For a while, opening a hot pot restaurant seemed like the ultimate celebrity side quest in China. Pop star Xue Zhiqian was one of the earliest believers. In the early 2010s, when his music career was struggling, he poured energy into Shangshangqian (上上谦), a hot pot chain that eventually expanded to more than 20 locations. Today, however, the brand has effectively disappeared from China’s restaurant landscape, with reports indicating that its final remaining stores have shut or scaled back operations as Xue focuses on a massively successful concert tour.

But Shangshangqian’s decline is bigger than one celebrity entrepreneur. It marks the end of an era.

Throughout the 2010s, celebrity-backed restaurants became one of China’s hottest business trends. Actors Huang Xiaoming, Li Bingbing, and Ren Quan helped popularize the model through hot pot chain Re La Yi Hao (Hot & Spicy No. 1), which rapidly expanded across the country on the strength of star power alone.

The formula looked unbeatable: celebrity founders, viral social media buzz, endless fan check-ins, and lucrative franchise fees. Why spend millions on marketing when your Weibo following can do the work for free? Yet the celebrity halo turned out to be a poor substitute for actually running a restaurant.

Over the past few years, once-hyped brands including Xianhezhuang, Huofengxiang, and Re La Yi Hao have faced waves of closures as consumer curiosity faded and operational challenges mounted. Industry observers point to a familiar problem: traffic can get customers through the door once, but it can’t guarantee they’ll come back.

China’s restaurant sector has always been brutally competitive. Supply chains, food quality, service standards, and location strategy matter far more than celebrity selfies. As diners became more selective and franchisees demanded real returns, many star-backed ventures struggled to justify the hype.

The result is a cautionary tale about China’s influencer economy. Fame remains a powerful launchpad, but in the restaurant business, it turns out that hot pot isn’t immune to gravity. When the crowds disappear and the social media buzz cools, what survives isn’t celebrity status—it’s whether the food is actually worth lining up for.

All images via Xiaohongshu/Cover image of Chinese actor Chen He at his restaurant Xianhezhuan.