Rotten Mango - #295: Death Of Pop Star Leads To The EVIL Truth Behind The Voice Of China

Episode Date: September 14, 2023

Coco Lee was more than just a singer - she was an absolute legend in most Chinese households. She was known for her talent, but her signature was her big smile and fiery personality. And after 28 years in the industry, she wasn’t slowing down now. Her most recent project - she was a judge on The Voice Of China. June 2, 2023 - Coco Lee left a voice message for her fan group telling them how much she loves them, thanks them for their support, and misses them. She was always such a positive ray of sunshine to her fans. That very same day, Coco Lee would be dead. Soon after, a 9-minute audio clip was released revealing to the world that Coco Lee had endured bullying, humiliation, and abuse while on set for The Voice Of China. This is the case of how one of the most famous shows in China played an “evil” role in the death of an icon. Full Source Notes: rottenmangopodcast.com To learn more about listener data and our privacy practices visit: https://www.audacyinc.com/privacy-policy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit https://podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Brambles. But being marabou. Coco Lee was a singer in China. She's not just a singer in China. She was an absolute legend, a household name. If I really had to compare her to somebody, it would maybe be Shakira, in the sense that you look at Coco Lee and you think this is a woman who's got her life together. This is a woman who knows what she's doing.

She's so established in the industry. She's not one of these people that's trying to get some fame on an award show. She's got it made. I mean, the talent speaks for itself. You could say whatever you want about Coco Lee. She's too loud, she's too strong, she's too outspoken, but that woman is talented.

The way that she sings and dances and performs, I mean, her stage presence is out of this world, but she's turning 50 soon. And that's not to say that she aged out of the industry or anything like that, but it did seem like Coco was personally making the decision to kind of take a more backseat approach to the industry. She was focusing on different business ventures behind the scenes.

She wasn't constantly at red carpets or award shows anymore, but somehow Coco Lee still maintained this crazy cult following. I mean, she had this fan group with thousands of people that she would interact with. Almost on like a daily to sometimes weekly basis, they were all so excited for anything that she put out. If she was in a commercial, they would watch it. They would stream a commercial, you know? And now, now she's going to be, this is in 2022. So last year, she announced that she was going to be a judge

on the voice of China. So of course, her fans, they're freaking out. They're so excited. Her season comes and goes it wraps up and she sends this heartfelt message this audio a few months after the season is over. She sends this audio group chat to her fan group. She's thanking them for their support, thanking them for gifts that they might have sent, telling them how much that she misses them and she's going gonna talk to them soon. I mean, just overall, if you know Coco Lee,

she was constantly just bringing a lot of positivity to her fan group. She never brought drama, she never complained about the hardships of being a celebrity. She genuinely was just constantly smiling. That's how people remember her. But the very same day that she sent that audio message,

Coco Lee would be dead. And nobody had any answers. Coco chose to leave. She chose to end her life. And it just didn't make sense for people. No one could have predicted this. There were no signs to the public at least. Netizens were totally shaken up by just the shock and the grief.

She was always smiling. She was always so excited and happy. I mean, technically speaking, she was perfect. That's what people said. She had this incredible legendary career. She was the first Chinese woman to perform at the Oscars. She created this iconic empire around her talents that just radiated positivity. I mean, she was very well loved by the public. She wasn't even a very controversial figure. She was also

married to a billionaire. She was friends with some of the most incredible people on this planet, beyond, say, Jackie Tant, they were all at her wedding, you know? And I mean, from the outside, it did seem like her life was perfect. So originally, there was a lot of conversations about depression online between medicines, and how she always smiled, never showed any of that sadness to any of her fans. But not too long after her passing, a tweet starts circulating,

a tweet from a former contestant on the voice, the voice of China, the show that she had just been a judge on. And they stated that they wanted to make a public statement and stand up for Coco and for justice. They stated that the voice of China was rigged. Every producer on that show was there to make money under the table. That the top 10 contestant spots can basically be bought with money. They said it's not about talent. And Coco being a judge on that show, they're confident that she stood up for the students who didn't have the

money, but they had the talent. And now she's dead. He said, we need justice for Coco. That isn't start freaking out. But the next day, something very interesting happens. That post is taking down, and a very creepy tweet is put in its place. The former contestant apologized, and stated that his post yesterday was based off zero evidence and facts. He said he apologizes to society, but also to the voice of China. He encourages netizens to not spread any false narratives and or rumors. It felt like a gunpoint apology. But none of that would matter when a private 9-minute audio clip of Coco Lee before her death was released.

Because that audio clip would reveal that the Coco Lee, I mean someone as beloved, as famous and as strong of strong financial standing as she was, that Coco Lee, in the eyes of the public, was bullied, abused, and humiliated to death by the voice of China. As always, full show notes are available at rottonminglepodcast.com. This is a Chinese case. We had one of our wonderful Chinese researchers gather all the data since most of it was in Mandarin, but as always with international cases, or really just any case, if anything gets lost in translation, or if there's anything at all that we missed, please let us know

in the comments. But with that being said, do you guys watch The Voice? Yeah, I love it. It's the singing, do you guys watch the voice? Yeah. Okay. It's the singing competition. If you guys don't watch it, and I think it's still very, very famous, especially in the US, but I remember when it first came out, I mean, the whole game show aspect of the singing competition was just so fascinating to see. I'm going to give you guys a little debriefing if you haven't seen the show or if you like

vaguely remember it in little bits and pieces. But each season, four judges, celebrity singers that act as judges and mentors, they're brought on to the show. And they're gonna build their own team of students, that they're gonna coach throughout the season, and each round, they're gonna lose students here and there until just one student, one contestant, is the winner of that season of the voice. So each judge is trying to get all the good students in their team so that at least one of them can win the show.

And now the show can be split up into a few distinct portions, blind auditions, battles, knockouts, live shows. The blind auditions are like the coolest part. That's what the voice is known for, right? The four celebrity judges, they're sitting in these big red chairs with this giant red button in front of them and their backs are turned to the contestants. So imagine someone is singing behind me. And just by judging the voice of that contestant without being able

to see them or to see their stage presence, how they carry themselves, they will push that button if they like that voice. And that means I want you on my team. Now, if only one judge turns around for the contestant, the contestant is automatically on that judges team. If multiple judges turn around, then it's up to the contestant to choose, okay, do I want to go with this guy or this woman? Like, who do I want to go with?

And there's drama. You know, the judges are fighting each other to get the good contestants on their team. And it's awkward when none of the judges turn their chairs. And the contestant is just kind of standing there like, well, okay, then my dreams are dead. So, yeah. I mean, from there, the show kind of proceeds like you would imagine any singing competition and the whole premise of the show, like the from there, the show kind of proceeds like you would imagine any singing competition

and the whole premise of the show, like the whole idea of the show, is based on the fact that you are judged by nothing but your voice, your voice alone, that's it. The concept works so well that there's 60 different renditions of it, like 60 different adaptations. Wow. The most popular ones are obviously the voice of America and recently the voice of China has been taking off. A lot of the spin-offs, they'll stay true to the original concept or they'll have their own little twist and added rules.

