You Benchang, Beloved 'Ji Gong' Actor, Dies at 93

You Benchang, one of China’s most beloved stage and screen actors, died in Beijing on September 24 at the age of 93, his family announced. He passed away in his sleep, eight days after celebrating his birthday. His daughter, You Sihan, said his last words were quietly content: “I feel very comfortable.”

For readers outside China the name may not be instantly familiar, but You occupied a rare place in the country’s popular memory. A veteran of the National Theatre of China, he held the rank of national first-class performer, one of the highest professional honors for an actor. Yet for most of his long career he was a working character actor, often in small roles, waiting patiently for the part that would change everything.

That part arrived in 1985, when You, then 52, took his first leading role on television. The series was “Ji Gong,” built around a monk from Chinese folklore — a Chan Buddhist figure of the Southern Song era remembered in legend as the “mad monk.” The stories say he broke monastery rules, drank wine, ate meat and wandered the streets in rags, using wit and occasional magic to defend the poor and puncture the vanity of the powerful.

You played him in a tattered robe and broken hat, a palm-leaf fan in hand, laughing half-drunk through one adventure after another. It was a performance of pure warmth, and it landed at exactly the right moment: the mid-1980s, when television sets were still a treasured luxury in many Chinese households. “Ji Gong” made its lead a household name, and reruns kept introducing the laughing monk to new generations of children for decades.

Remarkably, fame found him a second time. As he approached ninety, You joined the cast of “Blossoms Shanghai,” the acclaimed television series directed by Wong Kar-wai, the Hong Kong auteur behind “In the Mood for Love.” Set in 1990s Shanghai, the drama cast You as Uncle Ye, a shrewd, elegantly spoken mentor to its striving young businessman hero. The role introduced him to a vast new audience, made him a social media favorite and, as Chinese media put it, saw him become an actor all over again at ninety.

News of his death prompted an outpouring of tributes across Chinese social media. Fans reposted clips of the monk’s wobbly walk and sly grin, while viewers who first watched him as children wrote that it felt like losing a member of the family. Many dwelled on the arc of his life as a story in itself: nearly three decades of stage work before fame at 52, then a triumphant second act at 90 — a timeline that reads, in an industry obsessed with youth, like a quiet argument for patience.

His career spanned and mirrored the transformation of Chinese entertainment itself, from theatre and the early days of television through the streaming era of prestige dramas. In recent years, as the screen industry churned through fast-moving trends, his name kept surfacing in discussions of craft and longevity, held up by colleagues and commentators as proof that an actor’s shelf life can outlast fashion.

For the millions who grew up with the laughing monk, the announcement felt like the loss of a childhood companion. The image that will endure is the one from 1985: a ragged figure under a battered hat, fan in hand, turning hardship into laughter for anyone who needed it. You Benchang is survived by his daughter, You Sihan, and by generations of viewers who learned from him that it is never too late to begin.