Vicki Zhao

Vicki Zhao

Zhao Wei born 12 March 1976, is a Chinese actress and pop singer. Audiences sometimes refer to her by her English name, Vicki Zhao. She has been awarded the Hundred Flowers Award, Shanghai Film Critics Award, Huabiao Award, Golden Eagle TV Award as well as Shanghai Film Festival Golden Globe, amongst others.

After being chosen to work as an extra on a filming set,  Vicki Zhao developed a love for acting. While studying at Beijing Film Academy, Zhao participated in various film projects. Zhao's breakout role as a leading actress was in Princess Pearl, a Chinese television series. In 1999, after Princess Pearl was broadcast, Zhao also began a singing career with her first album, Swallow. She is considered one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China, along with Xu Jinglei, Zhang Ziyi and Zhou Xun.

Zhao rose to international stardom in films such as Stephen Chow's Shaolin Soccer (2001), So Close (2002) and the epic Warriors of Heaven and Earth (2004). In John Woo's historical epic Red Cliff (2009), she played warrior princess Sun Shangxiang. She gained positive reviews from the Associated Press: "But the biggest surprise in the cast is Chinese actress Zhao Wei, who steals the show with her portrayal of Sun's spunky tomboy sister Sun Shangxiang." For her achievements in film, television, and music, Japanese media dubbed her China's No.1 actress, and UK's The Independent described her as "China's box office darling."

Source: Wikipedia

Xu Jinglei

Xu Jinglei

Xu Jinglei born April 16, 1974, is a Chinese actress, film director and editor. She graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1997. Along with Zhao Wei, Zhou Xun and Zhang Ziyi, the mainland Chinese media considers her one of the Four Young Dan actresses. She has also spanned an acting career with directing since 2003.

Although not well known outside of China,  Xu Jinglei is popular domestically: in mid-2006, her Chinese-language blog had the most incoming links of any blog in any language on the Internet, according to Technorati.

Source: Wikipedia

Yao Ming

Yao Ming

Yao Ming born September 12, 1980, is a retired Chinese professional basketball player who last played for the Houston Rockets of the National Basketball Association (NBA). At the time of his final season, he was the tallest active player in the NBA, at 2.29 m.

Yao Ming, who was born in Shanghai, started playing for the Shanghai Sharks as a teenager, and played on their senior team for five years in the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA), winning a championship in his final year. After negotiating with the CBA and the Sharks to secure his release, Yao Mingwas selected by the Houston Rockets as the first overall pick in the 2002 NBA Draft. Yao Ming was selected to start for the Western Conference in the NBA All-Star Game eight times, and was named to the All-NBA Team five times. He reached the NBA Playoffs four times, and the Rockets won a first-round series in the 2009 post season, their first playoff series victory since 1997. However, Yao Ming missed 250 regular-season games due to foot and ankle injuries in his final six seasons.

He is one of China's best-known athletes, with sponsorships with several major companies. His rookie year in the NBA was the subject of a documentary film, The Year of the Yao, and he co-wrote, along with NBA analyst Ric Bucher, an autobiography titled Yao: A Life in Two Worlds.

Source: Wikipedia

Zhou Xun

Zhou Xun 

Zhou Xun born October 18, 1974, is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.

Early life
Zhou was born to a middle-class family. Her father, Zhou Tianning was a local film projectionist and her mother, Chen Yiqin was a salesperson at a department store. Zhou later enrolled at the Zhejiang Arts Institute to further her interest in dramatic arts, against the wishes of her parents, who wanted her to graduate from a university. She was handpicked for a role in the film Strange Tales Amongst Old and Desolate Tombs during her teenage years in school.

Acting career
Zhou gained international recognition for her roles in Lou Ye's Suzhou River (2000) and Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2002), winning the Best Actress Award for the former at the 15th Paris Film Festival. In 2002, she starred as Huang Rong, reuniting her with Kaixin Jiuhao television co-star Li Yapeng, who played Guo Jing, in the 2003 television series The Legend of the Condor Heroes. The series was one of the most watched ones in mainland China in that year.

