The Most Famous C-Drama Stars in the World
Top 49 of 49 ranked · August 2026 · See today's live standing →
First issue under methodology v5.62. Movement begins with the next issue frozen under the same version.
Zhang Ziyi leads a C-drama list where the scores stay modest abroad
iFAMOUS Editorial Desk · 1 min read
Forty-nine names are measured for August 2026, all but one living, and the top of the table mixes a film star of the 2000s with the idol generation of Chinese television.
Zhang Ziyi is the most famous figure in Chinese drama for August 2026 with a score of 11.4, and the number itself tells part of the story. That is a lower top score than most sectors in this issue, and the gap to second is more than two points. Xiao Zhan, the actor and singer who has become one of the most bankable stars in Asian entertainment, sits there at 9. Dylan Wang is third at 7.4 and Bai Lu, born in Changzhou in 1994 and one of the most visible faces on Chinese television, fourth at 7.2.
The list measures 49 names across five countries, and 48 of them are living, which makes it the most alive sector in the batch. Mainland China supplies 32 names and Taiwan twelve, with Malaysia and Singapore contributing two each and the United States one. The Taiwanese presence is led by Brigitte Lin, born in Taipei in 1954 and a leading figure of Chinese-language cinema for decades, at sixth with 6.2, and Joe Chen, who earned the title Queen of Idol Dramas in the mid-2000s, at thirteenth.
The middle of the table belongs to the current television generation. Zhao Liying is fifth, Esther Yu, born in Shanghai in 1995, seventh, Liu Yuning ninth and Yang Zi tenth. Two directors break the pattern: Jiang Wen, the actor and filmmaker whose work has shaped modern Chinese cinema, is eighth, and Wu Jing, the martial artist and director, eleventh.
Fala Chen, a Chinese-American actress, is twelfth, Gao Yuanyuan fourteenth and Tan Jianci, once the youngest member of the idol group M.I.C., fifteenth. The ranking measures worldwide fame rather than domestic popularity, and the modest scores show a sector whose stars are enormous at home and still only partly known outside the Chinese-speaking world.
| Rank | Name | Score | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Zhang Ziyi  celebrityAlive | 11.4 | iFANN → |
| 2 |  Xiao Zhan celebrityAlive | 9.0 | iFANN → |
| 3 |  Dylan Wang celebrityAlive | 7.4 | iFANN → |
| 4 |  Bai Lu celebrityAlive | 7.1 | iFANN → |
| 5 |  Zhao Liying celebrityAlive | 6.3 | iFANN → |
| 6 |  Brigitte Lin  celebrityAlive | 6.2 | iFANN → |
| 7 |  Esther Yu celebrityAlive | 5.9 | iFANN → |
| 8 |  Jiang Wen celebrityAlive | 5.3 | iFANN → |
| 9 |  Liu Yuning celebrityAlive | 5.2 | iFANN → |
| 10 |  Yang Zi celebrityAlive | 4.9 | iFANN → |
| 11 |  Wu Jing celebrityAlive | 4.7 | iFANN → |
| 12 |  Fala Chen celebrityAlive | 4.2 | iFANN → |
| 13 |  Joe Chen celebrityAlive | 3.8 | iFANN → |
| 14 |  Gao Yuanyuan celebrityAlive | 3.5 | iFANN → |
| 15 |  Tan Jianci celebrityAlive | 3.2 | iFANN → |
| 16 |  Cheng Yi celebrityAlive | 3.1 | iFANN → |
| 17 |  Tian Han celebrity | 2.8 | iFANN → |
| 18 |  Luo Yunxi celebrityAlive | 2.7 | iFANN → |
| 19 |  Hsu Wei-ning celebrityAlive | 2.7 | iFANN → |
| 20 |  Ju Jingyi celebrityAlive | 2.7 | iFANN → |
| 21 |  Hou Minghao celebrityAlive | 2.6 | iFANN → |
| 22 |  Lawrence Wong  celebrityAlive | 2.5 | iFANN → |
| 23 |  Chen Bolin celebrityAlive | 2.4 | iFANN → |
| 24 |  Zhang Linghe celebrityAlive | 2.4 | iFANN → |
| 25 |  Tan Songyun celebrityAlive | 2.0 | iFANN → |
| 26 |  Bai Jingting celebrityAlive | 1.9 | iFANN → |
| 27 |  Gong Jun celebrityAlive | 1.9 | iFANN → |
| 28 |  Zhang Ruoyun celebrityAlive | 1.8 | iFANN → |
| 29 |  Huang Bo celebrityAlive | 1.8 | iFANN → |
