# Zhang Ziyi

Zhang Ziyi (; Chinese: 章子怡; born 9 February 1979), sometimes credited Ziyi Zhang, is a Chinese actress, model, and former dancer. Known for playing independent and strong-willed characters, she is the recipient of various accolades. Born and raised in Beijing, Zhang was admitted to the Central Academy of Drama in 1996. That year, she made her acting debut in the television film Touching Starlight (1996). After her breakout role in Zhang Yimou's The Road Home (1999), which won her the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Hundred Flowers Awards, she gained international recognition for her performance in the wuxia martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000).
Zhang made her Hollywood debut as a villain in the 2001 action comedy film Rush Hour 2 with Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. That year she also starred as a princess in the South Korean historical drama film Musa. She reunited with Yimou in the critically acclaimed films Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004). For her work in the romantic drama film 2046 (2004), she won best actress at the 2005 Hong Kong Film Awards. Her most critically acclaimed works are the period drama film Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), which earned her nominations for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress in a Motion Picture Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role; and the martial arts film The Grandmaster (2013), for which she won 12 different Best Actress awards to become the most awarded Chinese actress for a single film.
Zhang is regarded as one of the Four Dan actresses of China. From 2004 to 2010, she ranked in the Top 5 of Forbes China Celebrity 100 list every year. In 2008, she was awarded with the Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema award at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival. She has modeled for multiple high-end fashion brands. One of the most recognisable Asian actresses in the Western world, Time called her "China's gift to Hollywood" in 2005. The same year, Time named her one of the 100 Most Influential People. In 2013, she received the French Cultural Order at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

## Early life

Zhang Ziyi was born in Beijing to Zhang Yuanxiao, an accountant and later economist, and Li Zhousheng, a kindergarten teacher. She has an older brother, Zhang Zinan, who was her manager. Zhang began her nine-year study of folk dance when she was 8; at 11, she joined the Affiliated Secondary School of Beijing Dance Academy at her parents' suggestion. 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. In 1994, she won the performance award in the National Taoli Cup Dance Competition. She also appeared in a handful of TV commercials. In 1996, Zhang entered the Central Academy of Drama, majoring in acting.

## Career
### 1996–2000: Early career

In her freshman year, Zhang made her acting debut in the television film Touching Starlight. In 1998, Zhang was offered her first major role by director Zhang Yimou in his film The Road Home, which would win the Silver Bear prize at the 2000 Berlin International Film Festival. Zhang plays a country girl in love with the town's young teacher. She won the Best Actress Award at the 2000 Hundred Flowers Awards for her performance.

### 2000–06: Wuxia epics and international breakthrough

Zhang rose to international fame in 2000 with her role as Yu Jiaolong in Ang Lee's re-visioned wuxia martial arts film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Zhang plays a young Manchu noblewoman who has secretly learned martial arts and runs off to become a wandering swordswoman rather than commit to an arranged marriage. This role won her the Most Promising Actress award at the Chicago Film Critics Association Awards and Best Supporting Actress awards from the Independent Spirit Awards, as well as Toronto Film Critics Association Awards. The movie's success in the US and Europe helped her break into Hollywood.
Zhang then appeared in her first American film, Rush Hour 2 (2001) opposite Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker. On playing her first villain role, Zhang expressed that "the opportunity to sort of try and analyze the psyche of the character and get to know and pull out emotions I’ve never had to utilize before...was very exciting."
In 2002, Zhang co-starred in Hero alongside Jet Li, Maggie Cheung and Tony Leung, directed by her early mentor Zhang Yimou. The film 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. She then signed on to film an avant-garde drama film Purple Butterfly (2003), which competed in the 2003 Cannes Film Festival.
Zhang went back to the wuxia martial arts genre in House of Flying Daggers (2004), again by Zhang Yimou, where she starred along Takeshi Kaneshiro and Andy Lau. She plays the blind dancing girl Mei, who despite the lack of eyesight, is a skilled fighter. In preparation for the part, Zhang spent two months living with an actual blind girl. Her performance earned her a Best Actress nomination at the BAFTA Awards. She also 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).
Zhang next starred in Wong Kar-wai's romantic drama film 2046 (2004), which featured many top Chinese actors and actresses. Critics praise Zhang for her "expressive" body language that was combined with her "reserved and complex emotions" in performance as a struggling prostitute. Zhang won Best Actress awards at the Hong Kong Film Critics' Award and Hong Kong Film Academy Award.
In 2005, Zhang featured in the critically acclaimed film Jasmine Women, adapted from Su Tong's novel titled Women's Lives. She won Best Actress at the Golden Rooster Awards for her performance. Next came Princess Raccoon (2005), directed by Japan's Seijun Suzuki, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. For her role, Zhang took two weeks of singing and dancing lessons in Japan.
Zhang played the lead role of Sayuri in the American film adaptation based on the international bestseller Memoirs of a Geisha. Controversy arose in China about having a Chinese woman portray a prominent Japanese geisha in a film set during the height of Japanese imperialist aggression against China in World War II. Nonetheless, the film was a box office hit in the West. For the role, Zhang was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Actress – Motion Picture Drama, the BAFTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role, and the Screen Actors Guild Award for Outstanding Performance by a Female Actor in a Leading Role.
On 27 June 2005, Zhang accepted an invitation to join the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), placing her among the ranks of those who are able to vote on the Academy Awards. In May 2006, Zhang was chosen as a jury member of Feature Films at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival.
Zhang returned to China in 2006 for the Chinese wuxia film The Banquet, directed by Feng Xiaogang. The film is a loose adaptation of William Shakespeare's Hamlet.

