BEIJING - Recently Nicky Wu came in for a spot of fat-shaming by some netizens who said he looked plump on a TV show.

Probably to silence his detractors, the Taiwanese actor has posted on a video of himself doing a mid-air split.

Wu, 51, recently appeared as a guest on Chinese variety show Let's Go Skiing, which debuted in January, and showed off his skiing skills.

However, his face looked rounder and he looked bigger when he sat beside Hong Kong actress Angelababy on the show.

Some fans said online he looked very different from the days when he was with Taiwanese boy band The Little Tigers during the late 1980s and 1990s.

Others said he has gained weight since 2011 when he played the Qing Dynasty prince who would become Emperor Yongzheng in the Chinese time-travel drama Scarlet Heart.

Some wondered if it was because he was wearing a thick sweater on the show, while others defended him and said he did not deserve the unkind remarks as he was already in his early 50s.

Wu did not react publicly to the chatter, but on Friday (Feb 18), he posted on Weibo a video of him jumping three times before doing a split leap.

Several fans praised him on Weibo for his fitness. Wu reacted to the comments and joked that he was a "flexible fat man" and an "unusual old man".

Wu's fitness should not come as a surprise, as he learnt judo and taekwondo before debuting as part of The Little Tigers, earning the nickname "Thunderbolt Tiger" with his somersaults.