| 30 |  Wang Churan celebrityAlive | 1.7 | iFANN → |
| 31 |  Chen Zheyuan celebrityAlive | 1.7 | iFANN → |
| 32 |  Huang Xiaoming celebrityAlive | 1.7 | iFANN → |
| 33 |  Tian Xiwei celebrityAlive | 1.6 | iFANN → |
| 34 |  Alyssa Chia celebrityAlive | 1.4 | iFANN → |
| 35 |  Zhou Ye celebrityAlive | 1.3 | iFANN → |
| 36 |  Lu Yuxiao celebrityAlive | 1.3 | iFANN → |
| 37 |  Marcus Chang celebrityAlive | 1.3 | iFANN → |
| 38 |  Joanne Peh  celebrityAlive | 1.2 | iFANN → |
| 39 |  Jin Chao-chun celebrityAlive | 1.1 | iFANN → |
| 40 |  Angie Cheong celebrityAlive | 0.9 | iFANN → |
| 41 |  Arthur Chen  celebrityAlive | 0.7 | iFANN → |
| 42 |  Berant Zhu celebrityAlive | 0.7 | iFANN → |
| 43 |  Cherrie Ying celebrityAlive | 0.7 | iFANN → |
| 44 |  Annie Liu celebrityAlive | 0.5 | iFANN → |
| 45 |  Ren Jialun celebrityAlive | 0.4 | iFANN → |
| 46 |  Song Zu'er celebrityAlive | 0.2 | iFANN → |
| 47 |  Zhang Wanyi celebrityAlive | 0.2 | iFANN → |
| 48 |  Peng Yuchang celebrityAlive | 0.2 | iFANN → |
| 49 |  Evelyn Tan celebrityAlive | 0.1 | iFANN → |
About this list
This list ranks the most famous c-drama stars in the world as of August 2026, by overall global fame rather than one month's attention. It is the top 49 of 49 names the rankings measured in this sector, frozen as the permanent record of that edition. This is the standard reading: everyone, living or dead, on one scale. 48 of the 49 listed are living; the Alive reading restricts the same ranking to living people.
Zhang Ziyi is No. 1 on this list for August 2026. Behind Zhang Ziyi come Xiao Zhan and Dylan Wang.
What famous means here
Fame, in iFAMOUS, is how widely the world knows a name: how recognisable a person's name, face or work is, and how well people know who they are. It is assessed from extensive historical and current public data, some of it reaching back more than twenty years, and it is not merit, talent, importance or popularity on iFANN. The rankings model real-world global fame, not internet fame; the data is the instrument, not the subject. Activity on iFANN itself is excluded.
The month in the title is the date of this edition, not the period measured. The list is a snapshot of overall fame as it stood when the issue was frozen: a name does not lose its place because one month was quiet, and a trending moment alone does not put a name here. Trending attention is published separately on ifann.net.
How the list was ranked
The iFANN Global Fame Rankings combine worldwide Wikipedia readership across languages, worldwide news coverage and search interest anchored against stable reference names, with search history reaching back to 2004. A twelve-month baseline sits behind the current reading and short-lived surges are capped, so the list reflects durable recognition rather than one week of headlines. Rankings are computed daily on ifann.net and frozen on the second day of the following month as that month's issue; a published issue never changes.
About C-Drama
C-Drama is one of the sectors the journal ranks every month, alongside every country, origin and region list in this issue. Sector lists use the same rankings and the same scale as The 100, so a name can be compared across sectors and against the world. Chinese drama: historical epics, xianxia, romance and modern hits.
Powered by iFANN
iFAMOUS is published by iFANN and powered by the iFANN Global Fame Rankings v5.62. Today's live standing for this list is on ifann.net; the journal freezes it once a month so it can be cited permanently.
Related searches: most famous c-drama stars in the world 2026, top c-drama stars August 2026, c-drama stars fame ranking, most famous c-drama stars alive.
"Zhang Ziyi, No. 1 on The Most Famous C-Drama Stars in the World", iFAMOUS No. 1 (August 2026), ifamous.org