### 2007–12: Hollywood and China

In 2007, Zhang performed the voice of Karai in the American animated film TMNT (2007). In the same year, Zhang starred alongside Liu Ye and Ge You in the first-ever opening short for the Chinese academy awards (Golden Rooster Awards) where director Dayyan Eng got top stars to spoof the action-movie genre in a humorous send-up on national TV in China.
In Forever Enthralled (2008), which tells the story of legendary Peking opera actor Mei Lanfang, Zhang appears in the second act as Mei's lover Meng Xiaodong. The Hollywood Reporter praised her performance as "confident and passion", giving the romance a sparkle.
Her next American film was The Horsemen (2009), where she starred opposite Dennis Quaid. Back in China, she played the titular character in romantic comedy Sophie's Revenge (2009); a comic book artist seeking to punish her unfaithful boyfriend. She then starred alongside Aaron Kwok in the AIDS-themed film Love for Life (2011).
In 2012, Zhang starred next to Cecilia Cheung and Jang Dong-gun in the Chinese-Korean co-production Dangerous Liaisons, an adaptation of the French novel Les Liaisons dangereuses, narrating Shanghai of the 1930s. Zhang was reportedly paid 20 million RMB (approximately $3.5 million) for the role. The same year, she was cast in the coming-of-age film Forever Young directed and written by Li Fangfang. The film premiered in January 2018.

### 2013–17: Return to stardom

In 2013, Zhang received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres for her significant contributions to the film industry.
Zhang reunited with Wong Kar-wai and Tony Leung for The Grandmaster (2013), which also marks her return to the martial arts genre after 7 years since The Banquet (2006). The film was China's submission to the Academy Awards for Best Foreign-Language Picture. Critics praise Zhang's portrayal of Gong'Er as the "best performance she's ever delivered in the history of her career." which led to her winning several "Best Actress" trophies across Asia. The same year, she reprised her role as Sophie in My Lucky Star, a sequel to Sophie's Revenge. Described as Zhang's "breakthrough comedy role", the film topped Chinese box office on the week of its release.
In 2014, Zhang starred in John Woo's romantic epic The Crossing, based on the true story of the Taiping steamer collision and follows six characters and their intertwining love stories in Taiwan and Shanghai during the 1930s. Zhang plays a poor illiterate woman waiting for her soldier lover in 1930's Shanghai.
In 2015, Zhang produced her third film Oh My God, which stars Zhang Yixing and Li Xiaolu. She made a cameo appearance in the film. Zhang next starred in romance anthology film Run for Love and crime epic The Wasted Times.

