This Emerging Chinese Actor Jailed For Vandalizing Film Director’s Car, Kicked Out From His New Series

Li Ming De (Marcus Li) is a Chinese actor who debuted in 2018. His main roles include several series, out of which the most notable are ‘When We Were Young’, ‘Lovely Us’, and ‘Who’s Your Daddy’. He was originally supposed to play the main lead in the 2025 historical drama with the name “Legend of the Female General”. However, Li has now been removed from the series mid-production.

Court documents show that on January 27, Li vandalized the Mercedes-Benz belonging to director Yang Yang, tearing off the side mirrors and emblem of the car as well as kicking its doors, and was under the influence of alcohol at the time. Why? Lawrence Li became enraged because the parked automobile of fellow passenger Yang was blocking other cars in a public place, as per media reports.

At first, Li apologized and agreed to pay 90,000 yuan(equivalent to USD 12,544) to fix the damage. Thereafter, the actor refused to pay. He blocked Yang on the messaging app WeChat, insisted that Yang apologise to him, and disappeared from the public view.

The court upheld that Li had committed a crime maliciously and convicted him to six months imprisonment without a suspended sentence. Moreover, Li has been asked to repair it at nearly a hundred percent increase, being asked to pay 200,000 yuan (approximately 27,776 USD).

Li has been prohibited by Chinese authorities from working in entertainment, and that is why Legend of the Female General has substituted him with AI face-swapping technology.