Zhou entered the Hong Kong film industry in 2005, starring in Peter Chan's musical film Perhaps Love. She won the "Best Actress" award at the Hong Kong Film Awards, Hong Kong Film Critic's Society Awards, Golden Bauhinia Awards, Golden Horse Awards, Beijing Student Film Festival and Hangzhou Student Film Festival for her performance. After Perhaps Love, her next film was Feng Xiaogang's The Banquet, in which she played a supporting role. Zhou's next project was Susie Au's film Ming Ming (2007), which won high praise at the 2006 Pusan International Film Festival held in South Korea. At the premiere of the film, she released her new music video, featuring the theme song of Ming Ming.

In 2008, Zhou starred in Cao Baoping's romantic thriller The Equation of Love and Death as a taxicab driver on the lookout for her missing boyfriend. The movie was filmed in Yunnan. In that year, she also played the lead role in Painted Skin, a remake of a classic supernatural thriller of the same title. She has also appeared in the urban romantic comedy All About Women directed by Tsui Hark.

Singing career
Apart from her acting career, Zhou has also performed for some motion picture soundtracks, such as Ming Ming, Baobei In Love, Xin Bian Guo Le Xi San Meng You Xian Jing and Perhaps Love. She has also released two solo albums, Summer (2003) and Come Across (2005).

Source: Wikipedia

Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi born 9 February 1979, sometimes credited as Ziyi Zhang, is a Chinese film actress. Chinese media have called her one of the Four Young Dan Actresses in China's film industry, along with Zhao Wei, Xu Jinglei and Zhou Xun.

Her first major role was in The Road Home (1999). She achieved fame in the West after leading roles in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), Rush Hour 2 (2001), House of Flying Daggers (2004), and Memoirs of a Geisha (2005). She has been nominated for three BAFTA Awards and a Golden Globe Award.

Zhang was born and raised in Beijing to Zhang Yuanxiao, an accountant and later economist, and Li Zhousheng, a kindergarten teacher

Zhang is the face of Maybelline, Garnier, Omega Watches and Shangri-la Hotel and Resort Group. She is also a Global Ambassador for the Special Olympics and a spokesperson for "Care for Children" a foster-home program in China.


Zhang Ziyi has a huge Magazine recognition including.

• Ranked 2nd of the 100 Sexiest Women by FHM Taiwan (2001).
• Named one of the 25 Hottest Stars Under 25 by Teen People Magazine (2001).
• Named one of the 25 Hottest Stars Under 25 by Teen People Magazine (2002).
• Ranked No. 91 in Stuff magazine's "102 Sexiest Women In The World" (2002)
• Voted in at No. 100 in FHM's "Sexiest 100 Girls of 2002", UK edition. [June 2002]
• Ranked in the top 5 of Forbes magazine's China Celebrity 100 list every year.
• Named by Entertainment Weekly in their 'The Must List' 2005. Listed 38th out of the 122 people and things the magazine "loves" this year, Ziyi was the only Chinese to be included.
• Selected by Southern People Weekly magazine as "Chinese Top Ten Leaders Of The Younger Generation" in 2005.
• Listed in People's "50 Most Beautiful People" List in 2005.
• Listed in TIME's World's 100 Most Influential People. They called her "China's Gift to Hollywood".
• Ranked one of the '100 Most Beautiful Women in the World' in the July 2005 issue of Harpers & Queen magazine. It was her first time on the list. She was ranked number 15.
• Included in People's 100 Most Beautiful People in the World the second year in a row in 2006. This is now her third appearance on the list.
• Voted in at No. 86 in FHM's sexiest women in the world in 2006. She had not appeared in the list since 2002.
• Topped Japanese Playboy's "100 Sexiest Women in Asia" list and was featured on the cover. (April 2006)[20]
• Voted No. 1 in E!'s "Sexiest Action Stars" list in summer 2007.
• Ranked No. 3 in Japanese magazine CLASSY's "Super Perfect Head-to-Body Size Ratio List" in January 2009.

Source: Wikipedia

Yi Jianlian

Yi Jianlian

Yi Jianlian is a Chinese professional basketball player who plays for the Dallas Mavericks of the National Basketball Association (NBA). He has also played in the NBA for the Milwaukee Bucks, New Jersey Nets, and Washington Wizards. Yi played power forward for the Guangdong Southern Tigers of the Chinese Basketball Association (CBA) in 2002 and subsequently won the Rookie of the Year Award. In five years with the Tigers, he won three CBA titles, as well as playing with the Chinese national basketball team in the 2004 Summer Olympics and the 2006 FIBA World Championships. In the 2007 NBA Draft, he was selected by the Milwaukee Bucks as the sixth overall pick. Initially, Yi declined to sign with the Bucks for several months before agreeing to a contract with them on August 29, 2007.