### 2018–present: Hollywood epics, directorial debut and small-screen debut

In 2016, Zhang was cast in J. J. Abrams's science fiction thriller The Cloverfield Paradox, which premiered in 2018.
In 2017, Zhang was cast in the monster film Godzilla: King of the Monsters, playing a prominent character.
In 2018, Zhang was cast in her first television series, Rebel Princess.
In 2019, Zhang starred in the adventure drama film The Climbers.
In 2021, Zhang made her directorial debut with a short titled "Shi" (Poem), one of the four stand-alone short tales of the film My Country, My Parents. She won the best new director award at the 2022 Media Honors for the film.

## Ambassadorship and representation

* Spokesperson for "Care for Children"
* Global Ambassador for China's Special Olympics
* Image Ambassador for first Beijing International Film Festival
* Ambassador for the ScreenSingapore 2011 film festival
* Friendship Ambassador for the Chinese Film Days in the Romania
* Image Ambassador for the Macao Film Festival
* Global Ambassador for the Children of China Pediatrics Foundation (CCPF)
* Ambassador for Clé de Peau Beauté

### Endorsements

Zhang was the first Chinese woman to be appointed as an Emporio Armani ambassador, which she served from 2009 to 2010. She also served as regional ambassadors for Mercedes-Benz, Garnier, Precious Platinum; and global ambassadors for Maybelline, Visa, TAG Heuer, Omega SA and Clé de Peau Beauté. Zhang was featured on the "BoF 500" list. Since 2019, she became the global ambassador for Chopard.

## Personal life

In the July 2006 issue of Interview magazine, Zhang spoke of her movies' contents and being careful about the roles she took on, especially in Hollywood:
   After Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon I got a lot of offers, but I turned them down because they were all victim roles—poor girls sold to America to be a wife or whatever. I know I have the ability to go deeper, to take on more original roles than that. That's why I really appreciated Geisha, because it allowed us to show the world what kind of actors we are and what kind of characters we can play—not just action, kick-ass parts.
Zhang obtained Hong Kong residency in 2007 through the Quality Migrant Admission Scheme for her contribution to the local film industry. She is an admirer and collector of the works of the Chinese contemporary artist Shen Jingdong. Politically, she is a member of the Chinese Communist Party-controlled China Zhi Gong Party.
From 2004 to 2006, Zhang was in a relationship with Eric Fok Kai Shan, an heir of the Fok family in Hong Kong. Following this, Zhang entered into a relationship with Israeli American venture capitalist Aviv "Vivi" Nevo in 2007, which led to an engagement; however, the couple parted ways in 2010. From late 2011 to 2013, Zhang was in a relationship with Chinese host Sa Beining.
In May 2015, Zhang married Chinese rock musician Wang Feng. They have two children: a daughter (born December 2015) and a son (born January 2020), both born in the United States. On 23 October 2023, Zhang and Wang announced their divorce on Weibo.

## Filmography
### Film

| Year | English title | Role | Notes |
| 1996 | Touching Starlight | Chen Wei | |
| 1999 | The Road Home | Zhao Di | |
| 2000 | Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon | Jen Yu | |
| 2001 | Rush Hour 2 | Hu Li | Hollywood debut film |
| 2001 | The Legend of Zu | Joy | Special appearance |
| 2001 | Musa | Princess Bu-yong | Korean film |
| 2002 | Hero | Moon | |
| 2003 | Purple Butterfly | Cynthia | |
| 2003 | My Wife is a Gangster 2 | Gangster boss | Cameo |
| 2004 | 2046 | Bai Ling | |
| 2004 | House of Flying Daggers | Mei | |
| 2004 | Jasmine Women | Mo / Li / Hua | |
| 2005 | Princess Raccoon | Princess Tanuki | Japanese film |
| 2005 | Memoirs of a Geisha | Chiyo Sakamoto / Sayuri Nitta | American film |
| 2006 | The Banquet | Wan | |
| 2007 | TMNT | Karai (voice) | |
| 2008 | Forever Enthralled | Meng Xiaodong | |
| 2009 | Horsemen | Kristen | American film |
| 2009 | Sophie's Revenge | Sophie | |
| 2009 | The Founding of a Republic | Gong Peng | Cameo |
| 2011 | Love for Life | Qinqin | |
| 2012 | Dangerous Liaisons | Du Fenyu | |
| 2013 | The Grandmaster | Gong Er | |
| 2013 | Better and Better | Herself | Cameo |
| 2013 | My Lucky Star | Sophie | |
| 2014 | The Crossing Part 1 | Yu Zhen | |
| 2015 | The Crossing Part 2 | Yu Zhen | |
| 2015 | Where's the Dragon? | Phoenix (voice) | |
| 2015 | Oh My God | Auntie | Cameo |
| 2016 | Run for Love | Su Leqi | Segment: "So Long, My Love" |
| 2016 | The Wasted Times | Xiao Liu | |
| 2018 | Forever Young | Wang Minjia | |
| 2018 | The Cloverfield Paradox | Tam | American film |
| 2019 | Godzilla: King of the Monsters | Dr. Ilene Chen / Dr. Ling Chen | American film |
| 2019 | The Climbers | Xu Ying | |
| 2021 | My Country, My Parents | Mother | Segment: "Poem" |
| 2022 | Avatar: The Way of Water | Ronal (voice) | Mandarin dub |
| 2023 | The Volunteers: To the War | Tang Sheng | |
| 2024 | She's Got No Name | Zhan Zhou | |

