It was reported on the 24th that a male celebrity was executed for killing his underage girlfriend after she demanded a breakup. This marks the first case of an execution in the Chinese entertainment industry, causing significant social repercussions.
According to local media such as Hongseong Newspaper and Geukmok Newspaper, the intermediate people's court in Shaanxi Province sentenced Zhang Yi Yang, who worked as an actor and singer in China, to death for killing his girlfriend after being dissatisfied with her breakup notification. He was executed by firing squad last December. This information circulated, particularly through the announcement of the execution by the intermediate people's court of Shaanxi Province, on Chinese social media.
According to court announcements, Zhang, born in 1990, had threatened to commit suicide several times prior to the incident due to dissatisfaction with the breakup notification from his girlfriend, whom he had been dating since 2021. On his birthday in February 2022, he lured his girlfriend, and after another argument, he killed her with a weapon he had prepared. He stabbed the victim's left carotid artery, jugular vein, trachea, and esophagus, causing severe damage, and she died at the scene due to massive blood loss and airway obstruction. The victim was only 16 years old at the time.
After the crime, Zhang Yi Yang attempted to destroy evidence by disposing of the body in a reservoir and discarding the victim's mobile phone and blood-stained clothes. He attempted to commit suicide in a hotel the next day but was discovered by hotel staff, who transferred him to a hospital before he was arrested by the police. The court sentenced him to death, stating that the crime was brutal and had a socially negative impact, and the sentence was carried out.
Zhang had appeared on variety shows in the past and released personal albums. In 2019, he received the Best New Actor award at the 'Jinshangjiang' (金尚奬) event in the Chinese film and art world.