Gong Li

Early life

Gong Li was born in Shenyang, Liaoning, China, as the youngest of five children. Her father, Gong Lize, had been a professor of economics at Liaoning University until being transferred to Shandong University a few years before the Cultural Revolution. Her mother, Zhao Ying, originally a college teacher, followed her husband to Shandong and became an accountant at a state-run cotton mill.

Gong grew up in Jinan, the capital of Shandong. She studied in Jinan Sanhe Street Primary School (now Shandong Experimental Primary School). At school, she developed an interest in singing, dancing, and imitation. In Grade 2, she participated in her school's performing arts troupe. Later, she and her classmates were invited to Shandong People's Radio Station to sing children's songs in praise of the oil workers in Daqing.

Gong spent six years at Jinan No.2 Middle School. In 1983, she took her first Gaokao, applying to two art programs at Shandong Normal University and Qufu Normal University, but failed to gain admission. The following year, she applied to Shandong Art Academy and the People's Liberation Army Arts College, but was unsuccessful again. Her parents discouraged her from pursuing it further, but Gong persisted by working part-time while taking acting lessons from director Yin Dawei in Jinan. In 1985, encouraged by Yin, she applied to the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing. Despite scoring 11 points at Gaokao below the requirement, the academy petitioned for her special admission, which was eventually granted by the Ministry of Culture, the superior department then in charge of the academy. Gong was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama in 1985 and graduated in 1989.

Acting career

1987–1989: Career beginnings

In 1987, while at college, Gong was discovered by Zhang Yimou, who cast her for the lead role in Red Sorghum, his first film as a director. The film won the Golden Bear at the 38th Berlin International Film Festival, becoming the first Chinese film to win this award. It also won the Golden Rooster Awards and the Hundred Flowers Awards for Best Picture in 1988.

In 1989, Gong starred in Zhang Yimou's second counterterrorism film, Codename Cougar, for which she won the Hundred Flowers Awards for Best Supporting Actress, ushering in a new stage of exploring acting skills and style. On the same year, she took part in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests and according to her, Tiananmen taught her that she should have her own opinion, "not just follow blindly."

1990–1999: Fifth generation filmmakers and international spotlight

Over the several years following her 1987 acting debut in Red Sorghum, Gong received international acclaim for her roles in several more Zhang Yimou films.

In 1990, Gong Continued to cooperate with Zhang Yimou and starred in his family ethics movie Ju Dou, which won the Luis Buñuel Special Award at the 1990 Cannes Film Festival, and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 63rd Academy Awards, becoming the first Chinese film to be nominated for an Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. Gong also won the Best Actress award at the Varna International Film Festival.

In 1991, Gong starred in Zhang Yimou's film Raise the Red Lantern, which won the Silver Lion award at the 48th Venice Film Festival, and was nominated for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 64th Academy Awards. Gong, playing a rebellious mistress in the film, won the Hundred Flowers Awards for Best Actress and was nominated for the David di Donatello Awards and the NSFC for Best Actress. Her performance in the Raise the Red Lantern (1991) put her in the international spotlight again.

In 1992, Gong starred in the rural drama The Story of Qiu Ju, which won the Golden Lion award at the 49th Venice International Film Festival. Gong's portrayal of rural woman Qiu Ju not only won the Golden Rooster Awards and the Japanese Movie Critics Awards for Best Actress, but also helped her named Best Actress at the 49th Venice Film Festival.

In 1993, she received a New York Film Critics Circle award for her role in Farewell My Concubine (1993). Directed by Chen Kaige, the film was her first major role with a director other than Zhang Yimou. Premiere ranked her performance in Farewell My Concubine as the 89th greatest performance of all time. She also worked with renowned director Stephen Chow in comedy films God of Gamblers III: Back to Shanghai (1991) and Flirting Scholar (1993).

Immune to political repercussions because of her fame, Gong Li began criticizing the censorship policy in China. Her films Farewell My Concubine and The Story of Qiu Ju were initially banned in China for being thinly veiled critiques of the Chinese government. Regarding the sexual content in Ju Dou, Chinese censorship deemed the film "a bad influence on the physical and spiritual health of young people."

In 1994, Gong played Jiazhen, the wife of Xu Fugui, in the drama To Live, which won the Grand Prix at the 1994 Cannes Film Festival. She was also nominated for the Chlotrudis Awards for Best Actress.

In 1995, Gong starred in Shanghai Triad, during her breakup with Zhang Yimou, in which she played a seductive stage queen. The film won the Technical Grand Prize of Cannes Film Festival, the National Board of Review for Best Foreign Language film, and was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film.

