Fan Bingbing

Fan Bingbing (Chinese: 范冰冰, born 16 September 1981) is a Chinese actress. After gaining recognition for the costume drama My Fair Princess (1998–1999), Fan's breakthrough came with Feng Xiaogang's film Cell Phone (2003), which won her the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress. She followed with television series such as The Proud Twins (2004), Eight Heroes (2006), and The Empress of China (2014) while collaborating with Li Yu on art-house films such as Lost in Beijing (2007), Buddha Mountain (2011), Double Xposure (2012), and Ever Since We Love (2015). She reunited with Feng in I Am Not Madame Bovary (2016), which won her the Silver Shell for Best Actress and the Golden Rooster Award for Best Actress. Fan's international credits include My Way (2011), X-Men: Days of Future Past (2014), The 355 (2022), Ice Road: Vengeance (2025), and Mother Bhumi (2025), for which she won the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress.

From 2013 to 2017, Fan was the highest-paid celebrity in the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list after ranking in the top 10 every year since 2006. She appeared on Time magazine's list of the 100 most influential people in 2017. In 2018, Fan was involved in a tax evasion case, resulting in a CN¥883 million (US$127 million) tax liability and fine, as well as her blacklisting in mainland China. She has since shifted her focus in China to her brand Fan Beauty, while pursuing an acting career overseas.

Fan was born in the coastal city of Qingdao, and moved to Yantai at 6 with her parents. Her paternal grandfather was a senior officer in the naval air force from Qingdao, stationed at the Yantai Laishan Airport division, while her grandmother gave her the Chinese character bing, or "ice," to honor the family's ties to the sea. Her father, Fan Tao, a former naval serviceman, was assigned to the Yantai Radio Factory after demobilization. After marrying Zhang Chuanmei (born Zhang Meili), one of eight sisters from a large family in Yantai, the couple were transferred to the Yantai Port Authority, where both worked as cadres in the cultural division. Following Zhang's layoff, Fan resigned, and the couple started a clothing business together. During Fan's childhood, her maternal grandfather, a carpenter, often cared for her while her parents were occupied with their business. Fan has a younger brother nineteen years her junior, Fan Chengcheng. Her parents were fined for violating China's one-child policy when he was born in 2000. He was a member of boy groups Nine Percent and NEXT before pursuing a solo career mainly as an actor.

Fan grew up watching her father sing at local competitions and cultural events, sometimes in bars to supplement the family income. Her mother, passionate about dance since childhood and a former member of the Red Guards propaganda troupe, was devoted to Fan's artistic education and arranged piano and flute lessons for her. Despite academic underperformance, Fan skipped a grade in her second year of middle school and was admitted to the music talent class of Yantai No. 1 High School for her outstanding musical performance, though some sources suggested that her admission was aided by her mother's connections with the school's staff. While in middle school, Fan lived for several years in the home of her flute teacher Zhang Chunqian, a close friend of her mother from their time in the Red Guards, as her parents were occupied with their clothing business. Zhang, who also served as the high school's wind-orchestra director, encouraged Fan's artistic talent and appointed her as the orchestra's conductor.

As a young girl, Fan was captivated by the Taiwanese television drama The Empress of the Dynasty, starring Angela Pan as Wu Zetian, which gave her the early dream of, if not becoming an actress, at least being like the star. In 1995, during her second year of high school, Fan was involved in a car accident. Her parents took her to Shanghai for surgery, and she spent three months recuperating in a hospital. Back to Yantai, she learned about Shanghai Xie Jin-Hengtong School of Arts in the local newspaper. Unable to advance to her senior year for the college entrance exam due to the accident, and unwilling to repeat her second year of high school, Fan applied to the performance school, and on the day of the entrance interviews, she was noticed in the crowd by the founder and director, Xie Jin, who advanced her past the preliminary and secondary auditions straight to the final round. At 15, she joined the school's third cohort as one of its youngest students.

Fan debuted in the television series Powerful Woman (1997), where she met the lead actress Leanne Liu, who recommended her for the television series My Fair Princess (1998–1999). The two seasons of costume drama, in which she plays a supporting role as a princess's handmaiden, became a runaway success and brought her recognition across the Chinese-speaking world.

On the eve of the shooting of My Fair Princess in 1997, at the age of 16, Fan signed with Chiung Yao, the Taiwanese writer and showrunner. After Fan rose to fame with the costume drama, her parents closed their clothing business and moved to Beijing to support her acting career, becoming her early agents. Fan broke up with Chiung Yao in 1999, following a high-profile contractual dispute that arose after she signed on to Jia Yun's productions without going through her agency. Fan and her mother filed for termination with the agency, which countersued Fan for unilaterally terminating the contract and demanded a compensation fee of CN¥1 million. Through court mediation, Fan settled the contract termination with the agency by paying CN¥200,000 in compensation, reportedly the life savings of her parents at the time, who had just bought a house in Beijing.

