Zhang Ziyi Biography
Zhang Ziyi (born February 9, 1979) is a Chinese film actress. Zhang is coined by the media as one of the Four Young Dan actresses in the Film Industry in China, along with Zhao Wei, Xu Jinglei, and Zhou Xun. With a string of Chinese and international hits to her name, she has worked with renowned directors such as Zhang Yimou, Ang Lee, Wong Kar-wai, Chen Kaige, Tsui Hark, Lou Ye, Seijun Suzuki, Feng Xiaogang and Rob Marshall.
She achieved wider fame in the West after starring in major roles for Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).
Early life
Zhang Ziyi was born and raised in Beijing, China, to Zhang Yuanxiao, an accountant and later economist, and Li Zhousheng, a kindergarten teacher. While at this boarding school, she noticed how mean the other girls were to each other while competing for status amongst the teachers. Zhang disliked the attitudes of her peers and teachers so much that, on one occasion, she ran away from the school. At the age of 15, Zhang won the national youth dance championship and began appearing in television commercials in Hong Kong.
In 1996, Zhang entered China's prestigious Central Academy of Drama (regarded as the top acting college in China) at the age of 18.
Career
1999–2002
At the age of 19, Zhang was offered her first role in Zhang Yimou's
The Road Home, which won the Silver Bear award in the 1999 Berlin Film Festival.
She rose to further fame in 2000 with her role as Jen (Chinese version: Yu Jiao Long) in
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which she won several awards in the Western world, such as Chicago Film Critics Association Awards, Toronto Film Critics Association Awards and Independent Spirit Awards. Zhang's first appearance in an American movie was in
Rush Hour 2, but because she did not speak English at the time, Jackie Chan had to interpret everything the director said to her. In the movie, her character's name is "Hu Li", which is Mandarin Chinese for "Fox".
Zhang then appeared in
Hero (2002), with her early mentor Zhang Yimou. This was a huge success in the English-speaking world and was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe award in the category of Best Foreign Language Film.
2003–2006
She then signed on to film an
avant-garde drama,
Purple Butterfly (2003), which competed in the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. Zhang went back to the martial arts genre in
House of Flying Daggers (2004), which earned her a Best Actress nomination from the British Academy of Film and Television Arts. In
2046 (2004), directed by Wong Kar-wai, starring many of the best-known Chinese actors and actresses, Zhang was the female lead and won the Hong Kong Film Critics' Best Actress Award and the Hong Kong Film Academy's Best Actress Award.
Showing her whimsical musical tap-dancing side, Zhang starred in
Princess Raccoon, directed by Japanese legend Seijun Suzuki, who was honored at the 2005 Cannes Film Festival. She then accepted the lead role of Sayuri in the film adaptation based on the international bestseller
Memoirs of a Geisha. Controversy arose in Japan and China about having a Chinese woman portray a Japanese geisha. For this film, she was reunited with her
2046 co-star Gong Li and with
Crouching Tiger co-star Michelle Yeoh. For the role, Zhang received a 2006 Golden Globe Award nomination, a Screen Actors Guild Award nomination and a BAFTA nomination.
Zhang has also been known to sing, and was featured on the
House of Flying Daggers soundtrack with her own musical rendition of the ancient Chinese poem,
Jia Rén Qu (佳人曲,
The Beauty Song). The song was also featured in two scenes in the film.
On June 27, 2005, it was announced that Zhang had accepted an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), placing her among the ranks of those able to vote on the Academy Awards. She then appeared as Empress Wan in
The Banquet (2006), a film set in the Tang Dynasty.
2007–present
Zhang provided the voice of Karai in
TMNT (2007). She later starred in
Forever Enthralled (2008) and appeared in
The Horsemen (2009) with Dennis Quaid.
In January 2010, it was announced she had plans to produce a film adaptation of
Snow Flower and the Secret Fan; however, it was announced that she had turned down the role due to a busy schedule.
Zhang has been cast in the role of Lin Huiyin in a 2011 film.
Zhang is currently playing the titular heroine in
Mulan, a live-action version of the Chinese folk tale of Hua Mulan, previously popularized around the world by Disney through their 1998 animated movie. The film, which is directed by Jan de Bont, is expected to wrap in January 2011.
Ambassadorship and representation
Zhang is the face of Maybelline, Garnier and Shangri-la Hotel and Resort Group. She is also a Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics and a spokesperson for "Save the Children," a foster-home program in China.
