JIN DING/CHINA DAILY

Zhang Yue, a Chinese actress, received flak online for portraying the role of a married man's mistress in a TV drama, Nothing But Thirty.

Micro blog users poured their scorn on Zhang for playing Lin Youyou in the drama, as if Zhang herself was wrecking married people's homes.

After countless people criticized her on the micro blog, Zhang herself took to the medium on Saturday, explaining that she is just portraying Lin's character and is not Lin herself. This time her comment zone saw many people expressing support for her.

It is good to see that our society values marriage as an institution. However, it is not funny to see them vent their ire on an actress for wrecking this institution. It should have been clear to everyone that Zhang is not Lin, the character she plays in the drama. The two lead totally different lives and the actor is only telling a story through her performance.

Some of the "justice-driven" micro bloggers used harsh language, even invectives, against Zhang, which was in rather bad taste and even violated her rights as an individual. The kind of verbal violence she was subjected to should be avoided, whether online or in the real world.

The incident also attests to Zhang's perfect portrayal of Lin's character, so perfect that the audiences slammed Zhang as if she were Lin herself.

Something similar had taken place in 2017, when Jiang Xin, another actress, played the role of a girl being exploited by her family to benefit her elder brother. Her micro blog was then flooded with messages of sympathy and offers of financial help, forcing her to explain that she was not suffering in her real life.