Gong Li Bio

Gong Li Biography

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Gong Li (simplified Chinese: 巩俐; traditional Chinese: 鞏俐; pinyin: Gǒng Lì) (born December 31, 1965) is a two-time Golden Rooster, two-time Hundred Flowers Award, Berlinale Camera, Cannes Festival Trophy, National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle Award, and Volpi Cup winning 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: Biography

Gong Li - Early life

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.

Gong Li - Career

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.

Gong Li: Controversy

Gong created a major stir at Peking University in 2000 when the university accepted her to take an undergraduate degree course in social studies. Students of the institution felt her celebrity allowed her to "jump the queue" when other prospective students are held to much more competitive standards. In her defence, Gong said she simply wanted to "pursue the spirit of learning."

Gong Li: Personal life

Her relationship with Zhang Yimou was both professional and romantic and they created a scandal for being lovers during their long collaboration, despite Zhang having been married at the time. The couple eventually broke up in 1995. In 1996, rumors began circulating that Gong had married Singaporean tobacco tycoon Ooi Hoe Soeng (黄和祥), allegations she denied until a Singapore tabloid printed a copy of the marriage certificate. They eventually had a wedding reception that November at Hong Kong's China Club. She has a reputation for being elusive and is very private about her personal life. As of 2007, she is said to be able to speak fluent conversational English.

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