### Television series

| Year | English title | Role |
| 2021 | The Rebel Princess | Wang Xuan |

### Reality show

| Year | English title | Original title | Role |
| 2009 | Zhang Ziyi's Oman | 跟著章子怡去旅遊: 阿曼 | |
| 2013 | The X Factor: Zhongguo Zui Qiang Yin | 中国最强音 | Judge |
| 2017 | Birth of an Actor | 演员的诞生 | Mentor |
| 2018 | I Am an Actor | 我就是演员 | Mentor |
| 2019 | Viva La Romance | 妻子的浪漫旅行 | |
| 2020 | I Am an Actor 3 | 我就是演员3 | Mentor |

### Music video

| Year | Song Title | Artist |
| 1996 | "Cherish (珍惜)" | Xie Xiaodong |
| 1996 | "Women Afraid of the Dark (怕黑的女人)" | Tian Zhen |
| 2008 | "You Understand My Love (你懂我的爱)" | Leon Lai & Zhang Ziyi |
| 2013 | "Fly Freely (自由飞翔)" | Yin Xishui & Zhang Ziyi |
| 2013 | "Love a Little (爱一点)" | Wang Leehom & Zhang Ziyi |
| 2014 | "Magic" | Coldplay |
| 2015 | "Nowhere to Belong (无处安放)" | Wang Feng |

## Discography

| Year | English title | Original title | Notes |
| 2004 | The Beauty Song | 佳人曲 | Soundtrack of House of Flying Daggers |
| 2008 | | 天女散花 | |
| 2008 | You Understand My Love | 你懂我的爱 | Soundtrack of Forever Enthralled with Leon Lai |
| 2011 | Always Here | 一直都在 | Soundtrack of Love for Life with Aaron Kwok |
| 2013 | Love a Little | 爱一点 | Soundtrack of My Lucky Star with Wang Leehom |
| 2013 | Dreams Grow Up | 梦想长大了 | |

## Awards and nominations
### Other honors

In 2005, Zhang was listed in Time's World's 100 Most Influential People. They called her "China's Gift to Hollywood".
In 2008, she was awarded with the "Outstanding Contribution to Chinese Cinema" at the 11th Shanghai International Film Festival.
In 2010, she was named "Actress of the Decade" by CineAsia. She previously won "Star of Tomorrow prize" back in 1999.
In 2013, Zhang received the Order of Arts and Letter at the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Awards.

### Forbes China Celebrity 100

| Year | Rank |
| 2004 | 2nd |
| 2005 | 2nd |
| 2006 | 3rd |
| 2007 | 4th |
| 2008 | 5th |
| 2009 | 2nd |
| 2010 | 5th |
| 2011 | 7th |
| 2012 | 14th |
| 2013 | 5th |
| 2014 | 5th |
| 2015 | 21st |
| 2019 | 54th |
| 2020 | 78th |