Who is Eleanor Lee, Cheng Yi's Love Interest in Go To The Mountains and Sea

Who is Eleanor Lee? The Singaporean actress is playing Tang Fang in Go To The Mountains And Sea, the love interest of Xiao Qiu Shui played by Cheng Yi. 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.

During the launching ceremony of the drama in June 2024, she was not introduced despite playing a major character. It was Gulinazha who stood beside Cheng Yi during the ceremony.

Many have thought Nazha will play Cheng Yi's leading lady in the drama, however, when the name of the characters of the cast were made public, Nazha will be playing Xiao Xue Yu, the sister of Xiao Qiu Shui (Cheng Yi). 

So who is playing Tang Fang, Qiu Shui's love interest? This was the question that fans were raised at that time. 

Some speculated Liu Mengrui, who attended the launching ceremony, because she is Cheng Yi's co-talent in Huanrui Entertainment, and had starred with Cheng Yi in many dramas already including Love and Redemption and Mysterious Lotus Casebook. Others said it might be Chen Yuqi who was also at the booting ceremony. However, it appeared Chen Yuqi is playing a guest role only and Tang Fang is a major cast in the drama.

For months, the production team refused to confirm who is playing Tang Fang and deliberately excluding it in the cast list. Until the final month of the filming when a video clip of Eleanor and Cheng Yi in one scene emerged on Weibo.

The production team only revealed Eleanor Lee's name and her role when the filming finally wrapped up. On Friday (Oct 25), Eleanor Lee also revealed on her Instagram account confirming she is playing Tang Fang.

So why they kept it a secret when Tang Fang is a major character in the drama?


The production team didn't reveal the reason but some media personalities speculated that it could be to protect Eleanor Lee from the possible backlash of fans, particularly Cheng Yi's fans who seem to complain about many things.

The production team has already went through a lot dealing with their protest on Huang Junjie's casting (forcing them to remove him) and they didn't want to deal another episode of tantrums from fans.

The C-Drama fandom can be demanding sometimes and some fans love to cross boundaries, putting pressure on the production team with their protests and complains if they do not like the projects or co-stars of their favorites.

A brief biography of Eleanor Lee:

Eleanor Lee, Known in China as Lee Kaixin, just turned 25 in 2024. She's been living in mainland China since 2016 when she joined the entertainment industry.

She was born Yu Kaixin on October 12, 1999, in Taipei, Taiwan to Taiwanese actress Quan Yifong and Singaporean artist, Peter Yu.

Her childhood was spent in Singapore, the home country of her father, and where she attended an international school. But in January 2009, her parents filed for divorce. Yu Kaixin moved to Taiwan with her mother.


In 2013, in a birthday  celebration organized by her rich businessman godfather, Addy Lee, Yu Kaixin announced that she will be adopting the surname of her godfather, Lee, thus from then on she became known as Lee Kaixin or Eleanor Lee in English.

In 2014 upon her godfather's introduction, she auditioned for the lead role in the microfilm "The Old Record". After its release in February 2015, she garnered huge amount of attention and was subsequently signed to Beijing Summer Star Media Co. Ltd.

Eleanor Lee
Huang Junjie and Eleanor Lee in The Big Boss

She debuted in the drama, Solaso Bistro, in 2017. But it was in the school romance drama, The Big Boss, also released in 2017, that she rose to popularity.

Eleanor Lee
Eleanor Lee and Zhang Yunlong in My Poseidon 

Her main lead in The Big Boss is Huang Junjie, who she supposed to work again in Go To The Mountains and Sea, but due to pressure from Cheng Yi's fans who were protesting against the casting of Huang Junjie at the launching ceremony of the drama, the production was forced to remove him. 

Eleanor Lee has done a number of modern dramas such as My Poseidon with Zhang Yunlong (2019), Blowing in the Wind (2019) with Xing Zaolin, My Love Enlighten Me (2020) with Leon Leong, and Orange Soda in 2024.

She first portrayed a guest role in the costume drama, Tribes and Empires: Storm of Prophecy (2017) and her first main lead role in the costume drama was in "Fake Princess" in 2020.

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