JOAN CHEN
Name: Joan Chen
Born: 26 April 1961 Shanghai, China
Joan Chen (born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese American actress, film director,
screenwriter and film producer, best known for her roles in The Last Emperor,
Twin Peaks, Red Rose, White Rose, Saving Face, and for directing the feature
film Autumn in New York and Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.
She was born Chen Chong in Shanghai, China into a family of doctors (her
grandparents were educated at Oxford and her parents were trained at Harvard).
She grew up during the Cultural Revolution. At age 14, Chen was discovered on
the school rifle range by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, as she was excelling at
marksmanship. This led her to be selected for the Actors' Training Program by
the Shanghai Film Studio in 1975, where she was discovered by veteran director
Xie Jin who chose her to star in his 1977 film Youth as a deaf
mute whose senses are restored by an Army medical team. She soon enrolled in the
prestigious Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, at age 17 (one year before
one could go), where she majored in English.
Chen Chong first became famous in China for her performance in Zhang Zheng's
Little Flower in 1979 for which she won the
Hundred Flowers Award, in which she played
a revolutionary's daughter in pre-Maoist China, who falls in love with the
wounded soldier whom she and her mother care for. Little Flower was her second
film and Chen soon hit the status of China's most loved actress, which earned
her to be dubbed "the Elizabeth Taylor of China" by Time magazine, for having
achieved stardom while still a teenager. In addition, Chen is famous in China
for her role in the 1979 film Hearts for the Motherland
which depicts an overseas Chinese family that returns to China from southeast
Asia out of their patriotic feelings but encounter political troubles during the
Cultural Revolution. The songs, I Love You, China and High Flies the
Petrel, sung by Chen's character, are perennial favorites in China.
At age twenty, Chen moved to the United States where she studied filmmaking at
California State University, Northridge. In 1989, she became a naturalized
citizen of the United States.
Her first Hollywood movie was Tai-Pan, filmed on location in China. She went on
to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 and the David Lynch/Mark
Frost television series Twin Peaks. In 1993 she co-starred in Oliver Stone's
Heaven & Earth. She portrayed two different characters in Clara Law's Temptation
of a Monk: a seductive princess of Tang
dynasty, and a dangerous temptress. The award-winning film was adapted from a
novel by Lilian Lee. In 1994 she came back in Shanghai to star in critically
acclaimed Stanley Kwan's Red Rose, White Rose opposite Winston
Chao and Veronica Yip. In 1995, Chen made what has become perhaps her best known
film; "Wild Side" for HBO. The movie has become something of a cult classic due
mainly to her graphic lesbian love scenes with co-star Anne Heche. Tired of
being cast as an exotic beauty in Hollywood films, Chen moved into directing in
1998 with the critically acclaimed Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl,
adapted from the novella Heavenly Bath by her friend Yan
Geling. She later directed Autumn in New York in 2000.
Chen made a comeback in 2004 when she starred in Jasmine Women
and in Asian American independent film Saving Face. She
then appeared in the Asian American independent film Americanese.
Chen will appear in 7 films whose release is scheduled for 2007 and 2008:
Singapore film The Leap Years (based upon a novel by Catherine Lim and starring
Wong Li-Lin, Ananda Everingham and Qi Yuwu), Australian film The Home Song
Stories (directed by Tony Ayres, again co-starring Qi Yuwu), American films
Michael Almereyda's Tonight at Noon (along with Ethan Hawke and Rutger Hauer)
and All God's Children Can Dance (opposite Tzi Ma), Chinese film Jiang Wen's The
Sun Also Rises (opposite Jaycee Chan and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang), and Chinese
American film Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (along with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai).
Name: Joan Chen
Born: 26 April 1961 Shanghai, China
Joan Chen (born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese American actress, film director,
screenwriter and film producer, best known for her roles in The Last Emperor,
Twin Peaks, Red Rose, White Rose, Saving Face, and for directing the feature
film Autumn in New York and Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.
She was born Chen Chong in Shanghai, China into a family of doctors (her
grandparents were educated at Oxford and her parents were trained at Harvard).
She grew up during the Cultural Revolution. At age 14, Chen was discovered on
the school rifle range by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, as she was excelling at
marksmanship. This led her to be selected for the Actors' Training Program by
the Shanghai Film Studio in 1975, where she was discovered by veteran director
Xie Jin who chose her to star in his 1977 film Youth as a deaf
mute whose senses are restored by an Army medical team. She soon enrolled in the
prestigious Shanghai Institute of Foreign Languages, at age 17 (one year before
one could go), where she majored in English.
Chen Chong first became famous in China for her performance in Zhang Zheng's
Little Flower in 1979 for which she won the
Hundred Flowers Award, in which she played
a revolutionary's daughter in pre-Maoist China, who falls in love with the
wounded soldier whom she and her mother care for. Little Flower was her second
film and Chen soon hit the status of China's most loved actress, which earned
her to be dubbed "the Elizabeth Taylor of China" by Time magazine, for having
achieved stardom while still a teenager. In addition, Chen is famous in China
for her role in the 1979 film Hearts for the Motherland
which depicts an overseas Chinese family that returns to China from southeast
Asia out of their patriotic feelings but encounter political troubles during the
Cultural Revolution. The songs, I Love You, China and High Flies the
Petrel, sung by Chen's character, are perennial favorites in China.
At age twenty, Chen moved to the United States where she studied filmmaking at
California State University, Northridge. In 1989, she became a naturalized
citizen of the United States.
Her first Hollywood movie was Tai-Pan, filmed on location in China. She went on
to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 and the David Lynch/Mark
Frost television series Twin Peaks. In 1993 she co-starred in Oliver Stone's
Heaven & Earth. She portrayed two different characters in Clara Law's Temptation
of a Monk: a seductive princess of Tang
dynasty, and a dangerous temptress. The award-winning film was adapted from a
novel by Lilian Lee. In 1994 she came back in Shanghai to star in critically
acclaimed Stanley Kwan's Red Rose, White Rose opposite Winston
Chao and Veronica Yip. In 1995, Chen made what has become perhaps her best known
film; "Wild Side" for HBO. The movie has become something of a cult classic due
mainly to her graphic lesbian love scenes with co-star Anne Heche. Tired of
being cast as an exotic beauty in Hollywood films, Chen moved into directing in
1998 with the critically acclaimed Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl,
adapted from the novella Heavenly Bath by her friend Yan
Geling. She later directed Autumn in New York in 2000.
Chen made a comeback in 2004 when she starred in Jasmine Women
and in Asian American independent film Saving Face. She
then appeared in the Asian American independent film Americanese.
Chen will appear in 7 films whose release is scheduled for 2007 and 2008:
Singapore film The Leap Years (based upon a novel by Catherine Lim and starring
Wong Li-Lin, Ananda Everingham and Qi Yuwu), Australian film The Home Song
Stories (directed by Tony Ayres, again co-starring Qi Yuwu), American films
Michael Almereyda's Tonight at Noon (along with Ethan Hawke and Rutger Hauer)
and All God's Children Can Dance (opposite Tzi Ma), Chinese film Jiang Wen's The
Sun Also Rises (opposite Jaycee Chan and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang), and Chinese
American film Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (along with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai).