Zhangzhehan super3

zhangzhehan_super3 is the handle of an Instagram account used previously by Zhang Zhehan. It was not active for an extended time post-813 and started uploading Zhang Sanjian content in April 2022. The overall account activity and content posted post-reactivation along with the wider context of Zhang Sanjian promotion strongly suggest that Zhang Zhehan no longer controls the account. (See below: Account operators and suspect ownership.)

Introduction

As Zhang Zhehan's only remaining social media account after the deletion of his personal weibo, studio weibo, douyin and other Chinese platform accounts during the events of 813, the zhangzhehan_super3 Instagram was treated by fans as a place to leave comments outside of the firewall. At some point during August 16, 2021, four posts were deleted from the account. Its deactivation just after that, on August 16, was met with frustration and disheartenment, The account appeared to be deleted.

The zhangzhehan_super3 account was deactivated for 5 months following the events of 813 before being reactivated and privated in January 2022. It began posting again in April 2022. subsequently used to promote Zhang Sanjian and damage Zhang Zhehan's reputation by: posting old or unverified images, deepfake content, dividing the fandom, promoting various Shenzhen businesses including the Teashop, advertising the EHz·Z brand and Ranyi Music, and tarnishing Zhang's character via captions and comments.

Zhangzhehan_super3 is one of two Instagram accounts recognized by fans as originally owned by Zhang Zhehan, the other being zhangzhehanfengzi. A third account mentioned in connection to Zhang was han__home, however it was never officially acknowledged as being operated by Zhang himself. There is evidence to suggest it was actually managed by Zhang Su, his assistant at the time of the account being active. (See below: Instagram usage pre-813.)

Controversy overview

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Instagram in China

Instagram is banned by China's firewall and cannot be accessed from within China except by VPN. The use of unauthorized VPNs is illegal in China. Organizations who need to connect legally to international banned sites must apply to use a gateway provided by the Ministry of Posts and Telecommunications. Any entity or individual cannot create or use other gateways.

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  International Internet law from Chinese government website

Zhang Zhehan had stated in his January 1, 2022 interview with Li Xuezheng, in the presence of members of the media, the NPC, and the CPPCC that he intended to regain his reputation through the legal system and bring his defamers to justice. He did not express any intention of making a surreptitious comeback through illegal foreign social media and self-sabotaging his own legal case. The super3 IG account was reactivated less than two weeks after the release of this interview.

Account status and activity overview

This is an overview on Instagram activity and milestones on and post-813. For earlier activity please see Instagram usage pre-813. For a fully detailed timeline, see Timeline.

• August 13, 2021: an old post was edited.
• August 16, 2021: four old posts were deleted. Shortly after that, the account was deactivated.
• January 13, 2022: reactivated and immediately set to private.
• April 2: unprivated, posted the first ZSJ photos.
• May 4: posted the IG divorce video
• May 5: deactivated.
• May 12: reactivated, name updated to 张哲瀚.
• May 24: verified (acquired the blue check mark).

Over time, the account followed a number of other Instagram accounts that had little to no connection to Zhang's known interests, and also the Instagram accounts created for the EHz·Z brand and Ranyi Music. It has also changed the pfp multiple times.

Posts include:

• guitar videos (both headless and not)
• photos from the Forbidden City
• photos playing sports (basketball, boxing, pilates)
• photos from a biking trip
• white haired promo shots
• album promos
• possibly old, genuine private photos of Zhang Zhehan (some including Xiao Yu).
• deepfake "current" photos and videos of Zhang Xia and Xiao Yu
• photos with fake Lufei and Kele the cat

People who have appeared in the posts:

• Chen Liying
• Jason Curtis
• Mark
• Danny
• Teng Ziyue
• Zhang Su
• 洪彬 (deleted)
• Billy
• Lexus

Account operators and suspect ownership

It is assumed that the account has not been in Zhang Zhehan's control since 813:

• On the exact date of August 13, 2021, at 6:04 PM China Standard Time one old IG post was edited. It is unclear what exactly was changed as a verified version of the post pre-813 has not been found. Coincidentally, the post features Danny. It is unlikely that Zhang Zhehan himself would be editing a post from 2019 on the evening of 813.

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  Post edited on 2021-08-13. The time is displayed in UTC as opposed to CST (UTC+8).

