Gong Li -- also credited as Li Gong -- was still in acting school when she got the lead role in the 1988 film Red Sorghum. She was an international hit and starred in many Chinese films throughout the 1990s, including The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) and Farewell My Concubine (1993). She made several films with director Yimou Zhang, with whom she had a personal relationship until 1995. She has also appeared in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005, starring Michelle Yeoh) and Miami Vice (2006, with Colin Farrell and Jamie Foxx).
Career Highlights: Raise the Red Lantern, Farewell, My Concubine, The Story of Qiu Ju
First Major Screen Credit: Red Sorghum (1987)
Biography
As the radiantly beautiful star of Zhang Yimou's finest films, Gong Li became the darling of the international art house circuit and China's most famous actress. Whether playing a pregnant villager searching for justice or a rich man's concubine struggling to survive, she lends her characters a grace and sensuality that keeps international audiences transfixed.
Born in 1965 in northeastern Shenyang, Gong was the youngest daughter of an economics professor. 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. In spite of failing her college exam twice, she was eventually accepted to the Beijing Central College of Drama in 1985. At that time, Chinese cinema was experiencing a renaissance after the tumult of Mao Zedong's Cultural Revolution. Chen Kaige's Yellow Earth (1984) had just taken the Hong Kong International Film Festival by storm, heralding the rise of the Fifth Generation of filmmakers. One of these young directors was Zhang, the cinematographer for Yellow Earth, who cast Gong in his debut project, Red Sorghum (1987). Immediately a critical and commercial success both abroad and at home, the film garnered the Golden Bear award at the 1987 Berlin Film Festival and thrust both director and star into the international limelight.
Their professional and well-publicized personal relationship would go on to shape Chinese cinema for the next decade. Yimou's films made Li an international household name, while Li's undeniable presence pulled in audiences. After appearing in the forgettable Codename Cougar (1987) and starring opposite her beau in The Terracotta Warrior (1989), Li grabbed the attention of international audiences again with the Academy Award-nominated Ju Dou (1990). Her performance as the beleaguered bride of a bitter, impotent old man glistened with barely repressed sexuality, and fierce, gleeful vengeance. In her next film, Raise the Red Lantern (1992), widely considered Yimou's masterpiece, Li again brilliantly played a woman whose independence and sensuality are oppressed by a rigidly patriarchal culture. Yet Li's performance in The Story of Qiu Ju (1992) is perhaps her most memorable. Instead of playing the object of obsession, she portrayed an unflagging agent of justice in the guise of a dumpy, pregnant peasant woman. The change in characters paid off, as she won a Best Actress award at the 1992 Venice International Film Festival.
After playing the lead in Sylvia Chang's well-received Mary from Beijing (1992), Li played a prostitute turned opera star's wife turned enemy of the people in Kaige's stunning, Farewell, My Concubine (1993), which won the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival. For the first time, Li received international acclaim in a film not directed by Yimou. Though she would star in two more of Yimou's films, To Live (1994) and Shanghai Triad (1995), her career started to take her in a different direction. After the latter was released, the press reported that Li and Yimou had officially ended both their personal and professional relationships. That same year, she married Singapore tobacco tycoon Ooi Hoe Soeng. Since then, she has appeared in two more Kaige films, Temptress Moon (1996) and The Emperor and the Assassin (1999). In 1997, she appeared in her first English language role opposite Jeremy Irons in Chinese Box (1997). Her star continuing to shine brightly in such homegrown efforts as Zhou Yu's Train and Wong Kar Wei's romantic drama 2046, the Chinese actress raised a few eyebrows when cast in the role of a Japanese geisha in director Rob Marshall's 2005 effort Memoirs of a Geisha. A featured role opposite Collin Farrell and Jamie Foxx in the eagerly-anticipated big screen action extravaganza Miami Vice would find Li returning stateside to appear before the cameras once again in 2005. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
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.[3] Gong grew up in Jinan, the capital of Shandong Province. She was accepted to the prestigious Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1985, and graduated in 1989.[4] While as a student at Central Academy of Drama, she was discovered by Zhang Yimou, who chose her for the lead role in Red Sorghum, his first film as a director.[5]
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:[6] She appeared in Ju Dou in 1990; Her performance in the Oscar-nominated Raise the Red Lantern put her in the international spotlight;[5] In The Story of Qiu Ju, she was named Best Actress at the 1992 Venice Film Festival. These roles established her reputation, according to Asiaweek, as "one of the world's most glamorous movie stars and an elegant throwback to Hollywood's golden era."[5]
In June 1998, Gong Li became a recipient of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. Two years later, she was chosen as the president of the international jury of the 50th annual Berlin Film Festival.[7]
Immune to political repercussions because of her reputation, Gong Li began criticizing the censorship policy in China. Her films Farewell My Concubine and The Story of Qiu Ju were initially banned in her native land, reportedly for being thinly-veiled critiques of the communist government.[7] In regard to the sexual content in Ju Dou, one government official called the film "a bad influence on the physical and spiritual health of young people."[6] She said (translated) "Under the new wave of directors, films in China are getting more in-depth and have more Chinese characteristics than before. But mainland directors face an entirely different system from their counterparts elsewhere. You can't just make whatever films you like."[5]
Despite her popularity, Gong avoided Hollywood for years, due to a lack of confidence in speaking English.[8] She made her English speaking debut in 2005 when she starred as the beautiful but vindictive Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha. Her performance was met with generally positive reviews.[9]
Her collaboration with director Zhang Yimou was highly publicized, but an affair with Zhang created a scandal that ended their professional relationship in 1995. They were reunited in 2006 for Zhang's Curse of the Golden Flower.
In 1996, rumors began circulating that Gong had married Singaporean tobacco tycoon, Ooi Hoe Soeng (黄和祥). She denied these allegations until a Singapore tabloid printed a copy of the marriage certificate.[10] They had married in November 1996 at Hong Kong's China Club.[10][11]
Gong Li applied for Singapore citizenship in early 2008.[2] When overseas professional obligations prevented her from showing up at her scheduled August citizenship ceremony, some Singaporeans questioned whether she was disrespectful of her new country.[2] On Saturday November 8, 2008, Gong attended a citizenship ceremony held at Teck Ghee Community Club and received her Singapore citizenship certificate from Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah.[2].