But the voice of China, when it premiered, it was an instant hit. It had 120 million TV viewers and 400 million internet viewers during the first season. 400 million is insane. That is more than the entire population of the United States. Wow. I mean, I'm sure that some of these netizens watching were not all from China and they're from other countries too, but it was huge. But there's a saying in China. The water is deeper than you think. And it's, you know, the saying?

Yeah, yeah, shui hunchen. Oh, okay, okay. So it's used to describe situations of when someone jumps into a lake thinking, ah, the bottom of the lake, probably just a few inches deeper than my feet go, right? But in reality, just below your flailing little legs, there's hundreds of feet of dark, muddy, cold water with God knows what's swimming around. The voice of China was worse than that. So at first, the rumors of drama were circulating around the show and there were almost kind of

like cute and goofy rumors. There was a clip circulating online of one of the judges. And in this clip, this judge looks down, kind of bends their chin towards their chest, right? And they have this split second reaction, just for like a minute second, and their face expression looks like it's saying, oh my god, what's that smell, right?

It's like they look like they're getting choked up by their own body odor. And netizens were joking online that it's because they have to wear the same thing every day. Do these celebrities not have an outfit budget? Like what's going on? Do they at least get to dry clean it after every shoot day? What's going on?

Now, it's a known detail that the voice judges, I believe in all the renditions, they were the same clothes during the blind auditions, which I'm sure takes like a month to film. At least. Yeah. A lot of netizens speculated, wait a minute. Is this done so that producers can manipulate the edits of the final cut that's going to air? But industry professionals that I argued, it's literally for continuity. I mean, you know, you got to edit a show to make it more fast-paced and engaging. Sometimes there is an audition from day one that's gonna be aired after an audition from day five because maybe that audition is a bit more emotional. So we want to save it as the

end audition. It's not that big of a deal. They argued, it's not that deep. The show must go on. But then it goes deeper. There was another clip that goes viral in China. One of the judges had pressed the button for a contestant. Her chair dramatically turns around and this is what she looks like. She's wearing black and her hair is pinstrate. Okay. The judge. Her hair is straight. She's wearing black. And it's not like the minute that she turns around, the scene is over. You know, usually the judges will either fight for the contestants if multiple judges have turned their chairs, or they're going to give their personal

input on the contestant's performance. So when this judge starts complimenting the student, suddenly her hair is curly. She's still wearing the same outfit, but her hair went from straight to wing-boing curl. Okay. So it was a different day. Yeah. So unless they pause the whole production for her assistant to run on stage and curl the judge's hair out of nowhere, it may no sense. How could her hair go from straight to curly in one scene if that is supposedly from one fluid continuous shot? Imagine in the middle of this sentence my hair is not curly. It's just confusing Netizens were wondering is this even a reality show anymore? They theorized what could have happened behind the scenes for this kind of scenario to unfold? So some of the netizens are speculating the producers didn't like what she said about that student.

And they maybe had her sit back in the chair and say new comments and then edited back in to make it seem like it was happening in real time. Other speculated that maybe they did a double take of the audition, they filmed this particular audition twice. The first time the judge had straight hair at the second time, the judge had curly hair. And they just mashed the two together in a final edit. That was a theory, but ultimately that begs another question.

Why would they do that? That seems very unfair. You get one shot. Another speculation was, maybe the judge was saying all these nice things about another contestant's performance, but the producers cut it out of that segment and made it seem like she was saying it about this particular contestant instead. Wow. I guess they can do whatever. Yeah. Wow.

So people are going crazy online. I mean, if any of these speculations were proven true, it would completely discredit the whole show. I mean, the whole point of the show. So industry professionals, they argued, it could have easily been a technical issue. With so many moving parts in a production like this, it wouldn't be out of this world

for something to go wrong during a segment. Maybe there was a mic or camera problem, and the judges were asked to go back and re-film just that portion. I mean, they probably try to keep it as true to the original as possible, but it's not like a YouTube video where they can just be like,

sorry guys, the mic just cut out. You know? They argued but it's not like a YouTube video where they can just be like, sorry guys, the mic just cut out. You know, they argued it's not that deep. The show must go on. But then it goes deeper. Part of what makes the voice so fun to watch is when all the judges are sitting in these big red chairs facing away from the contestants and you see their faces reacting to the singing. You see some of them light up, you see some of them get so enthusiastic, maybe they're hovering their hand over the button, they're hesitant because they only have like three

more slots on their team left, but then they dramatically smash that button. That's the whole point. There's even that chemistry element between the judges that adds another layer of drama and excitement. So one particular season on the voice of China, a male contestant was singing, and the judges were all kinda like eyeing each other. Saying things like, you're not turning,

then another judge would say, you're not turning? Are you turning? Who's gonna turn? The energy was so strange. It felt like each judge wanted the other judges to turn, but they themselves didn't want to turn. They're more so encouraging each other. Like, you should turn.

You're not turning, come on. You should turn. Even after the contestant finished the song, none of the judges turned. So you're like, okay, in situations like this, that means the contestant is unfortunately eliminated. No judge picked them. But the contestant is still standing there, just staring at the backs of the four red chairs. The host is not coming on stage like, sorry kid,

you've been caught. Nothing's happening. The judges are still kind of like sideying each other until finally. The youngest judge of that season, Henry, pushes his button and his chair turns. It is so awkward to watch. Okay, think about it. The natural reaction for Judge Henry now is to look at the contestant because that's a big part of the show, matching the voice in the face, hearing this deep raspy voice of someone that's filled with so much emotion, you think that they've lived three lives and went through 24 divorces the way they sing about love, and then you smash your button, your chair turns around and it's

like a 13 year old kid. And you're like, wow, I was not expecting that, right? Henry doesn't even glance at the contestant. Instead, he looks at the other judges and it's almost this this weird unspoken look of you owe me. I did this for you. Like I took one for the team and you see the other judges kind of let out a sigh. Like okay, so it's settled. This contestant is now on Henry's team. But the rest of the judges, they're always turned to face the contestant in the end, and they can even talk to the contestant even if they're not going to be on the same team. So one of the judges was named Joker. Do you know Joker? Yeah, I love Joker. What is he like pop R&B? Just pop, I guess. Just like mainstream, like, really popular. Okay, so he's, it's correct for me if I'm wrong.

He's notorious for being brutally honest. Being very blunt. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I think so. I think there are some famous like event happened on reality TV. Yeah, we're gonna talk about that, okay? So people find Joker very refreshing because he just doesn't really care about money. He says whatever he wants on every single show and every single interview. He turns around and looks at the contestant and asks, do you know why we took so long? We were deciding who should turn

The contestant just kind of laughs awkwardly and one of the other judges tries to cut this very strange bizarre Tension by saying, well wait, let me explain. Let me explain everyone. It sounds like we were pushing you onto each other and trust me, I wanted to turn my chair, but you're a way of singing. It's not something that I think that I'm capable of guiding and teaching in a way that would be helpful to you. Okay.

