Eleanor Lee Spends S$7,200 On Free Monthly VIP Membership Cards For Fans To Boost New Drama's Viewership

Eleanor Lee's new drama has been plagued by several controversies, but it seems there’s light at the end of the tunnel.

First there was the leaked alleged voice clip of the 25-year-old insulting Mainland Chinese, which resulted in immense backlash towards her Wuxia series Go to the Mountains and Sea, aka The Journey of Legend.

That saga eventually led to speculations that Eleanor — daughter of Taiwan-born Mediacorp host Quan Yifeng — may be replaced by AI in the drama, which would cost the production team S$3.6mil.

There were also subsequent reports claiming the production team indirectly caused the fatal car crash of China's most handsome monk. It was alleged that they rushed him to go on location in Hengdian immediately after touching down in China following a volunteer work trip overseas.

While many were convinced that the drama was "cursed" and could be dropped entirely given all the scandals, the show, which also stars Chinese actors Cheng Yi and Gulnazar, surprised everyone with its premiere on iQIYI and Tencent Video last week (Sep 11).

And as it turns out, Eleanor was not replaced after all.

The China-based Singaporean actress plays the story's "prettiest swordswoman" Tang Fang, and makes her first appearance in episode three.

Viewers were surprised to find out that, by episode six, Eleanor's screen time is almost equal to Gulnazar, who is the main lead of the show. 

Go to the Mountains and Sea is a 40-episode adaptation of wuxia novel, Shen Zhou Qi Xia, written by Malaysian author Woon Swee Oan.

Gulnazar plays Xiao Xue Yu, the sister of the male lead, Xiao Qiu Shui, played by Cheng Yi. Eleanor, on the other hand, is Qiu Shui's love interest.

It goes without saying that the cast has been going all out to promote the series, with Cheng Yi, Gulnazar and Eleanor all hosting "buyouts".

A “buyout” refers to a promotional method in which actors, platforms, businesses, or fans purchase viewing rights to gift to audiences in order to boost a show's popularity and viewership.

On the day of the premiere, Eleanor shared on Instagram that she'd bought out 666 viewing slots each on iQIYI and Tencent Video.

She also gave away 666 monthly VIP membership cards for each platform on her Instagram stories. At 30yuan (S$5.40) per membership, the actress personally forked out 39.9K yuan (S$7,200) on promotional effort. 

It sure was money well spent though. 

Having released its first six episodes on premiere day, Go to the Mountains and Sea set a record on Tencent Video in 2025 within an hour of its launch. 

The series reached over 26,000 in heat rating index, the fastest to do so this year (a drama that attains over 20,000 is considered popular). 

Related topics also quickly trended on Weibo, with the show performing well across major platforms like iQIYI, Douyin, and Maoyan as well.