According to Chinese media on June 12, Chinese film and television associations will apply unified standards to end the actor ranking dispute that has existed for many years.
According to new regulations, from July 10, 2026, the recording of actors' names in television works and online films will no longer be based on popularity, influence or position in the entertainment industry. Instead, actors with the same group of titles will be arranged in the order of strokes in legal names.
This is seen as a breakthrough change for the Chinese entertainment industry, where controversies about "position" between artists and fans have frequently occurred for many years.
According to regulations, film crews are only allowed to use three official titles including: "Main actor", "Special actor" and "Participating actor". Other names such as "main co-star", "special guest", "acting friendship" or many variations that appeared before will no longer be used.
Notably, the number of actors recorded as "Special Actors" is also limited to avoid the situation of abusing titles to balance interests between parties.
The biggest change lies in the rules for arranging actors' names. If previously the positions appearing on posters, trailers or introductions often reflected the popularity of artists, now the order will be determined entirely by legal name. In case the number of lines in the name coincides, it will continue to compare to the next characters to determine the position.
The new regulation quickly created many discussions on social networks. Many viewers believe that this is a fair solution, helping to limit prolonged "verbal battles" between the fan community.
For many years, many film projects have been involved in controversies over the issue of actor names. There are even cases where fans put pressure on the film crew, requesting poster editing or changing the position of artists in promotional activities. Some projects are also affected by production progress due to disagreements related to this issue.
In addition to the name arrangement rules, management agencies also require actors to use their real names when appearing in the work introduction section. If they want to use a stage name, the artist must write it in the format "real name (stage name)".
This means that many famous stars will for the first time publicly announce their birth names on film products. The new regulation also applies synchronously to posters, trailers, promotional videos and introductory posts on social networks to avoid the situation where each platform uses a different arrangement.
Despite receiving much support, some viewers believe that the competition in the entertainment industry will not completely end. Instead of arguing about the name order, the parties can switch to focusing on the position on the poster, duration of appearance or priority level in promotional campaigns.
However, many experts assess that standardizing the naming rule is a necessary step to bring the film industry back to its core values. When controversies about rankings are limited, the quality of works and acting ability are expected to become the most important factors to evaluate the success of an artist.