In the same year, she was promised with five TV series in three years by Jia Yun, a family friend and founder of Zhejiang Pi Ka Wang Group, a leather and furniture manufacturer which later gained prominence in entertainment business. Jia became a key supporter during the early stage of Fan's career, though her slate of television projects under his company failed to gain traction. Their relationship apparently soured after rumors circulated about a romantic or "kept" relationship between them. When Fan's contract with him expired, her family publicly accused Jia of exploiting her for self-promotion. Jia was placed on a wanted list in 2007 for "illegally absorbing public deposits," and he turned himself in in 2015.

In 1999, while shooting TV series Qingchun Chudong produced by Jia, Fan was introduced by co-actors Li Bingbing and Ren Quan to their manager Wang Jinghua, one of China's earliest and most powerful managers. In June 2000, Fan signed with Wang, and followed her next year to join in Huayi Brothers, where Wang became the head of its talent management. In 2002, Fan established Huairou Fanbingbing Film & Television Art Training School and a production and publicity company, both in the charge of her mother. In 2003, Fan starred in Feng Xiaogang's Cell Phone, which became China's highest-grossing film of the year and earned her the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress. Fan also appeared in films such as The Lion Roars (2002), The Twins Effect II (2004), A Chinese Tall Story (2005), and A Battle of Wits (2006), for which she received a nomination for Best Actress at the 12th Golden Bauhinia Awards. In 2006, Forbes China awarded her the Star of the Year.

Fan's tenure at Huayi Brothers, China's leading entertainment conglomerate in the 2000s, was marked by tensions between her rapidly rising stardom and the corporate machinery. Although she benefited from Huayi's strong film production network, the company's lack of adequate public-relations support and personal attention left her frustrated, particularly after her role as a mistress in Cell Phone drew increasingly negative and often salacious publicity. In 2004, she faced her first public-relations crisis when Chongqing Business Daily published an article implying her "casting-couch" transaction. Fan urged Huayi to issue an immediate statement, but the company responded only days later, leading to a newspaper retraction that came well past the news cycle. In 2006, a viral post making similar allegations appeared on Tianya. This time Fan took the initiative with the help of Mu Xiaoguang (also known as Mou Enguang), a Taiwanese businessman with reputed ties with the Four Seas Gang, who befriended Fan when he was producer of the TV series The Legend and the Hero (2007). Mu identified the posters as two middle-school students in Shaanxi Province by tracing the IP address and registration data. The two teenagers admitted to acting on instructions from another actress and issued a public apology to Fan. Fan later stated that she had identified the actress involved but chose not to disclose her name.

Fan left Huayi Brothers in February 2007 to establish her own Fan Bingbing Studio, a pioneering example of the one-person agency model in the Chinese entertainment industry, with Mu Xiaoguang as her manager and Yang Tianzhen as head of public relations. Fan starred in eight films in 2007, including Shinjuku Incident and Bodyguards and Assassins, the latter of which earned her a nomination for Best Supporting Actress at the 29th Hong Kong Film Awards.

Notably, Fan collaborated with director Li Yu for the first time in Lost in Beijing (2007), beginning a long-term artistic partnership and close friendship. The film, one of the most high-profile cases challenging Chinese film censorship, was selected for the main competition of the 57th Berlin International Film Festival. In response to the submission of its uncensored version to the festival without prior approval, Chinese authorities blocked its domestic release, which had originally been scheduled for May 2007. It was also submitted for consideration at the 44th Golden Horse Awards, but later withdrawn under pressure from Beijing, which that year barred films solely financed by mainland Chinese companies from competing for the Taiwanese awards. According to that year's Golden Horse chair, Peggy Chiao, Lost in Beijing would have received seven nominations had it not been withdrawn. Fan was still nominated for and won Best Supporting Actress for her role in The Matrimony, though she did not attend the ceremony. In late 2007, a censored version of Lost in Beijing was finally cleared for release in China, but it had only a brief theatrical run before being pulled from cinemas and banned in early 2008.

One of the prominent shifts in Fan's independent era was her team's painstaking effort to rebuild relations with the media, transforming her from one of China's most reviled—and often misogynistically targeted—celebrities into one of its most media-savvy figures. Mu Xiaoguang, known for his fiercely protective attitude toward Fan, financed two television dramas to repair her public image: Rouge Snow (2008), written by Yu Zheng, and Jintai-Pan (2009), adapted from Pai Hsien-yung's novel of the same name. Both were female-led stories centered on virtuous, resilient women. In Jintai-Pan, the morally complex nightclub dancer, one of Pai's best-known characters, was rewritten into a traditionally "positive" figure embodying chastity and perseverance. Though the change drew mixed reviews, it reflected Mu's determination to "set Fan straight." The two projects also marked the beginning of Fan's long-term collaboration with co-producer Talent Television & Film Co., Ltd., of which Zhao Wei was a founding member.