Okay, which if you like watch the voice, there's country singers that are taking on not country singers. You know what I mean? It's, that's not the whole point, right? Another judge try and send to tell him that his tempo and beat was flawless. But that's so puzzling,

because if he's flawless, why didn't you also turn your chair? And if you watch other clips of really any season of the voice of China, you will see the judges passionately fighting for contestants to be a part of their team. Sometimes they'll even resort to trying to buy the other judges off, like I'll buy you a car. I'll buy you a cake like they use egg yolk, they're trying to be cute, you know,

and it's all part of the fun and games. So if all of them had nothing but spectacular things to say about this contestant, why were they all fighting for him? Side note, the performance, um, it's not bad. It's okay. It's kind of like that high school friend that goes out during the karaoke nights. They're okay, but you're not like, oh my gosh, you should drop a sound cloud. You're just like, okay.

Yeah. So the whole moment was just strange. The contestant is laughing awkwardly the entire time, Joker and Henry the other judge, they look like they would rather be anywhere else. And this is when the rumor started that you could pay for a chair turn. I don't know how this came to be. In the beginning, it started as a number later, it was confirmed. The starting rate per chair was said to be around $65,000. Yeah. Wow. That's a lot.

That's crazy. Yeah, that's a lot, but at the same time, I guess you could have a shot in the industry. Yeah, a lot of people, I guess it's a lot if you're personally paying that, but if you're an industry plant and maybe a label is paying it I guess it's a lot if you're personally paying that but if you're an industry plant and maybe a label is paying it, then it's not a lot at all. Or if your parents are loaded, that's crazy. So $65,000 a chair turn.

And people online were saying, that makes sense. Even the way the contestant was just standing there after his performance, he doesn't really look sad or upset. He has this body language of, I paid. So I'm not going to leave until I get my money's worth. Like, he's just standing there so confidently, not like, oh man, he's just waiting for a

chair to turn, which is not how it works. Now, here's where things get interesting. So Joker the judge that I was telling you about, one that's very known on-sense can't be bought type of judge. The assumption was he was actually brought onto the show to get rid of all these rumors about the show being rigged, because he has a history of walking off-staged reality shows. So the voice of China was like, this guy, he's known for not putting up with all this BS.

If we get him as a judge on our show all of these rumors that we've had so far about the clothes, the hair being straight and then curly and all of that, it's gonna go away. In the past Joker went viral for being part of another singing competition. This was a few years before he was on the voice of China, but that show was all sorts of unhinged. One of the contestants was an AI-generated singer. Yeah, a virtual singer.

A virtual singer that was edited into the show in post. So there was always this empty space left on stage. And the other contestants would just have to pretend like the AI animation was standing there, floating there, I guess, if you'd rather. During an elimination round, Joker said that he was approached by the producers of the show. And they said, can you vote for the AI? Just this round, okay?

And he's like, yeah, now I'm not going to vote for the AI. That's really dumb. And they said, listen, the AI is going to lose. We know that everybody's voting for this guy or this girl. They're not going to vote for the AI. We just want you to vote for the AI because we don't want it to lose so ugly, you know, by such a landslide. And you're wondering, who cares about the AI's feelings? I thought they don't have feelings.

There is still a full company with their own personal interest behind the AI singer. The company that was creating the AI for the show had obviously spent a ton an enormous amount of money on it and it would be embarrassing if the AI lost by a landslide. So begrudgingly, Joker was like, okay, fine. During the live taping eliminations, Joker voted for the AI to stay, believing that it would be eliminated that round. But the results came out, and the AI won by just one point. And was gonna stay for a round while a human singer had been eliminated instead. So obviously Joker was played. The producers lied to him, telling him that the AI was going

to lose for a shirt, they just wanted to help save face. In reality, they wanted the AI to win that round. So Joker starts freaking out on stage. He said he was lied to by producers, duped by the producers. He said he would have never ever voted for an AI if he knew that a real singer would go home and lose their dreams because of some sort of bot. He told the live audience and the camera that the producers had set this tent behind the scenes.

He takes off his mic and walks off the stage. The show is somehow able to edit this out of the final version of what was aired, but a lot of people in the live audience had actually recorded it and leaked it to the internet. The show was under fire and they had to quote, let the AI go. And Joker was forever known in the industry as someone who just could not be bought by money. Side note, this part is actually a lot darker than it seems, because people think that the intentions these companies were pushing AI singers was all about money. Money for labels. Because there's so much money involved when you sign human singers. People have bills, they have rent due, and as they get bigger, you have to pay them more of the shares of the profits. It's probably a dream for record labels to be able to replace all these real people with AI

singers. So instead of paying Bruno Mars $2.9 million for a concert, all they would have to do is pay a software company next to nothing for the AI and keep all the profits. So yeah, Joe Ger was pissed. And now he's brought on to the voice of China in hopes that if everything goes smoothly this season, people will stop saying that the voice of China is rigged. People will calm down. That's what the producers were hoping for. That's not what they got. Another clip goes viral this season when three judges' chairs turned for one single contestant.

This is a big deal, right? Now, after the performance, Joker's chair was also turned so that he could participate in these conversations. And he just sits back in his chair. He almost has this smug look on his face and he says, I'm so curious. I'm so curious. He's talking to the three judges. Why did you guys turn your chairs?

Almost implying that the contestant wasn't that talented. And I know that sounds really, really harsh and pretty messed up, but the allegations here are that these contestants paid to win. So I don't think the Joker just wanted to make someone feel self conscious about their skills. Another thing about this is usually when there's one to two judges turning their chairs for a single contestant, it's a big moment for the show. The judges are passionate about this, they're screaming, they're yelling,

their hands are in the air, they're dramatic, they're smashing, they're fist on the button, their jaws are on the ground. But the energy for this round, even though three judges turned their chairs, was pretty chill. It's very lackluster. It seemed like none of the judges had skin in the game.

They were like, you know, I'd like it if you picked me. Anyway, it's rumored that the Joker was angering all the producers by all of his slide little comments here and there. And in addition to cutting down his screen time by a lot in the final cut of the voice, they would allegedly play games with him behind the scenes. Allegedly, the producers knew that Joker had a stomach problem where he can't really digest seafood well.

And the producers knew that, so during an episode where all the judges were sitting around eating and talking about their experience on the show and about what their plans were, they purposely only prepared seafood. In another clip from this season, a judge will. His chair ends up turning while both of his hands are in his lap. And he's even heard muttering under his breath, what the hell?

The chair turned by itself. That's what it seems like. Yeah. What? But industry professionals argued that maybe it was just poor editing that made these scenes awkward. Or there could have been other things going on, technical issues that the judges were distracted by

or more focused on. And that's why their reactions didn't seem as natural on these scenes. Or some argued about the part where they kept telling each other to turn their chair for the contestant. Some argued, as a judge, you want a diverse team of different types of voices. So maybe he was perfect, he was flawless,

but they already had that voice on their team. They argued, it's not that deep. The show must go on, but then it goes deeper. So I have to tell you all of these things. I know it's about cocoa, but I have to tell you all of these things because this truly sets the tone about what's about to happen.

