Rising Actor Sentenced To Prison Time For Attacking A Director’s Car

A rising actor with promising prospects has been sentenced to six months in prison for an incident that took place earlier this year.

Li Ming De (also known as Marcus Li) is a Chinese actor who debuted in 2018. He played main roles in several series, including When We Were Young, Lovely Us, and Who’s Your Daddy?. Originally slated to play the third male lead in the 2025 historical drama Legend of the Female General, Li has now been booted from the series mid-production.

According to court documents, Li damaged director Yang Yang‘s Mercedes-Benz on January 27 while under the influence of alcohol, ripping off the car’s side mirrors and emblem and kicking its doors. Why? According to media reports, Li flew into a fit of rage after seeing Yang’s parked car blocking other vehicles in a public space.

Initially, Li expressed remorse and agreed to pay 90,000 yuan (approximately $12,544 USD) to repair the damage. Afterwards, however, the actor refused to pay. He blocked Yang on the messaging app WeChat and demanded that Yang apologize to him.

The court ruled that Li acted with malicious intent and sentenced him to six months in prison with no suspended sentence. Additionally, Li has been ordered to pay more than twice the original amount for repairs, 200,000 yuan (about $27,776 USD).

Since Chinese authorities have banned Li from working in entertainment, Legend of the Female General has replaced him with AI face-swapping technology.