Gong Jun and said she was being cyberbullied by his fans. She wrote a long essay accusing Gong Jun of ignoring her requests to meet with him regarding his fans, which she claims includes several well-known Zhang Zhehan anti accounts like HBW. The Weibo tag #作家郝景芳控诉龚俊粉丝网爆# (author HJF accuses GJ's fans of cyberviolence) was spread by marketing accounts and reached 10M impressions, but was not on hotsearch.
In her essay, Hao reveals that she had engaged lawyers as early as Dec 2021 to investigate cyberbullying by Gong Jun's fans (yet she was also actively soliciting a business partnership with Haixi and Gong Jun during this time). Her lawyers told her this was not an act of organized crime but actions by individual fans. She refused to believe this and changed lawyers in March 2022.
It should be noted that none of Hao's works have ever been adapted for the screen.
Social Connections
Hao Jingfang is offline friends with Zhang Peichao. He was invited as guest speaker to her online talks multiple times.
Hao Jingfang co-authored a book with 韩松 Han Song, who Bai Ying's friend and colleague.
Bai Ying previously helped defend Hao Jingfang.