So, Yi Sun Chen was another legendary judge on the voice of China. Now, side note, it's not Ethan, but E-A-S-O-N. So, Eason. Eason Chen is like the Bruno Mars of China from what I can tell. Yeah, legend. Yeah, legend. Everyone knows him, everyone loves him,

but he's not super, super active. It doesn't seem like he's getting paparazzi every day, but he's like household name so well respected. He's invited to be a judge on the season of the voice. Now most artists, they're still kind of honored. First of all, the pay is great. It's about two to three million dollars per season per judge, which I thought was crazy, right? But then I looked up the America voice judges, crazy, right? But then I looked up the America voice judges 13 to 25 million per season. Yeah, Ariana Grande was the highest paid at 25 million per season. The rest

usually fall around 13. Wow. Yeah. Wow, per season. Yeah, so the pay is great. And it solidifies your status in the industry as someone who's talented enough to mentor It's not you're just a cute face with like a okay voice. This means people want to learn from you You've got a powerhouse inside of your lungs, you know, but Ethan He doesn't really care for all of that. He's been established The only reason that he agreed to be a judge on the show was because he wanted to know is the show rigged Are the rumors true?

Later in an interview on the show was because he wanted to know, is the show rigged. Are the rumors true? Later in an interview, Eason talked about his strongest memory from being a judge on the voice. He said there was this one particular day. He was sitting on that big red chair with the rest of the judges and he was listening to one of the contestants. He said, you know, she's okay. Just okay.

So he didn't turn his chair. He's not looking for okay students. He wants the best of the best. Apparently the other judges felt the same. Not a single judge turned their chair. But still, at the end, even if they don't choose this contestant, all their chairs turn and they're like, oh, sorry, bye, right? It's unfortunate, but this is a show about talent.

So after filming wrap that day, a producer comes up to Eason making small talk and just casually asks, oh yeah, what did you think about that last girl? Then nobody chose. Ah, just okay, I guess. He didn't think anything of it. Until a month later, they're still filming the blind auditions and he's got this little earpiece in his ear so that he can hear producers talk to him. That's not an implication that the show is rigged. By the way, this is very standard on most shows, so producers can tell talent to look at a specific camera or to adjust their mics, things of that nature. So Eason is sitting in his chair getting deja vu.

He's like, wait a minute, I know that voice. I know that voice. I just heard that voice. Where did I hear this voice? And it clicked. It was the same girl that was just okay from a month ago. Wow. But that would make sense because she would have been eliminated

why would she get another chance at the blind auditions. So he's sitting there thinking about all of this when a voice in his ear, literally the earpiece is telling him, press it, press the button, press it, press the button. Maybe the other judges had gotten the same message because at this point one judge had already turned their chair. But the producers are telling Eason to also turn his chair so that the two judges could fight over the contestant and create a dramatic moment.

What's crazy is that when Eason's chair eventually turned around to face the contestant, he was right. It was the same girl from a month ago, and not only that, she was wearing the same exact outfit as the first time. Wow. Immediately after filming, Eason said he went up to that producer and was like, is that your friend or something?

And they were like, what? No, I just thought, you know, all the judges said she was okay last time, so why not bring her back since everyone liked her? Eason went on the show to find out if the rumors were true. He would come out later in interviews and said, your talent is secondary. If you pay the mentors, they'll definitely turn. And the scariest part is it's only about $70,000. And sometimes it even goes on sale, where you only have to pay about 13 to $40,000 to get a chair turn. In-district professionals, did you watch the voice of China? Yeah, yeah. I know. I watch

clips on YouTube. Did you ever know about these rumors? Not like I only I heard about this like after-coccal like this whole incident I heard about a little bit of what happened Yeah, so industry professionals they were a little bit quieter on this one, but it was still suggested that there's a little bit of corruption in every industry It could be that it's not a little bit of corruption in every industry. It could be that it's not necessarily, oh my god, this show is rigged, but rather one of the producers was being weird. They argued it's not that deep, the show must go on, but it goes deeper. This is the last layer before Coco. A contestant's life was ruined on the voice of China. Her name was Xing. She's from season one and she recently came forward with everything that happened behind the scenes. She said immediately after she passed

the blind auditions. One of the producers came up to her asking her, hey, do you want to sign under this agency? And she said, you know, I thought it was a little weird since I literally just passed the blind auditions. It's not like I'm out there making waves on the internet, amassing fans, like I'm barely anybody. But he tries to convince her. No, it would be a smart choice. The judge, the team that you're on, that judge is signed to the same exact agency,

so there would be an incentive for him to really focus on growing your talent this season. She tells the producer, okay, let me think about it. The next time she was on set, she goes up to her mentor, the judge, and she's like, oh yeah, I heard you're signed with this agency, right? And he just looks at her, so confused and says, what are you talking about? I'm not signed with that agency. The producer had lied. Apparently, the producers went around after blind auditions for each season signing as much talent as they could. And since a lot of the contestants that are new to the industry, they don't have followings yet.

The contracts were predatory. They're like 10-year-long contracts that are incredibly unfair where the agency would make like all the profit. You would be working for next to nothing for 10 years. You would be owned by the label. So she is like, yeah, clearly I'm not gonna take that deal. She denies the offer and this, this was the start of the end for she. A few days after she rejected the producers' offers, these rumors started popping up online. They were from a legit former middle school

at high school classmates that said, I went to school with Xing. She was a bully. She was rude. She was full of herself. She slept around. All she cared about were boys. There were all sorts of accusations

being thrown around online by people that Xing had never even met. She's like middle school. I don't even know you. These were random people acting as if they went to school with her. But of course, nobody believed Xing. They thought, she's lying to keep her career. Of course, the bullies are lying.

Then some of Xing's private photos were leaked. Photos that she never sent anyone that were never posted on the internet. They were being leaked. Very soon after, she was also cut from the voice. Her reputation was ruined. Her dreams were practically ruined. But despite all these allegations, the show still went on.