These roles established her reputation, according to Asiaweek, as

In 1996, Gong and Chen Kaige collaborated again in the romantic film Temptress Moon, which was in competition for the Palme d'Or at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Gong has been nominated for her second best Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her role as rebellious teenage girl Ru Yi. She also appeared on the cover of Time.

In 1997, Gong worked with Jeremy Irons on the romantic drama Chinese Box, which won the Best Original Music award at the Venice Film Festival. In the same year, Gong was invited to be a jury at the 1997 Cannes Film Festival, becoming the first Chinese to be a jury at the festival.

In June 1998, Gong Li became a recipient of France's Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

In 1999, Gong and Chen Kaige collaborated for the third film The Emperor and the Assassin, which won the Technical Grand Prize at the 1999 Cannes Film Festival.

In many of her early movies, Gong represents a tragic victim and an abused soul (physically or emotionally), trying to release herself from an impossible maze of corruption, violence and suppression. In Raise the Red Lantern and Shanghai Triad, an additional tragic element is added to her being as she unintentionally becomes the executioner of new innocent victims, making her realize that she has assisted the dark cynical system.

2000–2004: Worldwide recognition

In 2000, Gong won her second international Best Actress trophy for her performance as a struggling single mother in Breaking the Silence (2000) directed by Sun Zhou at the Montreal World Film Festival. She attended the Montreal World Film Festival that year, where she was awarded a special Grand Prix of the Americas for lifetime achievement for her outstanding achievement. In the same year, Gong was invited by the Berlin Film Festival to be the president of its international jury for the festival's 50th anniversary. Gong was nominated Goodwill Ambassador of the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) on 16 October 2000.

In 2002, Gong was invited to head the jury of the Venice Film Festival.

In 2003, Gong served as the president of the jury of the 16th Tokyo International Film Festival, the first woman to do so.

In the early 2000s, Gong also starred in two films directed by Wong Kar-wai, 2046 and Eros (both in 2004), which were seen as "an important opportunity to get rid of the influence of Zhang Yimou". She also attended the 2004 Cannes Film Festival, where she was awarded the Festival Trophy for her contributions to film industry.

2005–2018: Hollywood and Chinese cinema

Despite her popularity, Gong avoided Hollywood for years, due to a lack of confidence in speaking English. She made her English speaking debut in 2005 when she starred as Hatsumomo in Memoirs of a Geisha. Her performance was met with generally positive reviews. Times Richard Corliss to describe her as Gong also won the National Board of Review for Best Supporting Actress for her role as Hatsumomo. Her other English-language roles to date included the Chinese Cuban Isabella of Miami Vice in 2006 and Lady Murasaki of Hannibal Rising in 2007. In all three films, she learned her English lines phonetically.

Through three English-language films, Gong has gradually established herself in Hollywood. Speaking of the Hollywood experience, Gong said it broadened her horizons, gave her a better idea of what she liked and allowed her to experiment with different acting styles.

In 2006, Gong worked again with Yimou for historical epic Curse of the Golden Flower, for which She won the best Actress at the 26th Hong Kong Film Awards. Time named her performance as the Empress as the seventh greatest performance of the year. In the same year, she was voted No.1 in the poll of "Most Beautiful Persons in China" held by The Beijing News.

She narrated Beijing (2008), an audio walking tour by Louis Vuitton and Soundwalk, which won an Audie Award for Best Original Work in 2009.

In 2010, Gong starred in the World War II-era thriller Shanghai as a spy who is disguised as the wife of a triad boss (played by Chow Yun-fat). She turned to documentaries and photographs about World War II, besides taking dancing classes three times a week, to ensure an accurate portrayal of the character. During a press junket for the film, she stated that she was becoming more selective with the Chinese language projects offered to her.

She also emphasized in the interview:

Shanghai was not a hit with critics, with critic Nick Allen writing that "Gong Li is put to a great amount of work as the most active member in the ensemble, but she has scant character aside from his intricate allegiances." That year, she was named by CNN as one of "Asia's 25 Greatest Actors of All Time."

In 2014, Gong was the president of the jury for the 17th Shanghai International Film Festival, becoming the first woman jury president in the festival's history. Later that same year, she reunited with Yimou for the film Coming Home, which is set during the throes of the Cultural Revolution; this film was their first collaboration since 2006.

In 2016, Gong took on her first action role in The Monkey King 2, playing the White Bone Demon.

In 2018, Gong served as the jury president of the 55th Golden Horse Awards.

