Zhao Lusi says she was abused and is suffering from depression

The year may have just begun, but the Chinese entertainment scene has already been hit by controversy. Chinese actress Zhao Lusi (right) revealed in a post on Weibo on Jan 1 that she was a victim of physical abuse at the workplace and is now suffering from depression.

- Jan Lee

In a lengthy post accompanied by several pictures of herself and her friends, including an image of a weighing machine that showed the 1.61m-tall actress tipping the scales at just 36kg, Zhao said her teachers used to hit her for not getting good grades in school.

The 26-year-old, who shot to fame with period dramas such as The Romance Of Tiger And Rose (2020) and Love Like The Galaxy (2022), added: "When I got older, I got hit too, and I thought it was my fault for not being able to make it through my auditions. I didn't dare to make a scene, I just wanted to escape."

Without naming anyone, she implied that someone at her workplace who supervised and managed her was the abuser, and used the female pronoun to refer to the person.

"Eventually, my work became recognised by the public and, thanks to that, I gained the courage to say goodbye. But even at the end, she took a hefty 'break-up sum' before she was willing to stop. She made up rumours that hurt my reputation to people in and out of the industry."