• On August 16, 2021, prior to 6 PM China Standard Time, fans noticed that the number of posts dropped by four, from 127 to 123. Two out of the four posts contained photos from Zhang Zhehan's trip to Japan in July 2019 and posted in January 2020 (not the one used in the smears). Two other posts focused on sports shoes. One of the photos matches a post on Virginia's Instagram.
• Just after that, some fans started receiving a "User not found" notification from Instagram. This is assumed to be the time that the account was deactivated.

Abner, Xie Yihua's son, revealed in August 2021 in a comment made by his Bilibili account that the phone number registered to his IG account does not belong to Zhang Zhehan.

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High resolution versions of the Zhang Sanjian photos uploaded to the IG account in 2022 are regularly posted on Weibo by accounts verified to Xie Yihua's company 上海承嘉影视传媒有限公司.

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  Xie official account 唱完这支歌

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  Xie official account 花盆向阳

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  Public records for Xie Yihua's company

Timeline

During and immediately post-813:

• four posts were removed on or around 813
• one post was edited on 813 at 6:04 PM Beijing time
• the account was deactivated

Main events after reactivation on January 13, 2022:

• Jan 13: reactivated but privated. Note that this was three days after Li Xuezheng’s Weibo account was muted, and three days before the first essay from Zhang Sanjian. In the following weeks, the follower count steadily dropped, the exact reason is unknown and was likely a combination of factors; the lowest number reached was 347k. During this period, some long-time solo fans who claimed to have previously had direct contact with him found that their accounts had been blocked.

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• Mar 31: The profile picture was changed at 4AM CST to one of the trademarked logos Xie Yihua had registered earlier that month, the account was still privated. The trademarking of the logos happened on March 4 and was publicly discovered on March 21, sales for the brand began on March 30.
  • A few hours following, Wang Mengmeng—a Zhang Zhehan fan formerly in Xie Yihua’s circle—made a series of posts on Weibo denouncing her.
  • That evening, Zhang Su wore one of the hats from Xie Yihua’s brand on stream, as he would continue to do several times after. When fans questioned him about this, he said he was “helping his friend,” and mentioned Zhang Zhehan by name in a group chat. Post-813, he had said nothing about Zhang Zhehan prior to this.

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• Apr 1: The profile’s bio, which had previously been empty, was changed to a quote from one of Zhang Sanjian’s essays. The account was unprivated that evening.

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• Apr 3: The first Forbidden City photos were posted with the caption, “Find your voice. Find yourself. 真实的力量永远大于完美的力量 (True power is always greater than perfect power!)” The first part of the caption is the slogan for Xie Yihua’s EHzZ brand, the latter is a paraphrase from one of Zhang Sanjian’s essays (and one of Zhang Peichao's WeChat posts). Many noted that his hairstyle looks very similar to a photoshoot from June 2021, including slightly uneven bangs.

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• Apr 11: A video of a figure from the neck down playing guitar and singing was posted. The figure was wearing a necklace sold by EHzZ.
  • The same video was reposted by a fan within the same minute. The fan later made an ambiguous statement in a group chat that seems unclear about whether or not she was admitting to having received the video beforehand.
  • The video is in the same style as videos previously posted by Zhang Sanjian WeChat account, with the exception of the singing. Many found it questionable that “Zhang Zhehan” would continue to hide his face in this video despite already posting supposedly-new photos of his face to this account.
  • Some reported that their comments asking why his face wasn’t shown were deleted.

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• May 4: IG divorce video
• July 13: Five pictures were posted of “Zhang Zhehan” sitting in a conference hall in Aman Shanghai wearing the brand’s merch. One of the photos show his hand gripping a pen. The hand not only does not resemble Zhang Zhehan's hand, the pen grip differs dramatically from Zhang's. However, it is the same pen grip as the man at the ZSJ teashop fanmeet

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• Nov 26: ZSJ Shanghai Theatre Academy Sighting

Promoters

People who publicly promote the super3 IG and its Zhang Sanjian persona:

• 凌志 Lexus Ling
• 邓麟云 Peter Deng
• 孟铎 Danny Meng
• 滕子玥 Teng Ziyue
• 黄勋 Huang Xun

Instagram usage pre-813

• Zhanghehanfengzi was in use since July 6, 2016 until December 31, 2017. It contained a total of 64 posts.
• han__home was active since December 1, 2017 until April 15, 2018.
• Zhangzhehan_super3 first posted on February 7, 2019. It was allegedly confirmed as belonging to Zhang by his fanclub on February 10, 2019. It contained 127 posts until August 16, 2021, when four of those were deleted and the account was deactivated shortly thereafter.