China's Legendary Fan-Sub Site Returned as a Legal Streaming App — ¥25 a Month
Around September 2, long-time users of Renren YingShi (人人影视) started receiving "welcome back" emails. The legendary Chinese fan-subtitle site — whose founder was criminally prosecuted in 2021 over copyright infringement — is back. Renamed 人人影视分享精彩, it now runs as a subscription app distributed by a licensed media company, with a monthly fee of 25 yuan.
From the fan-sub golden age to a criminal case
Renren YingShi grew out of YYeTs, a volunteer subtitle group founded in 2003 that translated overseas series such as The Big Bang Theory and Game of Thrones for free. In the years of scarce licensed imports, it built a massive following. The turning point came in 2020, when Shanghai police opened a copyright case; in 2021, founder Liang Yongping was sentenced to three and a half years in prison and fined 1.5 million yuan over a case involving tens of thousands of unauthorized works and millions of members. In 2024, after his release, Liang posted a public apology and later open-sourced the group's subtitle library.
The new model
The revived app lists foreign series by region — American, British, Korean, and Japanese shows — alongside movies. Pricing is 25 yuan monthly, 60 quarterly, or 175 yearly. The operating company is separate from the old team, and the app is distributed with WASU Media, a company that holds the audiovisual-content license required to operate video services in China. The company told media it prepared for a long time, that the catalog is licensed, and that this is a legal relaunch. Existing users received one free month as a "return gift"; new users get a seven-day trial.
Nostalgia vs. new economics
Public reaction splits neatly. There is genuine warmth: the name is wrapped in memories of first discovering Western TV. There is also skepticism — about whether every title's licensing really cleared, and about pricing that puts the older, alternative-branded service above or level with the majors. Analysts note that China's big streaming platforms are all feeling membership pressure in 2026, so the return of a legendary name is being watched as a test: can brand sentiment be converted into a long-term subscription business?
Related vocab: 破防.