TOPIC

/ people

Fan Bingbing

Fan Bingbing is a Chinese film star and one of the world's highest-paid actresses. She had roles in Lost in Beijing, X-Men: Days of Future Past and I Am Not Madame Bovary, among others. In 2018, she was caught up in a tax evasion scandal.

Born

16 Sep 1981

Industry

Entertainment, Film

Job Title

Actor

The glitzy Encore Melaka, with its white fish scalelike facade and vast LED screens, is a 2,000 seat mega-theatre. Photo: Facebook/Encore.Melaka

Malaysia

Malaysia courts Chinese tourists with lavish mega-theatre, unsettling locals

Encore Melaka’s gleaming facade and dazzling shows mask tensions, as Malaysia’s push for Chinese tourism upends a historic city.

17 Aug 2024 - 12:30PM

Malaysia

Chinese tourists gobble up durians in Malaysia as Fan Bingbing ignites frenzy

9 Aug 2024 - 2:37PM

Malaysia

Fan Bingbing tasked by Malaysia’s Melaka to lure in 1 million Chinese tourists

19 Jun 2024 - 9:14PMvideocam

Cannes Film Festival

Fan Bingbing’s triumphant – and fashionable – return to Cannes Film Festival

After a five-year hiatus from Cannes, the Chinese actress stole the spotlight at red carpets, after-parties and even Naomi Campbell’s birthday bash

30 May 2023 - 8:00AM

Fan Bingbing positively crushed the Cannes Film Festival red carpets this year, showing up in no fewer than nine different looks. Photo: @bingbing_fan/Instagram

Celebrity style

The Asian glitterati take over Cannes Film Festival – 8 best fashion looks

Asia’s glitterati took over the Cannes Film Festival 2023, with looks from Gemma Chan’s red-hot Louis Vuitton cut-out dress to Sakura Ando’s angelic Chanel piece

20 May 2023 - 10:35PM

American cinema

How Jackie Chan vehicle Skiptrace put the clash in culture clash

Jackie Chan, Fan Bingbing and Johnny Knoxville teamed up for Die Hard 2 director Renny Harlin’s buddy-cop film, which was let down by a robotic script, and bombed in the US upon release.

5 May 2023 - 6:15PMvideocam

American cinema

Why US-China co-production The 355 failed to deliver, despite all-star cast

Penelope Cruz, Jessica Chastain and Fan Bingbing lead a powerful female cast in this spy thriller that sadly never lived up to its potential thanks to its lame dialogue, lacklustre set pieces and cliched characters.

7 Apr 2023 - 12:35PMvideocam

Jessica Chastain as Mason “Mace” Brown in a still from “The 355”, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

Fashion

7 of Fan Bingbing’s favourite fashion designers, from LV to Christopher Bu

No stranger to luxury, Chinese superstar Fan Bingbing counts these 7 fashion designers as her faves … from Louis Vuitton and Dolce & Gabbana to Christopher Bu and Atelier Versace

22 Mar 2023 - 6:00AM

United States

Chinese film star Fan Bingbing makes rare appearance at the Oscars

Fan was ordered to pay US$130 million in taxes and penalties by the Chinese government in 2018 and has largely disappeared from public view.

13 Mar 2023 - 8:20AM

Asian cinema: Korean films

Exclusive | ‘It’s a restart for me’: Fan Bingbing on return to acting after tax scandal

Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, at the Berlin International Film Festival with her new film Green Night, opens up about how tough it was not acting for five years, and what she learned from it.

14 Mar 2023 - 9:58AMvideocam

Chinese star Fan Bingbing opened up at this year’s Berlin film festival about returning to the screen after a long hiatus following a tax scandal in 2018, and her plans to do more English-language films. Photo: Getty

Video | Film star Fan Bingbing back in the spotlight after 5 years

24 Feb 2023 - 2:00PM

03:02

Asian cinema: Korean films

Review | Green Night: Fan Bingbing anchors unwieldy tale of sex, crime and violence

Fan Bingbing makes an audacious comeback after nearly five years out of the limelight for tax evasion in Green Night. Thelma & Louise meets Blue is the Warmest Colour in a flashy but flawed film.

24 Feb 2023 - 3:48PMvideocam

Fame and celebrity

Fan Bingbing lost 6kg in 7 days from bigu fasting, but fans are upset

Despite telling netizens not to copy her extreme fast, Fan still posted her experience online to millions, courting controversy

19 Jul 2022 - 2:56PM

K-drama news

8 new Korean drama series to look out for in June 2022

Netflix drama Money Heist: Korea features Squid Game actor Park Hae-soo and Lost actress Kim Yun-jin. There’s Yumi’s Cells 2, and Chinese star Fan Bingbing makes a cameo appearance in Insider.

30 May 2022 - 9:18PMvideocam

Jun Jong-seo in a still from Money Heist: Korea – Joint Economic Area. Photo: Netflix.

