Actress Gong Li graces the cover of L’Officiel, one of the best foreign magazines for photoshoots in China, for its 90th anniversary. More pictures below the cut.
Fan Bingbing and Gong Li at Cannes
After her gorgeous dragon robe last year, Fan Bingbing went for another Chinese-styled dress this year at the opening of Cannes. Her red dress, the first designed by her stylist, is embroidered with white cranes, a symbol of peace, and the four noble plants. The cut also imitates those of the Tang-dynasty. I personally feel like the dress would’ve been better with just the cranes, but Fan Bingbing looks gorgeous as usual. Meanwhile, Gong Li went for a more classy and traditional look with a Roberto Cavalli dress.
More pictures below the cut, and more on the outfits this week here. (more…)
Gong Li In January 2010's Harper's Bazaar China
Gong Li kicks off the New Year by appearing in the January issue of Harper’s Bazaar China – China’s longest established fashion magazine. She’ll be turning 45 next year, but it’s hard to tell from these. Li Yuchun also snagged the January cover for China Vogue, but as much as I’ve grown to like her, it feels wrong to put her in the same post with Gong Li so maybe later.
Stunning in Color: Gong Li in January 2009 Harpar's Bazaar
Even in muted non vibrant color she looks gorgeous. I hope better scans of this issue comes out soon, but these will do for now. She next will appear in “Shanghai”, another movie around WWII with a Chinese city for the title, same as Nanjing! Nanjing! This will be her first non-Chinese film about China. I hope it and Gao Yuan Yuan’s movie end up being great.
Jackie Chan wants to make a movie for his parents
Jackie Chan’s company’s spokesperson says that Jackie would like to make a movie about his parents. He would like to invite Gong Li and Jiang Wen to act as his parents, although it’s still undecided. (more…)
Epic Post: Gong Li's Singaporean Status used as Social Commentary; 'Shanghai' began Production
Gong Li thinks I spent way too much time on this post
I hate discussing politics because discussing politics on the internet is akin to throwing away valuable hours, years of your life, and discussing Chinese politics is even more stupid because it changes so rapidly. I know this from experience, and I know a lot more about Chinese politics than I do Chinese entertainment. But I rather love Gong Li (more so in To Live, less so in Miami Vice) and was happy to see her become a Singaporean citizen, because I’m sure it meant a lot to her to share that with her husband who is a Singaporean. I didn’t post it on this site, because I was sure it was already translated to English and I don’t like to repeat what’s posted a lot unless I have something to add it. But then I was really surprised to the way this news was posted…instead of just reporting it, people were spinning a story, using Gong Li as some sort of way to critique the mentality of Chinese citizens, and doing it erroneously.
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Chinese Films on CNN's Best Asian Films of All Time List
6 Chinese-language films were picked on CNN’s shortlist for best Asian films, which had 18 films spanning across Asia and inexplicably across Asia to New Zealand and Iran. For Zhang Yimou they picked a representative in Hou Zhe, which is my favorite Asian film of all time, and one of my top 3 films of all time. It annoys me however, to think that they picked it for political reasons (see anti-cnn.com, and Jack Cafferty), since in their description they say it’s banned in China. Well, they are about a decade too late, since it has long since been unbanned in the mainland, even before Mr. Zhang began his major pimpage of Chinese culture starting with “Hero” and mostly recently, the operning ceremony of the Olympics.
Another mainland Chinese film picked, Shower, also has a connection to the Olympics, the Paralympics that is. Shower’s lead, veteran actor Pu Cunxi, has been a long-time humanitarian in China, and advocate for the disabled and has been a volunteer in the 2008 Paralympics. A list of the other Chinese films picked, and their biased CNN summaries is behind the cut.