Huayu 2011: Starting with Hilarious Men

Chen Li was the first person to notice this plagiarism controversy.

Because of the singer Chen Li, and the lyricist and composer Zheng Nan, Qu Wanting called them out by name.

Qu Wanting's Weibo post: [Heartbreaking! My hard work has been stolen!]

Hello everyone, I am Qu Wanting. Today, I am very sad to tell you something. My original song "In My Song", which I wrote at the University of California, Berkeley at the end of 2010, was leaked for some reason and was plagiarized and published by someone else first.

Those who follow me know that I uploaded a demo of about ten seconds to Renren.com earlier this year. You can compare the two songs and see if these ten seconds are very similar!

@ZhengNan @SingerChenLi, is it really interesting to steal other people's hard work?

I'm overseas, without a team or publicity. Does that mean ordinary people deserve to be bullied?

Please help me share this so that more people know the truth.

Chen Li, a college student, panicked immediately. Her first reaction was that the boss had copied the work.

Chen Li got this impression because Zheng Nan composed songs too quickly and irrationally, releasing a song as soon as he said he would, without any foreplay.

My second thought was that the other party was just trying to ride the coattails of someone else's popularity. How could a boss with such talent plagiarize an ordinary person?

Seeing Qu Wanting's assertive statements on Weibo, and the overwhelming support for her rights in the comments section, Chen Li panicked and immediately called Aya.

"Sister Aya is in trouble!!!" Chen Li said urgently.

"What could possibly happen to you? Speak slowly." Aya thought to herself, what could possibly happen to a college student who has just started out, unless he has broken the law or violated regulations?

"It's not me who's in trouble, it's the song! Someone on Weibo said that the song 'In My Song' written by the boss is plagiarized!" Chen Li quickly told Aya about what happened on Weibo.

Plagiarism is common in the entertainment industry, and its impact can vary greatly.

Aya told Chen Li not to panic and to take a look first.

"This international student doesn't seem to be lying, but she only released a demo that's about ten seconds long, so it's not conclusive evidence. Unless she can produce more evidence, for now it can only be considered a case of song overlap."

Modern music has been developing for over sixty years since the popularization of rock and roll and electronic music in the 1950s, with tens of millions of songs created worldwide, including nearly five million in Chinese.

These five million Chinese songs have all had instances of chord progressions, melodic fragments, and lyrics that overlap.

The fact that the song was the same as another song or even plagiarized didn't bother Aya. What really troubled Aya was Qu Wanting's status as an international student and her sob story.

Saying something like "May you be reborn in America" ​​in 2026, fifteen years after the demystification, would be considered a curse.

However, at that time in 2011, the prevailing online sentiment in China was one of fawning over foreigners, so this statement was considered a blessing.

In 2011, international students belonged to a high-end group, a superior existence.

Gossip and gossiping are among the things netizens love most.

With all these factors combined, the plagiarism controversy quickly became a trending topic and escalated.

"Sister Aya is trending on social media!" Chen Li, who was keeping a close eye on the situation, hurriedly reported.

"Don't rush, let me call the boss and ask about the specifics." Aya needed to know if the song was truly plagiarized before deciding on subsequent public relations strategies.

Aya immediately called Zheng Nan, but the line was busy.

I called again five minutes later, but the line was still busy.

"Damn it! The fire's practically at our eyebrows! Boss, who are you talking to on the phone at a time like this?"

Unable to reach Zheng Nan, Aya had no choice but to call Ding Xiu, who fortunately answered the phone quickly.

"What is it?" Ding Xiu asked in a tired voice.

"My uncle's in trouble! He can't get in touch with the boss!" Aya quickly explained the situation.

"It's Monday today, Zheng Nan should be in class. I'll go to the Shanghai Theatre Academy to find him." Ding Xiu reacted quickly and took a taxi directly to the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

…………

At that moment, Zheng Nan was on the phone with Liu Chun.

"You plagiarized?" Liu Chun asked as his first question.

Qu Wanting also posted a similar complaint on Sohu Weibo. Sohu and Zheng Nan are currently in a cooperative relationship, and the second season of "Hilarious Men" has already been scheduled and is ready for promotion internally.

So, Sohu Weibo's management directly suppressed the trending topic and immediately reported the matter to Liu Chun.

"Plagiarism? Oh, Mr. Liu, you mean 'You Exist in My Song'?"

"Yes, what's the situation? If you really did plagiarize, can't we settle this privately?"

Liu Chun's goal was to solve the problem, or at least the person who raised it, and to try his best to prevent this from affecting the broadcast of "Hilarious Men".

"Qu Wanting posted on Weibo? Haha, that's great! I've been waiting for her to make that move!" Zheng Nan laughed heartily, finally getting what she'd been waiting for.

"Do you know the person who accused you of plagiarism? Are you two working together to generate buzz?" Zheng Nan's reaction led Liu Chun to misunderstand.

"I don't know her, but some of my fans know her mother."

Liu Chun was confused. "Dude, are you speaking Chinese? I don't understand."

Ding Xiu also arrived at the Shanghai Theatre Academy at this time. Since he couldn't contact Zheng Nan, Ding Xiu called Dilraba.

"Zheng Nan! Aya can't reach you, who did you call?" Ding Xiu and Reba ran over breathlessly.

"Mr. Liu from Sohu," Zheng Nan explained, and seeing that both parties had asked the same question, she told a story.

It is said that he has a fan from Northeast China. The fan's family is a working-class family, but due to the corruption of a certain leader, his family fell into poverty. He confided this to Zheng Nan in a private message on Weibo.

Zheng Nan was indignant. Upon investigation, she discovered that this leader had a daughter studying abroad who was living a life of luxury and spending public funds at MIT.

Disgusted, Zheng Nan contacted her fans to collect numerous pieces of evidence against the leader. Then, Zheng Nan found a demo online by the student's daughter, created a complete version, and published it to entice others to join the scheme.

In Zheng Nan's story, apart from a slight alteration of the timeline, everything else is true, especially the part about him possessing evidence of Zhang Mingjie's crimes.

The audience for "Hilarious Men" is mostly in the north, with the Northeast contributing a large portion of the viewership.

As early as when they were preparing to hijack "My Song" in the recording studio, Zheng Nan mobilized his fans in Northeast China that very night to collect evidence of Qu Wanting's mother, Zhang Mingjie's, crimes.

Zheng Nan originally thought it would be difficult to collect the evidence and that it would be a long battle, but it turned out to be too easy. He collected a lot of evidence in just two days.

"In short, the bigger this matter gets, the safer it will be for me to release evidence of this leader's crimes, and the easier it will be to bring him down."

Upon hearing that the matter involved leaders, Liu Chun took a step back on the other end of the phone.

Some things are like slides that you absolutely cannot touch.

"Are you sure? If not, forget it," Liu Chun advised, suggesting there was no need to go to such lengths for the sake of fans.

If Zhang Mingjie hadn't been killed in one go, she would definitely have fought Zheng Nan to the death once she recovered.

"Young people have principles and principles. Ms. Liu, stop suppressing the hype! Let her trend on Sohu Weibo too! I want to wage a Weibo war against her!"