Seeking to create a Scandal in Sanlitun

In a room decorated in a tropical style with a green marble floor, Zheng Kai sits on a cane chair against a green wall beside a palm tree.

As the lead actor in The Ex-File: The Return of the Exes, a box-office success earning more than 1.7 billion yuan ($264 million), Zheng is taking part in a cover shoot for Men's Nonno magazine on a cold winter afternoon.

At night, the room reveals its true colors ringing to the sound of music from the 1970s and '80s - a newly opened bar in the Sanlitun area of Beijing.