According to reports from Sina, although the 31st Magnolia Awards (also known as the 31st Shanghai TV Festival Magnolia Awards) have concluded, the event continues to face backlash. A major point of contention centers on what many perceive as a defamatory and derogatory portrayal of the “Fairy Sister,” Liu Yifei.
Liu Yifei did not attend the 2026 Magnolia Awards ceremony on June 27, as she had no works nominated this year. However, a highly discussed topic surfaced on Weibo: “It has been a year since Liu Yifei fled the Magnolia Awards.” The trending topic referenced her absence from both this year’s closing ceremony and the 2025 event.
In 2025, Liu Yifei was widely expected to win Best Actress for her performance in The Tale of Rose. However, the award ultimately went to Song Jia for her role in Blossoms in the Wind. Although Liu Yifei had previously attended the nominees’ promotional events, she was notably absent from the final awards ceremony and the red carpet. This disappearance sparked mixed reactions. Many onlookers speculated that she skipped the event after finding out beforehand that she had lost, leading to criticism that she could not accept defeat, lacked professionalism, and exhibited a lack of emotional intelligence.
Among China’s three major television honors—the Feitian (Flying Apsaras) Awards, the Golden Eagle Awards, and the White Magnolia Awards—the Magnolia Awards have more flexible criteria regarding nationality. Because Liu Yifei holds American citizenship, she faces structural hurdles being nominated for the Feitian and Golden Eagle awards. The Magnolia Awards represented her most viable path to a major domestic TV accolade. Consequently, her last-minute cancellation at the 2025 ceremony heavily disappointed audiences, sending keywords like “Liu Yifei didn’t walk the red carpet” and “Liu Yifei White Magnolia” viral with over 60 million views.
In 2026, her past absence was dredged up again. Observers suggested that the unresolved tension between Liu Yifei and the organizers might jeopardize her chances of winning the award in the future. Controversy deepened when it was revealed that the White Magnolia Awards organizers had included the negative trending topic, “One year since Liu Yifei fled the Magnolia Awards,” in their official media performance report to highlight the event’s high engagement.
Public backlash was swift, with many viewers accusing the Magnolia Awards of acting unprofessionally by exploiting and tarnishing a female artist’s reputation just to generate buzz for their event. Critics labeled it a blatant attempt to suppress an innocent actress.
“The Magnolia Awards, supposedly a prestigious institution, seems to care more about internet traffic than maintaining its dignity. Exploiting a topic that defames a female artist is cheap and despicable,” one viewer commented. Another added, “It is pathetic that the Shanghai Television Festival had to include a smear campaign against an unrelated artist in its performance report just to prove it is popular.”
The controversy did not stop there. Following the ceremony, some viewers argued that Yang Zi did not deserve the Best Actress award, claiming her performance in the drama Born to Be Alive was polarizing and that the show’s overall viewership statistics were underwhelming. As a wave of negative comments flooded social media, platforms had to block search terms and comments related to phrases like “Water Queen” (a derogatory term implying a bought or pre-arranged award) and “Magnolia Award prestige” to control the backlash.