Viewers were still tuning in. And the newest season in 2022, people were getting really stoked. The Coco Lee was gonna be one of the four judges. Now, I'm sure Coco Lee, at least to some degree, heard of the allegations, but Coco was not a woman that you could mess with. You know, she's been known as this very fiery,

sassy woman, her whole career, her whole life, really. And she's probably thinking, if it's rigged, I'm gonna call them out on it, and I'm just gonna focus on helping my students. And I'm just going to focus on helping my students. She's really just there to teach students how to sink. Which, you know, I know it sounds like something you say in hindsight about people. But to give you some context, like I said,

Coco is like the Shakira of China. She's a household name. She doesn't have to work anymore, but she chooses to. She's passionate. She's married to a billionaire. So it's not like she needs that like two to three million dollar fee. In fact, it's kind of considered low for her. So she's really not on the show for money. She's not even there for fame

or views. No one knew it at the time, but Coco had been diagnosed with breast cancer. And she would actually have a tumor removal during the filming of the show. Wow. Her doctor, everyone closed her, said, don't do the show. It's going to be so stressful for your body. I mean, yes, you're going to have fun with the students, but those are long set days. You have to show up to get your hair and makeup done,

and then just all that stress on your body, please. But she was like, I just want to help some smaller singers. You know, I think it'll be fun. I mean, I know it's going to be hard. I know it's going to be stressful, but I think I can make a difference. Coco would end up working really, really hard. I mean, pushing her body during this very difficult filming process. And finally, the show starts airing. So it actually starts airing while they're still filming. Because it's all about the votes coming in and stuff, you know?

So just keep that in mind. The start of the season, it feels a little off already. Coco Lee's fans were quick to point out some of the weird details. For one, Coco Lee is barely featured in the show. She gets like not much airtime, which everyone thought was odd as so many people were anticipating her as a judge. There was this one scene that we later talk about where the editing was just so bizarre. Like Coco is on set to perform a song with one of her students.

They're both on stage, harmonizing, and I guess it's tricky because they have to show two people singing at once, but Coco's head is just kind of like cut out and floating on the screen on one side. It just felt like an intern had edited it. The editing just felt off. It didn't seem like something that you would see on the voice. Like the student had so many angles of them singing,

standing from this side, this side profile, and then Coco's head was just kind of like on the voice. Like the student had so many angles of them singing, standing from this side, this side profile, and then Coco's head was just kind of like in the corner. Yeah, it was really weird. So people were very confused. And then all these little suspicions were confirmed, September 28th, 2022. So this is while they're still filming and airing. A short video clip was leaked from what seems to be someone from the live audience of the

voice of China. It's like very short. Coco looks angry. She's standing up yelling at the producers of the show. Are you blind? Everyone is watching. Producer, give me the rules of the game. Why does a person who scored 73 points get a second chance, but the other one who scored

88.3 points does not get a second chance. Can you explain this? Is this fair? If you don't say it, everyone else will say, to you, it's not fair. So to provide you some context, Coco is furious, as she should be. Because the student of hers was getting eliminated, even though they had a score of 88.3, meanwhile, other contestants from another team

were given a second chance to advance into the next round when their score was 73. This is not even a matter of differences in creative direction or style. This is a straight straight up point system. How does that make sense? Coco is defending her student, getting angry on behalf of them about how unfair this is. This clip leaked and everyone was like, okay, this makes sense now.

With all the rumors about the show being unfair, unjust, and rigged, Coco Lee is definitely the type to call out that type of behavior, and the producers, just like they hated Joker, probably hated her too. But the show is still in the process of filming and airing, which could explain why Coco does what she does next. She tweets, After coming to the voice, every student's hard work really touched me. I'm also fully dedicated to being a mentor.

Out of love for my students and after patient explanation and communication from the directorial team of the voice, all misunderstandings have been solved. I hope that our team will be together forever. Please look forward to our team's performance tonight. Keep fighting! So it seemed like Coco didn't want her leaked clip to overshadow the work that her team had put in and how her students were being treated and viewed on the show. Her student that had had the higher score but had been eliminated actually ends up coming back on the show because of the outrage by netizens and this leaked clip.

Ultimately it felt at least in that time being right, everything had been resolved behind the scenes between Coco, the student, and the show. But Coco's fans were not as forgiving. When the season wrapped, Coco's fan page posted a poem on Weibo, and the poem roughly translates to finding like your determination in life and keep going and persevering.

But if you take the first words of each line, it reads, the voice of China is shit. Yeah. Coco also went on to delete anything on her page regarding the show, the minute it wrapped. Like the minute it was done premiering, like the finalist. The video hit the voice?

Yeah, any tweets about the voice, any pictures of the voice, she deleted it. Wow. And she went back to being the cocoa that everybody knew, the bright, optimistic one that always encouraged everybody around her whose eyes, they always said that her eyes turned into half moons when she smiled. But do you know what smiling depression is? So, smiling depression is a term for someone living with depression on the inside while

appearing perfectly happy or content on the outside. So from the outside they seem very put together and it seems like they have life figured out. Someone say that these people even appear to be very happy, like they appear to be living a great life. Now people who experience smiling depression or people who experienced depression yet continue to smile when they're around others, it's said that they may feel that others have it worse. So what do I have to be sad about? Or that they would burden others by expressing how they really feel. So during the filming

of the voice, Coco called one of her best friends and left a voicemail. She said, Hey babe, if you're free now, I'm awake. Can you call me? I'm not trying to spread negativity to you. I'm just in so much pain. It can't sleep. I can't sit and I can't walk. It's so serious now. And you can hear crying in the end of the voicemail. A few months later, Coco Lee would take her own life. July 5, 2023, Coco Sisters, Carol and Nancy announced to the world that Coco Lee had passed. They stated that Coco had tried to end things in her home in Hong Kong on July 2nd. She was rushed to the hospital, remained in a coma until she passed away on July 5th,

2023. 2023 was the 30th anniversary of Coco's debut in the industry. And her sisters wrote, as Coco's family, we are grateful and honor to have such a good, beautiful and outstanding sister. We thank God for giving us such a kind angel. I hope she's gone to a happier place and no longer suffers from depression. At the same time, in addition to missing Coco, I hope you can all spread her signature bright smile and sincere heart.

Past kindness and love to everyone around you. Help Coco continue that wish to let everyone around her feel love and happiness. Although Coco didn't stay with us for long, her light will shine forever. Signed Carol and Nancy. It was also revealed by the family that Coco Lee had been diagnosed with breast cancer in the months before she passed. She had hidden this cancer diagnosis not only from the world, but she also hid it from her elderly mother.

She just didn't want to burden her or stress her out with this. She didn't even tell her that she had gotten the tumor removed. She got the operation during the filming of The Voice of China. And thankfully, she was in stable condition and she was just fighting all of these battles by herself. Even on Coco's fan page where she was pretty active, she only ever showed her fans love and positivity. She never complained, she never alluded to the fact that her life was hard, and people didn't know what she was going through.

She never did any of that. On July 2nd, she left them a voicemail. Hi, darlings. It's Coco. I feel everyone's love and support for me. You guys are really like my support system. Well, I'm gonna work hard. During this period, I hope everyone is happy and healthy. I'm working very hard. I miss you guys so, so much. Oh, and thank you so much for the gifts, beautiful and very thoughtful. Love you guys. Her voice was upbeat, excited and warm, and that was what she wanted her fans to remember her for.

