Shang Chao - Blog Posts
The Straight-Gay Misdirections in TBHX Episode 6
I finally watched ep6, and I was so right about Shang Chao. He really is just gay for Yang Cheng. Yang Cheng may have had a little crush on Xia Qing, but it was Shang Chao, who has been enthusiastically supporting him, whom he actually fell for...
But since this is a Chinese show, they can’t outright say he’s in love with a man. They can only subtly hint at it.
At this moment, I thought we were gonna have a straight date scene between Yang Cheng and Xia Qing, but then the show cut that off and instead showed us something more intimate between Shang Chao and Yang Cheng:
This scene looks like the boss is trying to match Yang Chao and Shang Cheng together, so his interruption in the earlier “date” with Xia Qing now seems deliberate.
Yang Cheng here looks like a guy feeling nervous on his first date 😂
The scene being set at night and with only the two of them around also makes it more romantic compared to the morning “date” that was interrupted by so many kids flocking the store
Another misdirection was this scene:
Oh no, the “love rival” has a surprise for the “love interest”! What will our Yang Cheng do?
Oops, false alarm! The surprise is actually for Yang Cheng.
All this time, it was always just Yang Cheng for Shang Chao.
And now this is what Shang Chao looks like in Yang Cheng’s eyes:
He looks so warm and bright and loved.
Yang Cheng’s earlier discomfort when Xia Qing mentioned that “Shang Chao asked her out” can now be interpreted as Yang Cheng actually being jealous of Xia Qing. He was uncomfortable because the man he loved had asked a girl out, but then felt relieved when it turned out to be just a misunderstanding.
More proof that Yang Cheng has fallen in love with Shang Chao...
When he saw only Xia Qing in the room, his reaction was just of normal surprise
He then asked where Shang Chao is… which is still normal. After all, they’re friends now.
But then Shang Chao finally arrived...
and Yang Cheng looks so so happy.
With Xia Qing, he was only surprised. But with Shang Chao, he was elated.
But the most convincing evidence of all was Yang Cheng and Xia Qing’s conversation at the end:
Things have been going well between the two of them, so why so serious?
Because Xia Qing has caught on to Yang Cheng’s feelings for Shang Chao. She sees him slowly falling in love with Shang Chao, while Yang Cheng still doesn’t know how to face it.
It’s true that Yang Cheng had feelings for Xia Qing before, and it’s also true that he still cares for her now. He can also see how much Xia Qing cares for him.
But these just make it all the more difficult for Yang Cheng to face his true feelings.
He feels guilty for Xia Qing
yet at the same, he can’t take his eyes off Shang Chao
And that’s why Shang Chao had to die. Because every hero love interest in this show has be to killed off by the narrative—gunshots
to be hero x fandom i call you, we need to make this a meme
it all started when we were talking about mangos:
then..
and then SIGN LANGUAGE
all the versions after the cut!
english: So hungry I could eat a Shang Chao
spanish: Tengo tanta hambre que me podría comer un Shang Chao
morse code: -. .. .. -. / -. .-.- .-.. -.- .-.- .. -. . -. --..-- / . - - .-.- / …- --- .. … .. -. / … -.-- ---. -.. .-.- / … …. .- -. --. / -.-. …. .- --- -.
binary code: 01010011 01101111 00100000 01101000 01110101 01101110 01100111 01110010 01111001 00100000 01001001 00100000 01100011 01101111 01110101 01101100 01100100 00100000 01100101 01100001 01110100 00100000 01100001 00100000 01010011 01101000 01100001 01101110 01100111 00100000 01000011 01101000 01100001 01101111
ceasar cipher: Ws lyrkvc M gsyph iex e Wlerk Gles
animal crossing: I’m so hungry, I could gobble up a Shang Chao, hee hee!
simlish: sibo kihunibaruya ji libohumepo wewatu wa sikiwaniba likiwabo
greek: τόσο πεινασμένος θα μπορούσα να φάω ένα Shang Chao
latin: et esurientem potui manducare a Shang Chao
enjoy your shang chaos everyone
CARDIGAN REP LETS GOOOO
To Be Hero X spoilers for Episode 5 and Shang Chao's knowledge
I think people are maybe drawing some strange conclusions from Shang Chao recognizing Yang Cheng without his mask on but in the E-Soul costume. Like yes, it's meant to be surprising, but if you think about it, the episode clearly explains how he likely got that information.
Shang Chao was a judge for the actor contest. Even if, during the actual contest, he didn't have all that background information on Yang Cheng that the leader guy got, which seemingly included Yang Cheng's real name and his face, the competition runners still had the information:
Even if his name isn't on there, his face is there, and I think Shang Chao would recognize his classmate's face, especially when he knows the guy by name and is comfortable enough talking to him at school, to the point he's even alarmed Yang Cheng already has a job:
It's possible the actual public judges weren't allowed the information while judging the contest to keep it more fair, but for someone with so many connections, especially given he interned with Mighty Glory (maybe to the point he was picked as a third judge, and given he seems to have run the gamut of hero-related organizations to intern with, and may just want the info out of curiosity, especially if the third place guy is a potential up and comer to hire when Shang Chao starts his own organization), it's entirely possible for him to get that information at least after the fact.
(Yes, he was ostensibly just an intern, he likely doesn't have that wide a reach, but if he were, say, related to Mr. Shang/Shand, who knows? Maybe he was a bit more than an intern. Also who would be gathering that info in the first place? Probably the interns)
Could it be for like secretly evil reasons? Sure! Could he have been spying on Yang Cheng before? Maybe! But... there's a very obvious reason he might have that info during the contest if not afterward.
Personally, the second we were shown the info card I was like, "Oh no, Shang Chao knows Yang Cheng's secret now. Will he exploit it?" And then, at the end, there Shang Chao is. I was honestly more worried about how things would end up (maybe he'd use it to mock Yang Cheng for losing or something) and obviously pleasantly surprised by what we got.