Chinese actress Zhang Yingfei recently learned that she had become an unexpected internet sensation in the Philippines — but under a name she barely recognized.
The 21-year-old performer revealed during a livestream on the Chinese platform Douyin that she was puzzled when English-speaking viewers kept flooding her comment section with the name “Linda.” Since she normally introduces herself online using the English nickname “Fifi,” the messages initially made little sense.
“At first I thought the comments were meant for someone else,” Yingfei said in the livestream, recalling her confusion. “I was thinking, ‘Why are they calling me Linda? That’s not my name.’”
Curiosity eventually got the better of her. Yingfei used a translation tool to convert the English messages into Chinese, hoping to understand what viewers were referring to. That’s when the mystery was solved — the name “Linda” wasn’t about her personally, but about the character she portrayed in a Chinese drama that had quietly gained traction abroad.
Yingfei plays Linda Walker in the series The Heiress Who Won With Brains — also known by the alternate title The Real Heiress: She Is a Top Student — a vertical-format drama originally released in China in September 2025.
While the show was designed primarily for domestic viewers, clips from the series later surfaced on social media platforms in the Philippines, where they quickly gained momentum.
One scene in particular became the centerpiece of the viral moment. In the clip, Yingfei’s character takes a mock exam and astonishingly scores 719 points — far beyond the usual 400 to 500 range.
The Tagalog-dubbed narration declaring, “Ang nakakuhang score ni Linda ay 719, highest scorer,” caught the internet’s attention and soon spread widely across TikTok, YouTube, and other platforms.
The exaggerated academic triumph, combined with the dramatic tone typical of vertical dramas, struck a chord with Filipino viewers, who turned the scene into a meme used for humorous edits, reaction videos, and parody posts.
For Yingfei, the sudden wave of attention from overseas came as a surprise. She admitted she had no idea that her series had traveled beyond Chinese audiences, much less that Filipino viewers had embraced her character so enthusiastically.
Instead of being overwhelmed, the young actress found the situation amusing. Realizing that many fans abroad recognize her more as “Linda Walker” than by her own name, Yingfei has chosen to enjoy the moment and welcome the unexpected connection with a new international audience.
What started as a simple drama role has now given the actress a second identity online — proving once again how quickly a single scene can cross borders and transform into a global internet phenomenon.