GONG LI
Name: Gong Li
Born: 31 December 1965 Shenyang, China
Gong Li (born December 31, 1965) is a Chinese film actress. She first came into international
prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is
credited with helping bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States.
Gong Li was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, the fifth child in her family.
Her father was a professor of economics and her mother, who was 40 when Gong was
born, was a teacher. Gong grew up in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province.
She knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress, and at school she
excelled at singing and dancing almost to the exclusion of other subjects. She
was eventually accepted to the Beijing Central College of Drama in 1985 and
graduated in 1989. She was still a student there when Zhang Yimou chose her
in 1987 for the lead role in his first film as a director.
Over the next several years after her 1987 debut in Red Sorghum, Gong received
both local and international acclaim for her roles in several more Zhang Yimou
films, becoming his muse. She appeared in Ju Dou in 1990. Her performance in
the Oscar-nominated Raise the Red Lantern thrust her into the international
spotlight. and The Story of Qiu Ju, for which she was named Best Actress at
the 1992 Venice Film Festival. The roles help solidify her reputation as,
according to Asiaweek, one of the "world's most glamorous movie stars and an
elegant throwback to Hollywood's golden era." Gong and Zhang, however were
not only colleagues but lovers. When Gong ended their personal relationship in
1995 (marrying a businessman the following year), their professional
relationship ended as well.
In 1993 she received a New York Film Critics Circle award for her role in
Farewell My Concubine. Directed by Chen Kaige, the film was at the time her
first major role with a director other than Zhang Yimou. In 2006, Premiere
Magazine ranked her performance as the 89th greatest performance of all time.
With her ascent and influence, Gong began to criticize the censorship policy in
China. Her films Farewell My Concubine and The Story of Qiu Ju were both banned
in her native land, reportedly for being thinly-veiled critiques of the
government. In regards to the sexual material in Ju Dou, one official called
the film "a bad influence on the physical and spiritual health of young people."
Gong wrote the introduction to the 2001 book "Chinese Opera".
Despite her high profile, Gong put off working on Hollywood films for years, due
to both her lack of confidence in speaking English and her discontent with the
types of roles that had been offered to her. Her first major English-language
role came in 2005 when she starred as the beautiful but vindictive Hatsumomo in
Memoirs of a Geisha. Her performance met generally rave reviews.
Her other English-language roles to date have been in Miami Vice in 2006 and
Hannibal Rising in 2007. In all three films, she learned her English lines
phonetically.
Name: Gong Li
Born: 31 December 1965 Shenyang, China
Gong Li (born December 31, 1965) is a Chinese film actress. She first came into international
prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is
credited with helping bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States.
Gong Li was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, the fifth child in her family.
Her father was a professor of economics and her mother, who was 40 when Gong was
born, was a teacher. Gong grew up in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province.
She knew from a young age that she wanted to be an actress, and at school she
excelled at singing and dancing almost to the exclusion of other subjects. She
was eventually accepted to the Beijing Central College of Drama in 1985 and
graduated in 1989. She was still a student there when Zhang Yimou chose her
in 1987 for the lead role in his first film as a director.
Over the next several years after her 1987 debut in Red Sorghum, Gong received
both local and international acclaim for her roles in several more Zhang Yimou
films, becoming his muse. She appeared in Ju Dou in 1990. Her performance in
the Oscar-nominated Raise the Red Lantern thrust her into the international
spotlight. and The Story of Qiu Ju, for which she was named Best Actress at
the 1992 Venice Film Festival. The roles help solidify her reputation as,
according to Asiaweek, one of the "world's most glamorous movie stars and an
elegant throwback to Hollywood's golden era." Gong and Zhang, however were
not only colleagues but lovers. When Gong ended their personal relationship in
1995 (marrying a businessman the following year), their professional
relationship ended as well.
In 1993 she received a New York Film Critics Circle award for her role in
Farewell My Concubine. Directed by Chen Kaige, the film was at the time her
first major role with a director other than Zhang Yimou. In 2006, Premiere
Magazine ranked her performance as the 89th greatest performance of all time.
With her ascent and influence, Gong began to criticize the censorship policy in
China. Her films Farewell My Concubine and The Story of Qiu Ju were both banned
in her native land, reportedly for being thinly-veiled critiques of the
government. In regards to the sexual material in Ju Dou, one official called
the film "a bad influence on the physical and spiritual health of young people."
Gong wrote the introduction to the 2001 book "Chinese Opera".
Despite her high profile, Gong put off working on Hollywood films for years, due
to both her lack of confidence in speaking English and her discontent with the
types of roles that had been offered to her. Her first major English-language
role came in 2005 when she starred as the beautiful but vindictive Hatsumomo in
Memoirs of a Geisha. Her performance met generally rave reviews.
Her other English-language roles to date have been in Miami Vice in 2006 and
Hannibal Rising in 2007. In all three films, she learned her English lines
phonetically.