Because this was the last message that she wanted them to have. This was the last time her fans would actually hear her voice and she wanted to sound happy for them. Because that night she would cut her life short. And it just felt like the whole world went into mourning. I mean, my husband is not the most involved when it comes to pop culture other than like J. Chow. And I didn't know who Coco was prior, but I remember him being so shaken up when he heard this

news. He said that he had never seen her not smiling and I think that's like what netizens kept feeling was I think everyone was so shocked in China that day because Oh my gosh, it's like you described like she's like the last person you expected, you know So that's why I heard so much like so shocking the last person you expected. So that's why I heard so much, so shocking. Yeah. And I think it's the idea of knowing that she's

smiling for the world while she was holding all this pain inside. And it's almost like a heartbreaking realization. And of course, of course, the people most impacted by her passing are her family members, her friends, her colleagues, her loved ones. But since she had been a household name, in icon, a lot of netizens, they were gathering online to support each other while processing all this news.

I mean, a lot of them took to highlighting all the impressive things that Coco had done, not just in her life, but in her career and everything. Coco was 23 when she was the first Chinese woman, Chinese singer, that sang at the World Cup opening ceremony. She sang crouching tiger hidden dragon at the 73rd Oscars Awards. And interestingly, she even received an invitation from the NBA to sing during their opening.

Coco was so shocked. She's like, when did I like sports? What's going on? But they told her that Yao Ming said in multiple interviews that Coco was his icon and favorite artist and they wanted her there. Coco was also one of the very first Chinese artists to talk openly and on a global scale she would talk to a Western journalist about how she wanted Chinese artists to be seen worldwide. She said there's Western artists that the whole world listens to regardless of what language we all speak.

Why can't there also be Chinese artists? She had to field all these racist questions from these Western journalists that would ask her if she knew how to play all these super traditional Chinese instruments. And she's like, what? I'm a pop singer. Yeah. I mean, she just always had been this strong figure that stood for representation, equality, hard work, and she was just so compassionate. And she was known for her smile. Because she passed in July and the voice drama happened in September and October, Netizens didn't really connect the two events until after her death a nine-minute voice message of hers was leaked. The audio would reveal how she was severely mistreated, bullied, shamed, humiliated,

and ultimately used by the voice of China. In the voice recording, you can practically hear her shaking. And the always strong cocoa, she seemed like not even just hurt. She seemed devastated, like someone had shattered her. I don't know if like a lot of people can relate to this, but I feel like everyone has a few moments in their lives where they almost feel like their hope and humanity is shattered. And it sounds like that. I do have to give you some context before we get into the audio.

The best position for a baby to be born during birth is head down. Right? That's why if the baby's head is not down, moms will be in pools. They'll be trying to do handstands in pools. Babies are less likely to experience complications like umbilical cord compression and other things during birth if they're head down So that's the ideal position Coco was not in that position when she was in her mother's tummy So instead of being head down Coco's feet were pointed towards her mom's pelvis now in these types of complex situations Doctors typically will opt for a cesarean. a C-section instead of a natural birth. I don't know the specific reasoning of why they opted to try a natural birth anyway, but it was clear that something went very wrong. The doctor who delivered cocoa pulled very hard on cocoa's foot to get her out. They

accidentally dislocated her left foot and her pelvis during this process, baby Coco. So because of that, at just two years old Coco had to undergo surgery where they put a metal rod into her leg. Yet they pulled her so hard out of her mother that she, her pelvis and like we're dislocated. And it just seemed like this would be a medical condition that she would struggle with her whole life. And that's crazy because she never told people because she didn't want them to see that on stage. She didn't want to be known for, oh, she did so well, even with her leg. Really? Yeah

Throughout her entire career, she always struggled with massive massive pain in her legs She said when she's sitting standing walking just on really bad days there would be so much pain When she was dancing on stage nobody would ever guess that Coco had hip and leg problems But she said that was the only time the pain went away was when she was dancing and she said, I'm sure it's probably because it's the only thing that made me truly happy because the minute that she would get off the stage, it would be shooting pain so it took her a lot of physical time to recover from each concert So it took her a lot of physical time to recover from each concert. Now on the taping of the voice, she said that her cocoa's leg had gotten progressively

worse, potentially from the stress of her breast cancer diagnosis as well, and just like the lengthy filming days. So she wasn't allowed to really stand for long periods of time. Even her doctor was like, you cannot hold your own weight for long periods of time. Like you need to have a cane or some sort of support, like a walker. Now, for the sake of stage presence, because now she's singing with her student on stage,

she's like, I don't want a cane, I don't want a wheelchair, because that's all everyone will talk about. They're not going to talk about our performance, they're not going to talk about my student's talent, they're going to talk about, why does Coco have a wheelchair? So, Coco came up with this plan. She was going to be performing with her student on stage and they were going to stand next

to each other so that she could lean on him for support. Since it seemed like mainly it was her left leg that was in a ton of pain, maybe using him as support and to help balance, she could lean more on her right leg during the performance. Right? Everyone agrees to it. She tells the producer, she makes it very clear to directors, producers, everyone on the show, the show runners, everyone. But during the actual taping of the show, someone in the student's earpiece tells him go to the other side of the stage,

because there's supposed to enter I think in different locations and then, you know, join together, not like walk on together. So he ends up completely on the other side of the stage singing and he looks dressed and confused because why? Like, I'm supposed to be there for Coco, but Coco keeps going, she sings. And with nobody to lean on, putting all of that pressure on her leg

and trying to hold in this pain while she's singing, thinking, I mean, just think about that pressure too. First of all, Coco takes her profession very seriously, but if Coco messes up or cuts the performance short, the person that suffers the most is not Coco. It's her student. So she's holding in the pain, singing her heart out. She ends up falling on the stage.

Her leg gives out. And again, instead of ruining the moment for her student, she sits on the floor, singing her heart out for her kid. Right? It's not really her kid, but that's what she called them, my kids. After they were done, not a single producer or showrunner or production assistant came to help Coco up. Not a single person. The judges were so shocked. Finally, one of these celebrity judges starts walking on stage to help Coco, but a crew member runs on stage to drag her off. The judge that's trying to help Coco. And they, like Coco said she could hear them being dragged backstage and the celebrity judge is just screaming at them like what are you doing? What is really helping her?

And Coco said literally for what reason? People said that they just wanted to humiliate Coco. They wanted to show her hey we run this show. We have the power here. There was no point in them doing any of this, then just utter humiliation and heartlessness. That's why in the scene of her singing, remember how I said her head was just kind of like floating on one side, it was like weirdly edited. It's because she was on the ground. And they didn't want to show that. They didn't want to show that she had fallen. They didn't want anyone to know what Coco had endured, so they edited it to make it look like everything is fine. She never fell down. A few months after the show wrapped Coco had to get another operation for her leg. Her hip joint had been dislocated and her nerves had been suppressed

without any protection from her cartilage. And after the operation she would have to relearn how to walk. In the 9 minute audio clip that was released, Coco was talking about what happened the day of the voice when she fell on stage, and she said, I wasn't so much pain. Let me tell you what my left leg felt like. It was like hypothermia. As if it was surrounded by snow below 40 degrees. It was so cold that it was almost numb.