Chinese culture

Was China’s Empress Wu the richest woman ever – and the original girlboss?

Rumour has it that her career was a bloody one, but there’s no doubt she transformed China in a way few rulers have – no wonder there’s so many films and TV series about her

10 Mar 2022 - 3:25PMvideocam

Fan Bingbing played Empress Wu in 2015’s Empress of China TV series – just one of many screen treatments of someone who was perhaps the richest woman in history. Photo: Hunan TV

K-drama news

Fan Bingbing to make Korean TV debut – K-drama casting latest

The Chinese superstar actress is back after a four-year break for her first K-drama, while K-pop star from NCT, Doyoung, is also making his TV series debut in To X Who Doesn’t Love Me.

26 Feb 2022 - 6:52PM

Netflix

8 Chinese films on Netflix in February with Fan Bingbing, Hu Ge and more

Neo-noir thriller The Wild Goose Lake is new to Netflix in February, but there are plenty of classics by big name directors like Jia Zhangke and Zhang Yimou to catch up on

10 Feb 2022 - 2:13PMvideocam

American cinema

Review | The 355: female-driven spy thriller wastes its stunning A-list cast

Jessica Chastain, Diane Kruger and Penélope Cruz lead an A-list cast (look out for Fan Bingbing) in The 355 – a female-driven spy thriller with a dismal, Z-list story.

7 Jan 2022 - 4:16AMvideocam

(From left) Diane Kruger, Jessica Chastain and Lupita Nyong’o in a still from The 355, co-written and directed by Simon Kinberg.

American cinema

How Marvel’s Iron Man 3 tried but failed to please Chinese viewers

From Fan Bingbing’s pointless cameo to brazen product placement, Marvel’s attempts to tailor the film for Chinese audiences stirred up considerable anger.

3 Dec 2021 - 5:56AMvideocam

Fame and celebrity

If you make money from looking like a celebrity in China, watch out

A lookalike of Chinese actress Fan Bingbing is among many who have landed themselves in hot water after profiting from their celebrity resemblances.

3 Jun 2021 - 2:11AM

Fashion

Stylist to the stars who wants to be China’s Vidal Sassoon

Image consultant Li Dongtian started out styling hair on Chinese film sets, and has worked with leading actresses such as Fan Bingbing, Zhang Ziyi and Michelle Yeoh.

9 Feb 2020 - 7:30PM

Fashion

The Shanghai boutique Fan Bingbing spent four hours browsing

Le Monde de SHC in Shanghai’s French Concession is the city’s most buzzed about boutique right now, selling Chinese and international brands including Holiday Boileau, Yang Li, Koché, Charlotte Chesnais and Huishan Zhang.

10 Dec 2019 - 8:32PM

Inside fashion boutique Le Monde de SHC, located in Shanghai’s French Concession.

China society

Has China forgiven tax cheat Fan Bingbing?

Actress back in the state media eye for a charity appearance – but she’s hard to spot in the picture.

27 Nov 2019 - 9:15PMvideocam

Sex and relationships

Song-Song Couple and 4 other celebrity break-ups

These power couples showed how beautiful love could be – only to drown in a despair that no K-drama could ever hope to match

22 Nov 2019 - 12:29PMvideocam

Beauty

Fan Bingbing’s teen brother is making a name for himself

Recently named the face of Rihanna’s beauty line in Greater China, and one of a group of emerging stars dubbed ‘little fresh meat’, singer and model Fan Chengcheng has earned a string of luxury brand endorsements in the past year.

15 Sep 2019 - 5:00PM

Fan Chengcheng has been announced as Fenty Beauty's ambassador for Greater China. Photo: courtesy of Weibo

Chinese language cinema

Fan Bingbing at 38: five films that made her a household name

It’s Fan’s birthday on Monday, and what a year to forget it has been for her. She hit the headlines for tax evasion rather than her films. Whatever mistakes she made in her personal life, professionally she made great choices.

15 Sep 2019 - 8:08PMvideocam

Chinese actress Fan Bingbing arrives for the opening ceremony of the 2018 Cannes Film Festival in southern France. One of China’s highest paid celebrities, Fan’s involvement in a massive tax-evasion scandal subsequently tainted her image. Photo: AP

Crime in China

Film star Fan Bingbing awarded US$22,500 over online slurs

Actress, who was ordered to pay US$129 million after tax evasion investigation last year, wins case against social media user who accused her of engaging in ‘improper sexual relationships.

4 Sep 2019 - 4:45PM

Fame and celebrity

Actress Fan Bingbing: disappearance last year ‘made me calm down’

Star of Hollywood blockbusters like Iron Man 3 was placed under house arrest for four months while being investigated for not paying US$34 million in taxes

6 Aug 2019 - 5:26PM

Help preserve 120 years of quality journalism.

SUPPORT NOW