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Zhang Ziyi
The first time that Zhang Ziyi will have been noticed by many western people, was in her starring role in Ang Lee’s acclaimed “Wo Ho Cang Long”, better known to western audiences as “Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon." You can see all zhang ziyi pics here.
Zhang Ziyi was born in Beijing China in 1978, Zhang means the chapter of a book, Zi means child or esteemed person and Yi means joy or happiness, Zhang is her surname technically, so on some western sites you may see her name and Ziyi Zhang.
Zhang signed up for the Beijing dance academy at the age of just eleven and at age fifteen joined Chinas elite central academy of drama, at nineteen she was offered her first ever film role in “The Road Home”, by world renowned director Zhang Yimou which eventually won the coveted silver bear award in 2000 Berlin film festival.
In 2001 Zhang Ziyi’s career exploded into Hollywood in the amazing Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon starring amongst seasoned actors Michelle Yeoh and Chow Yun-Fat, the film was probably one of the first ever widely accepted Chinese language films (Mandarin) and is best known for its elaborate fight scenes and beautiful cinematography, Zhang won the Independent Spirit's Best Supporting Actress Award and the Toronto Film Critics' Best Supporting Actress Award for her efforts in this film.
Soon after Crouching Tiger, Zhang signed up to star in Hero alongside Jet Li (Lethal Weapon 4, The One, Fearless etc) which was received amazingly well by English speaking audiences further advancing her already blossoming career, Since she has starred House of flying daggers which she was nominated for a BAFTA for best actress, more recently she starred alongside her Crouching Tiger actor Michelle Yeoh in the film adaptation of Memoirs Of A Geisha by Arthur Golden.
Zhang is also quite an accomplished singer, and she actually features on the soundtrack to House Of Flying daggers, singing the track “ia Rén Qu” (the beauty song – Chinese poem) she also endorses a few products “Got Milk” , “Asience” (a Japanese shampoo brand) and more notably Maybelline cosmetics.
In a 2003 interview Zhang said she was starting to take some English language lessons due to the alarming amount of fan mail that was now reaching her due to her new found western fame (on the American DVD version of “Hero” Zhang can be heard speaking English on one of the documentaries, and she also speaks English throughout the entirety of “Memoirs Of A Geisha”).
Apparently she did a bit of a crash course on learning English from Television commercials and music CD’s one of the artists being Eminem later the actress commented by saying "I don't always know what [Eminem] is talking about, so I write down the lyrics and repeat them. Later, I understood how rude they were." Still pretty impressive to learn a whole new language by yourself!
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