There has been controversy over Yi's age, as several reports have testified that his officially listed birth date of October 27, 1987, was intentionally falsified so he would be able to play longer in junior competitions. Yi has refused to comment on his age.

Source: Wikipedia

Zhao Benshan

Zhao Benshan

Zhao Benshan born in Shizui Cottage in Lianhua Village, Kaiyuan County in Tieling, Liaoning, in a peasant family, October 1958, is a Chinese skit and sitcom actor, and recently turned TV director.

Zhao Benshan was orphaned when he was 6. Apprenticed to his uncle, he learned many local traditional performance arts, including erhu and Er Ren Zhuan. Jiang Kun, a Xiangsheng artist, recommend him to the 1987 CCTV New Year's Gala, a TV program broadcast all around China. After his first appearance, he had appeared in each Gala show every year except in 1994 and 2012. His performances have included "Yesterday, today and Tomorrow", and "Fixing up the house".

Zhao has appeared as an actor in many films, including Zhang Yimou's Happy Times where he played an aging bachelor dying to get hitched. He also appeared as the main character in Liu Laogen and Ma Dashuai, as well as a secondary character in Rural Love and their sequels.

Zhao was nominated for the Best Actor Award for his performance in Getting Home at the 2007 Golden Horse Awards, held in Taipei on the 8th of December, 2007. He did not win however, losing to Tony Leung Chiu-Wai for his work in Lust, Caution.

Zhao also took part in the Beijing 2008 Summer Olympics torch relay by being a torchbearer in the Liaoning leg of the relay in Shenyang city, capital of China's Liaoning province.

In 2009, Zhao is studying in the 4th intake CEO class at Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business. In September 2009, Zhao was in the news again following a cerebral aneurysm rupture. He is said to be in a stable condition after an operation, although close associates have mentioned that he often felt unwell in recent years when he is exhausted on the set.

Zhao did not perform in the 2012 CCTV New Year's gala, raising public speculation about his health and his conflict with director Ha Wen. This marked the first time since 1994 that he has not performed at the annual event.

Source: Wikipedia

Gong Li

Gong Li

Gong Li born in Shenyang, Liaoning, 31 December 1965, is a Chinese born Singaporean film actress. Her parents were related to educational jobs like her father was a professor of economics and mother was a teacher. Gong Li is the youngest in a family of five children. She graduated form prestigious Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1989. Even her graduation college was became the start of her career. As she was chossen for the lead role in Red Sorghum by Zhang Yimou which was her first film.

Gong first came into international prominence through close collaboration with Chinese director Zhang Yimou and is credited with helping to bring Chinese cinema to Europe and the United States.

She has twice been awarded the Golden Rooster and the Hundred Flowers Awards as well as the Berlinale Camera, Cannes Festival Trophy, National Board of Review, New York Film Critics Circle Award, and Volpi Cup.

Gong Li was voted the most beautiful woman in China in 2006. She married Singaporean businessman Ooi Hoe Soeng in 1996,while they were seprated in 2010. But due to her relation to Ooi Hoe Soeng she became a Singaporean citizen in 2008.

Source: Wikipedia

Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou

Zhang Yimou born in Xi'an, the capital of Shaanxi province November 14, 1951, is a Chinese film director, producer, writer and actor, and former cinematographer. He is counted amongst the Fifth Generation of Chinese filmmakers, having made his directorial debut in 1987 with Red Sorghum.

Zhang has won numerous awards and recognitions, with Best Foreign Film nominations for Ju Dou in 1990 and Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, Silver Lion and Golden Lion prizes at the Venice Film Festival, Grand Jury Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, and the Golden Bear at the Berlin International Film Festival. In 1993, he was a member of the jury at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival.

One of Zhang's recurrent themes is the resilience of Chinese people in the face of hardship and adversity, a theme which has been explored in such films as, for example, To Live (1994) and Not One Less (1999). His films are particularly noted for their rich use of colour, as can be seen in some of his early films, like Raise the Red Lantern, and in his wuxia films like Hero and House of Flying Daggers. His most recent film is a historical drama war film called The Flowers of War.

Source: Wikipedia