No, not even almost numb. It was numb. And let was almost numb. No, not even almost numb, it was numb. And let me tell you something else. I told them that I didn't want to be seen with crutches or a wheelchair on stage. I wanted to be strong. I just felt like I was giving my life away for this show. The doctors begged me not to go because of my breast cancer.

They said it was a ticking time bomb, but I didn't care. I just loved the young people who participated and they were just so full of hope and love for music. And music is this universal language. It's our mutual language about the performance where she collapsed she said, I couldn't stand still. I had nothing to lean on since they took away my other student to the other side of the stage. I was wearing seven-inch heels so that I could be pretty. I wanted to be beautiful for the show. I spent my own money buying the prettiest dress that I could find for the show, but I just

couldn't stand. And I really tried to keep standing. Nobody on that show's production even thought about me for a second and it was so humiliating I felt like I was being bullied like nobody cared about my feelings I'm the happiest when I dance and now I can't even dance anymore She continued about the voice of China. I felt like it was okay if I sacrifice myself for young people But I never imagined the show to be such monsters I've never imagined the show to be such monsters. So she's basically saying, even though doctors told me not to go on the show because of my

breast cancer, I wanted to sacrifice even my health or potentially even her life really because she wanted to help these young people. She had no idea she was walking into this crazy, disgusting environment. She said, they played me because I told the truth about her student getting eliminated with the higher points. She said, the truth is there's something wrong with their competition and their rules. The only reason I went back to filming was because I didn't want my students to lose a mentor suddenly.

So I went. I went for the kids, but I told the producers, their competition isn't fair. It's not fair and they need to change it. There were three other mentors. They had nine students, three on each team. Yeah, I only had two. One of my students had to leave immediately,

even though he had a higher score than everybody else. And I told them, that's not fair. Coco said the producers' assistance threatened to call security on her if she didn't immediately leave after she quote caused a scene about the unfair rules. She said, that's how they were talking to me. 28 years of being a singer,

no one has ever talked to me like that. So I stood up, one of them started pulling on my shirt, getting physical. She tried to pull me off stage. But my team stopped that woman and screamed, don't touch her. So I know there's a lot going on right now. I need to give you a quick recap. The video clip was leaked. Remember when they were still airing of Coco

being upset that her student was being eliminated despite having the higher score. The whole nation agreed with Coco, and there was so much outrage against the voice of China. That student was brought back into the competition, and Coco released that tweet that I told you about, where she stated things had been resolved. It was revealed in this 9 minute audio clip. The only reason she tweeted that was because the show basically said, if you don't tweet

this, we're not going gonna bring your student back. She said, they threatened me, but I had to protect my student. For me, this show was nothing, but to him, it was everything. So I cleaned up after the show's mistakes. This part is very true. If Coco didn't tweet the quote, resolution statement, the voice of China would most likely be dragged to filth

and boycotted in the middle of a season. She wrote, I just wanted my student to have another chance to sing, to prove to the world how good he was and how much he deserved to be on the stage. And I was mistreated, but I still swallowed it. She said, I watched the last episode, it's like I was never on that show. All my hard work, all my efforts, my students, nothing was shown. It's like I was never on the program. I sacrificed for the kids who love music, even if it meant I was doing my own life away. I just wanted to help. I don't speak Mandarin. I have the full translation of the audio, but I don't

even think we all need to speak the same language to hear her pain through the clip. I think it's you can tell when someone has the voice of experiencing just severe injustice. It's not even anger, it's like unjust. After Coco's death almost everyone stood up for her including Jackie Chan, Michelle Yo, they all posted voice of China apologize. Former winners of the voice of China rebuked their title. They said, I don't want to be known as the winner. It's embarrassing. Former contestants that were too scared to speak out against the voice they started sharing their experiences. Some said you can never win with talent alone.

Even if you're a 10 out of 10, if there's someone paying a producer that's a six out of 10, they're gonna win the whole show. And it wasn't just contestants. Interns were coming out to say while working on the show they felt used overworked. Producers said, oh, put it on your card and I'll reimburse you for it.

They were never reimbursed. Some of them worked on Coco's season and said, the crew were noticeably rude and physical with Coco. They would even yell at her for simple things, like taking a bite out of a banana. Like she would munch on a banana real quick. They're not even filming.

And they would just yell at her. Like, what are you doing? You're not supposed to be eating right now. The Voice of China's licensing company is a public company. It's a Chinese company. So each voice is licensed by a different organization per country, right? They are a public company and their share prices drop by 24% following the scandal. They temporarily suspended the voice of China, stating it was going to be under investigation. Actually, the government was like, we're going to investigate.

Let's just say we don't know the resolution, but it doesn't look like they're going to be coming back. And for a while, the whole internet was just after the voice of China. But things got a little bit more confusing because at Coco's funeral, another quote villain becomes trending on social media. There was a strange incident where Coco's billionaire husband and his two daughters from a previous marriage show up at the funeral. And one of Coco's sisters screams at Bruce, Coco's billionaire husband.

This evil man killed my sister. And that is how Bruce, Coco's husband, almost became public enemy number two on Chinese social media. So to get into her marriage, I'm going to briefly tell you about Coco's life. Coco's life kind of feels like a movie. Like there's a lot of ups and downs and through it all, it just, she's the main character is how it feels. Coco's mom was pregnant with Coco when their father passed away from pneumonia. And now Coco's mom was alone to raise her three daughters

and there were these stories about when Coco was small. She said that she had heard people around her mom telling her, just give her up for her adoption. It's gonna be sad, but she's the youngest, you know, she's gonna be adoptable, and it's gonna be better for you and the other two daughters, because she's gonna get a family of her own, and you can focus on your financial stability.

This is just too hard, you can't raise three girls. Coco's mom absolutely refused. But it said that it didn't stop Coco from being scared. That she was gonna be quote given up at any time. And it's actually speculated that this is when she started smiling and being so positive. Because she wanted to be someone that people wanted to be around so that she could stay with her family. Eventually Coco's mom would remarry and move to the US and all of her sisters are so accomplished. One of them is a doctor, the other one's a lawyer, and so Coco is like, you know what, I'm going to do

that too, right? So in high school, when they, she's studying really hard, she finally gets a weekend break, goes to a karaoke bar, and they're doing this little special. They're like, hey, you can record your own mixtape. They're like, we gotta pay us for the karaoke session. She's like, okay, let's do it for fun. So all of her friends, they put their songs on this mixtape and one of her friends takes it home. Coincidentally, that friend of Coco's, her family owns a restaurant. This is in the US. And they start playing Coco's tape at this Chinese restaurant. And customers would get up, mid-meal, mid-bite, walk up to the counter and be like, hey, who's the singer of this song? Wow. And they're like, oh, she's a high school kid. Like, it's not even a

famous kid. She's a literal high school kid. My daughter's friend. They're like, what is she selling an album? They're like, no, she's not. But this is when Coco was like, okay, maybe I can do something. So at 18, she moves to Hong Kong, and she just starts doing all these singing competitions. It was really hard. She was signed in a label, but she was making no money for the first few years. She was making about $50 a month,

or living off $50 a month, just bread and noodles. That's it, nothing. And the first few albums it just wasn't hitting. To give you some context, the conventional beauty standard at the time was super feminine. I mean, I guess it still is now, right? But more so back then.

