One of the top drama schools located in Beijing, China, other notable alumni includes Zhang Ziyi, Jiang Wen, Tiffany Tang Wei and Yang Yang.

While Gong Li was a student at the Central Academy of Drama, she was picked by director Zhang Yimou to act in his film, Red Sorghum (1988). The movie marked Gong Li’s acting debut and Zhang Yimou’s directorial debut. The two later started dating and collaborated for over a decade on films including Ju Dou (1990), Curse of the Golden Flower (2006) and Coming Home (2014)

Since starting her career in 1988, Gong Li has gone on to add many acting awards to her belt. Notable ones include the Hundred Flowers, Golden Rooster Awards, and Golden Phoenix Awards. Gong Li has also won accolades from international film festivals too.

According to a 2006 profile by Entertainment Weekly, Gong Li’s parents, both of whom are professors, wanted her to be a schoolteacher. “They felt it was an honorable job with a stable income. But I didn’t do well [in school], so I couldn’t be a teacher.” Imagine how different the cinematic universe would be if she followed that path instead.

These international film festivals include Cannes Film Festival, the Berlin Film Festival, the Venice International Film Festival, the Tokyo International Film Festival and the Shanghai International Film Festival.

Most recently, she was a jury member at the 11th Beijing International Film Festival in 2021.

Most of us would remember Gong Li’s role in the 2020 Disney live-action Mulan. But prior to that, Gong Li had starred in other Hollywood productions such as Memoirs of a Geisha (2005), Miami Vice (2006) and Hannibal Rising (2007).

Priding herself on playing strong female roles, Gong Li rejected the role of James Bond girl in Tomorrow Never Dies (1997), stating that “The presentation of the female character was not complex enough to give me the material to fully express myself. I have always favored roles of women of character, played the register of resistance.”

ICYDK, Gong Li was granted Singaporean citizenship in 2008 after marrying local tycoon Ooi Hoe Seong in 1996 (they divorced in 2010). In 2021, she renounced it and reapplied for Chinese citizenship allegedly due to the government’s crackdown on the Chinese entertainment industry.

Gong Li is currently married to French electronic musician Jean-Michel Jarre since 2019.

Gong Li has left her legacy after creating many firsts throughout her illustrious career. She was the first Chinese actress to be featured on the cover of Time magazine in 1996, the first Chinese ambassador of L’Oreal Paris in the same year, the first person of Asian descent to take home the Kering Group and Cannes Film Festival Women in Motion Award in 2019 and the first Chinese woman to be appointed a Commander of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2010, an award by the French government to recognise those who have significantly contributed to the arts.

Being such a high-profile celebrity, it is inevitable that her actions would come under scrutiny and criticism. One critique she got from Chinese netizens was when she changed to Singaporean citizenship.

Another instance was in 2021 when she apparently picked an Adidas outfit for a Vogue China shoot. Adidas was against the alleged use of forced labour to produce cotton in Xinjiang and was boycotted by many Chinese as a result.