2019–present

In 2019, Gong was cast in Lou Ye's period drama Saturday Fiction, where she plays an actress who is working undercover gathering intelligence for the Allies. The film was selected to compete for the Golden Lion at the 76th Venice International Film Festival. Gong learned shooting and hypnosis for the film. Saturday Fiction was a box office failure due to the delayed release, but the artistic value of the film and Gong's performance gained rave reviews. That year, she was also cast in the live-action adaptation of the 1998 Disney animated film Mulan, as a powerful witch. While the film, released in 2020, had a mixed reception, Gong's performance was widely praised by critics. Vanity Fair's chief critic, Richard Lawson, wrote in his review: "It is a pleasure as ever to watch Gong do her thing, slinking and thrashing around in a fabulous black witch's cloak."

The Hollywood Reporter commented:

In 2020, Gong was cast in Peter Chan's biographical film Leap, where she plays the hard-driving, real-life head coach of the Chinese women's national volleyball team Lang Ping. Leap grossed more than $100 million at the worldwide box office, and while the film received mixed reviews from critics, Gong's performance in the film was highly recognized. The performance swept all the major Hong Kong film industry awards in 2021, including the Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards and the HKFDG Awards. She was also nominated for best actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards for the fourth time. The Hong Kong Film Critics Society described her performance as having an "astonishing aura" and wrote that "She fights with conviction in the face of a conservative educational establishment, former teammates and a new generation of young athletes."

In 2021, Gong was invited to be the jury president of the 11th Beijing International Film Festival, becoming the first female jury president in the festival's history.

In 2022, Gong was invited to serve as the Art Chairman of the 12th Beijing Film Festival, responsible for the selected films, assisting in the invitation and recommendation of outstanding films and guests.

Personal life

Relationships

Gong's personal and professional relationship with director Zhang Yimou has been highly publicised. Their relationship started in 1986 on the set of Red Sorghum, when Zhang was married to his first wife Xiao Hua while Gong was in another relationship. Gong's then boyfriend, surnamed Yang, violently assaulted her after finding out her relationship with Zhang. In 1988, Zhang divorced Xiao for Gong. In 1995, soon after shooting Shanghai Triad, their 7th collaboration during their relationship, Zhang announced their break-up amidst rumors of Gong's affair with Ooi Hoe Seong, then managing director of British American Tobacco in China. According to Gong's mother, however, they split due to Zhang's reluctance to marry Gong after their 9-year relationship. After their break-up, Zhang invited Gong to star in his films Hero and House of Flying Daggers, but she declined both. They reunited in 2006 for the film Curse of the Golden Flower and in 2014 for Coming Home.

In November 1996, Gong married Singaporean businessman Ooi Hoe Seong at Hong Kong's China Club. The marriage was plagued by persistent rumors of discord. In early 2008, Gong applied for Singapore citizenship. When overseas professional obligations prevented her from showing up at her scheduled August citizenship ceremony, she was harshly criticized for not making it a priority. On Saturday, 8 November 2008, Gong, in an effort to make amends, attended a citizenship ceremony held at Teck Ghee Community Club and received her Singapore citizenship certificate from Member of Parliament Lee Bee Wah. Gong was reportedly considering renouncing her Singaporean citizenship after China blacklisted celebrities with foreign passports; however, there is no evidence that she went through with the renunciation. In 2009, Gong and Ooi quietly divorced, though they did not make the news public until three years later.

In 2006, Gong began a relationship with a French photographer, whom she met on the Prague set of Hannibal Rising. The relationship lasted for over 8 years.

In 2016, Gong started dating the French composer and musician Jean-Michel Jarre. They married in 2019.

Filmography

Films

Dubbing

Talk shows

Music video appearances

Discography

Endorsements

Gong is the first Chinese ambassador for L'Oreal Paris in 1997. She also served as ambassador for Midea, Chopard, and Osim International.

From 2013 to 2018, Gong served as the global ambassadors for Piaget.

Gong served as the global brand ambassador for Hisense on September 27, 2020.

Since 2021, Gong has been the first Chinese artist to become the global high jewelry ambassador for Cartier.

Charities

• Gong was appointed UNESCO Artist for Peace in 2000.
• Gong was appointed FAO Goodwill Ambassador on World Food Day 2000. "To launch an appeal against hunger is not a waste of time.
• Gong has been invited by the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to be Global Environmental Ambassador, and to urge the public to give up bad habits that are harmful to the environment and to reduce the discharge of carbon dioxide in 2008.
• Gong Li's Portrait on display at "The Transformative Power of Art" Exhibition, at the United Nations headquarters in 2016.

Awards and nominations

Jury

• 1997 – 50th Cannes Film Festival
• 2000 – 50th Berlin International Film Festival
• 2002 – 59th Venice Film Festival
• 2003 – 16th Tokyo International Film Festival
• 2014 – 17th Shanghai International Film Festival
• 2018 – 55th Golden Horse Film Festival and Awards
• 2021 – 11th Beijing International Film Festival

Notes

References

References

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