And Coco did not fit the visuals. And her voice sounded good in these types of songs, but her voice is like a strong, powerful, stable voice. And these songs were just not showcasing that. So for a really long time, it's not working. Until finally, she's like, you know what, I'm just gonna make some fun music. And it flew off the shelves.

Her album sold a million physical copies within three months. The music video of the title song, Coco is wearing a fur coat with shiny red hair, put up in space buns. She looked hot, powerful, glamorous, feminine, all at once, and everyone is like, oh my god, this is crazy. So the music trend at that moment was super sad anemone.

Like every single artist looked like they were going through a breakup in their music video. You know, looking out the window, crying. And here's Coco dancing so fun in a fur coat and space buns. And people were like, this is crazy, this is so good. So her label, they start leading into that western side of Coco.

And she was just this wild, free spirited person, and people loved it, including a Canadian billionaire by the name of Bruce Rockowitz. He's a bit older than Coco. Okay, like 16 years older than Coco, and he was living in Hong Kong at the time running a few businesses.

That makes it sound like he's a small business owner, like a few major corporations, right? And the two, they just get swept up in this one year whirlwind romance. And he proposes to Coco with a nine-karat diamond ring. And Coco's like, oh my god, yes, I do. But then immediately after she's like, wait, I don't know if I do. And it's not because she didn't love Bruce, but the speculation was her dad passed when her mom was pregnant. And it seemed like Coco would rather shield herself from the pain of losing someone she loved. She would rather close herself off to that.

And you know, with marriage, it's really hard to do that. You're like, in it. And so she kept pushing off the marriage. Year after year, they were engaged for like eight years. And in 2011, they finally got married. Their wedding reportedly cost around $20 million. Some of the guests were Jackie Chan, Oprah Winfrey Beyoncé, which is wild, you know?

Like, I'm sure Coco was fine, but imagine walking down the aisle and Beyoncé's watching you, right? But there were really just this very cute couple. Coco was always praising her husband and she said in an interview, there are some people who are only girls like them, and there are some people who are only guys like them. But Bruce is the kind of person that everyone likes. He's nice, he's got a good heart, and you can't help but want to get close to him. And when you talk to him, he just cares about everyone. He's nice. He's got a good heart and you can't help but want to get close to him and when you talk to him He just cares about everyone. He's very sincere

On valent, yeah on valentine's day they would buy each other flowers She would wake up early if Bruce was out of the country for work and she would watch her husband's interviews on Bloomberg And she would proudly wave-o about it like a proud wife. And then I think somewhere along the line things got tricky in the marriage. You know, some would say it fell apart, some would say it got rough. I don't know. They were together for 20 years. That's all we know.

I'm sure they went through a lot of ups and downs. It is alleged that one of the dark points in their relationship was when Coco was struggling to conceive. I don't think it's because Bruce blamed her for not being able to conceive or anything like that, or at least I didn't see any allegations of that. But I think just going through IVF is very taxing. I mean, you have to inject these long thick fertility needles into your stomach for more than 10 days in a row to try and retrieve eggs. The whole retrieving of the eggs process is crazy, and if it doesn't work, you have to go through another round. It's physically painful. Your hormones are all over the place. There's tremendous psychological pain involved.

Cocoa apparently went through nine separate IVF attempts. Wow. Eventually, she would give up on that journey. And in 2020, people noticed that Cocoa was barely posting about her husband anymore. Instead of talking about his interviews on Bloomberg, she was now sharing quotes on Instagram that would read things like, be strong to heal yourself because you can. It takes great courage and time to heal broken hearts. Courage is not innate, but requires continuous learning,

improvement, and practice. I'm still in the process of learning and fighting too. At the beginning of 2023, there were rumors that Bruce had cheated on her multiple times and the two were officially living separately. The allegations were pretty specific. The allegation was that Coco treated Bruce's two daughters as her own. But when they found out about their father's infidelity, they dropped Coco.

They just stopped talking to her. I didn't care about her anymore. Was the allegation. Look, I don't know. I don't know if he cheated or didn't cheat. I think only those that are close to Coco and Bruce know the truth. But that's not why he becomes a second villain in this story. There was another incident.

So July 6, 2023, the day after Coco's passing, Bruce released an obituary in Chinese media saying that the whole family was by her side the day she passed. In addition to Bruce, his two daughters being listed on the obituary, it also included Cocoa's two sisters, Nancy and Carol. Nancy and Carol claimed that Bruce didn't even consult them about the obituary, that they had no idea that he was releasing this. So it didn't seem like a united front. It didn't seem like a family that was coming together to support each other. And then the funeral service incident took place. And honestly I

don't know how to feel about it. I don't think it's my place to make judgments. It does seem like the couple experienced a lot of ups and downs in their two- decade-long relationship. I don't think any of us, the netizens, will know exactly what happened behind closed doors. I don't even want to speculate because family relations are always just so tricky. But I will say that we do kind of know what happened behind closed doors, behind the voice of China. And I think that's something that shouldn't get lost in this relationship scandals that are coming up. I think this should be like a constant reminder to the industry that there are Always going to be people that stand up for what is right?

There's gonna be people like Coco Lee that are not afraid to speak their minds and I think netizens are going to support them This case is not just the death of one of the brightest stars in the industry But it's the fact that her death exposed some of the industry's darkest secrets. And just how Coco lived till the very end trying to instill some integrity into this industry. And she was so passionate about the art itself, singing, dancing, performing. She just wanted to share that with people, to teach people that. And that's what we should remember her for. Someone who made a career out of her passion, and someone who passed to make sure

that everyone else behind her could also do the same. I think it's also just another reminder to us that people around us that seem the most bubbly or laugh the easiest and the loudest, they might be the ones fighting some of the biggest demons. So let's just all show each other some compassion. Two of Coco's closest friends spoke at her funeral. Coco had tried to exit on July 2nd, but she ended up passing away on July 5th, and a sad

coincidence was it was the day of her best friend's daughter's birthday. During her speech, her best friend emotionally said, my daughter is this adorable little girl. July 5th is her birthday, but Coco chose to leave us on this day. She played a huge joke on me, and I don't like it. Every day on this year, am I supposed to celebrate my daughter's birthday or am I supposed to mourn Coco's death? She shouldn't have played this joke on me. Coco's other best friend stated, I still can't accept the fact that this happened. You be an angel in the heavens, Coco, and we won't meet as angels one day. I love you, Coco, forever.

And that is the case of Coco Lee and the cancellation behind the voice of China. Let me know your thoughts in the comments. Please stay safe out there, and I will see you guys on Sunday for the many soad. Bye. you guys on Sunday for the many so bye!