Chineses actress Chao Ran apologized for her inappropriate remarks on social media after saying that the new TV drama Awakening Age "sounds like a flop." Photo: Screenshot from Sina Weibo

Chinese actress Chao Ran on Tuesday apologized on social media after mocking the new TV drama Awakening Age, which celebrates the Communist Party of China (CPC)'s centennial, during a livestream, saying it "sounds like a flop." 

In an apology video on Sina Weibo, Chao said that she had donated 100,000 yuan ($15,600) to Chinese war veterans in the drama's name in the hopes that it could "make up for her ignorance and wrong expression" in slighting the drama.

The actress, whose name often appeared in reports from many major domestic entertainment news websites after her performance in a popular online TV drama, said in the video that she had never heard of Awakening Age before the livestream.

In a livestream with fans a few days before the apology, Chao made the comment about the show after her partner from work explained that the drama was a historical story about the founding of the CPC a century ago.

Chao's apology was welcomed by some netizens, who said that they believe her comment was only "a slip of the tongue." 

Yet some netizens claimed that many viewers were not angry because of her opinion on the show, which she has the right to express, but because she chose to make the contemptuous remarks after hearing what the drama was about. 

 As a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the CPC's founding, Awakening Age narrates the history leading up to the founding of the Party in 1921. 

 The show has remained a hot topic on social media and has been in the headlines of many domestic newspapers despite ending two months ago. It currently has a high 9.3/10 on Chinese media review site Douban.  

One video clip featuring a mix of scenes from the drama has earned more than 2 million views and nearly 7,000 comments on China's video-streaming platform Bilibili, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

"Awakening Age is definitely a rare iconic and exemplary work in the history of Chinese revolutionary historical TV dramas in the past 30 years," Li Zhun, former vice president of the China Federation of Literary and Art Circles and a well-known art critic, told The Beijing News in May, "it is the pinnacle of TV drama art."  

Global Times