Gong Li

Gong Li is a Chinese actress born on December 31, 1965, in Shenyang, Liaoning. She was raised in Jinan, Shandong, as the youngest of five children born to a university economics professor and an accountant. Interested in singing, dancing, and performing arts during her school years, she pursued acting despite multiple initial entrance exam rejections. While working part-time and taking drama lessons, she was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1985 and graduated in 1989.

While still a student in 1987, Gong was chosen by director Zhang Yimou to debut in his feature film Red Sorghum. Their subsequent creative and personal partnership gained substantial attention across the Chinese-speaking world. Their collaborations produced several critically acclaimed projects, including Ju Dou in 1990 and Raise the Red Lantern in 1991, both of which received Academy Award nominations for Best Foreign Language Film. For her starring role in Zhang's 1992 drama The Story of Qiu Ju, Gong was awarded the Volpi Cup for Best Actress at the Venice Film Festival alongside a Golden Rooster Award.

Gong further expanded her filmography by collaborating with director Chen Kaige, starring in the 1993 Oscar-nominated film Farewell My Concubine, which earned her the New York Film Critics Circle Award for Best Supporting Actress. She later worked with Chen on Temptress Moon in 1996 and The Emperor and the Assassin in 1999. Throughout the 1990s, Gong appeared in diverse genres, including comedies such as God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai and Flirting Scholar, as well as feature dramas including To Live, Shanghai Triad, and Chinese Box. In 2000, she won Best Actress at the Montreal World Film Festival for her role in Breaking the Silence.

In addition to her screen performances, Gong became the first Asian individual to head international juries at the Berlin Film Festival in 2000 and the Venice Film Festival in 2002. She subsequently presided over juries at the Tokyo International Film Festival in 2003, the Shanghai International Film Festival in 2014, and the Golden Horse Awards in 2018. In 2005, she made her English-language acting debut in Memoirs of a Geisha, earning the National Board of Review Award for Best Supporting Actress. She subsequently took roles in English-language productions such as Miami Vice in 2006 and Hannibal Rising in 2007.

Gong reunited with Zhang Yimou for Curse of the Golden Flower in 2006, winning Best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards, and later starred in his 2014 drama Coming Home. Her subsequent film appearances include the thriller Shanghai in 2010, the action feature The Monkey King 2 in 2016, the period drama Saturday Fiction in 2019, and the live-action adaptation of Mulan in 2020. Over her career, she has received four Hundred Flowers Awards, two Golden Rooster Awards, and was named a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by France in 2010.