The year 2010 marked a leap forward in Fan's career. She earned the Best Actress Award for her performance in Buddha Mountain at the 23rd Tokyo International Film Festival. But most memorably, the year was defined by her appearance at the 63rd Cannes Film Festival, where she created a sensation in China with her red carpet gown inspired by a dragon robe, historically worn by Chinese emperors. The now-iconic ensemble not only cemented her image as an unapologetically ambitious and self-assured woman, but also heralded a new phase in her career, when she fully embraced the power of publicity and image-making. Throughout the 2010s, Fan maintained one of the highest public profiles in China, owing largely to her striking, fashion-forward appearances at international film festivals, often as a brand ambassador rather than for a competing film. Her unconventional path to success attracted both admiration and derision, with critics dubbing her a "carpet star" for a career built more on glamour than on work.

In 2011, Fan starred in the martial arts film Shaolin alongside Andy Lau and Jackie Chan and The Founding of a Party, which was released to mark the 90th anniversary of the Chinese Communist Party. In May, she appeared at the 64th Cannes Film Festival to promote My Way. In October, she became a member of the International Competition Jury of the 24th Tokyo International Film Festival. That same year, Fan signed a four-year artist representation agreement with Talent Film and Television. Under the deal, Talent acted as Fan's exclusive agent for television projects, and Fan became a major shareholder of Talent.

On May 10, 2018, Feng Xiaogang posted on Weibo a concept poster for Cell Phone 2, a sequel to Fan's breakout film Cell Phone (2003). On May 27, former CCTV host Cui Yongyuan, who had a feud with the original film due to its alleged insinuations about his real life, posted on Weibo photos of Fan's contract for The Bombing (2018), where Cui had been credited as the producer before being replaced by his business partner Shi Jianixang, showing that Fan was paid CN¥10 million. On May 28, Cui further alleged that another actor had signed two contracts for a four-day film shoot—one for CN¥10 million and the other for CN¥50 million—pocketing a total of CN¥60 million. Due to the smaller contract's amount matching Fan's revealed contract from the previous day, many incorrectly believed Cui referred to the same person with two days' revelations and was thus accusing Fan of tax evasion through the dual contracts. On May 29, Fan's studio denied the accusation of tax evasion. On June 3, amid public outcry triggered by Cui's posts, China's tax authorities announced the launch of an investigation into Fan's suspected tax evasion. Cui offered his help to the investigation, but clarified that the CN¥60 million contract did not involve Fan, nor did he know whether she had evaded taxes. Instead, the yin-yang contracts he exposed involve a group of people, including Shi Jianxiang and Yang Zi, both behind The Bombing. Cui also apologized to Fan for subjecting her to the investigation, stating that his targets were Feng Xiaogang and Liu Zhenyun, the director and the writer of Cell Phone.

Questions, concerns, and rumors about Fan's whereabouts grew when she was not seen after a last public appearance on 1 July 2018, and a lack of activity on social media after 23 July. According to a later deleted Weibo post by Qiu Ziming, a former journalist for The Economic Observer, Fan was arrested while consulting a fortune-teller Shen Aixu, known by the epithet "Little Immortal," at Deji Plaza in Nanjing. The session, arranged by Deji founder and real estate tycoon Wu Tiejun, with Fan paying Shen CN¥2 million, was raided by the police, who detained Fan, Shen, and Wu on the spot. To maintain secrecy, they covered Fan's head, escorted her from the elevator to the parking garage, and transported her to Beijing by police car. When Fan requested to use the restroom during the transfer, officers cleared the area to prevent exposure. In 2021, the WeChat official account "Defenders," a society of defense lawyers, disclosed that Shen, the "Little Immortal" arrested alongside Fan, had been sentenced to 12 years in prison.

On June 9, Ma Yuan, an actor and nephew of Xi Jinping, wrote on Weibo, "Everyone, stop making wild guesses… He is not alone…," expressing support for Cui Yongyuan's exposé of the entertainment industry. Ma continued to voice support for Cui on social media and, on June 26, reposted a celebratory article titled "Cui Wins Big! Thousands of Chinese Film Companies Face Bankruptcy!"

In the first week of July 2018, Fan canceled a scheduled meeting with a production company, informing them that she had been placed under house arrest. In August, her international agent, Jersey Chong, denied reports that Fan had been arrested. According to the book Red Carpet: Hollywood, China, and the Global Battle for Cultural Supremacy by Erich Schwartzel, for months, Fan was secretly detained under "residential surveillance" at a vacation resort, a form of extrajudicial detention typically used against senior party members. "She was allowed no phone, pen, or paper. She was watched constantly, even while taking showers." Taiwanese television commentator Hsu Sheng-mei claimed, citing a friend of Fan's manager Mu Xiaoguang, that Fan, Mu, their accountant, administrative assistant, and the company's legal representative had all disappeared simultaneously from five different locations in July before being transferred to Beijing "to assist in the investigation." The Taiwanese triad Four Seas Gang, which had established a presence in mainland China following Taiwan's crackdown in the late 1990s, made efforts to rescue Mu, who had connections with the gang.

During Fan's disappearance, her fiancé Li Chen and brother Fan Chengcheng continued working. However, when Li made his first appearance on August 28, in a video recorded for Zhejiang Television's tenth-anniversary celebration, he did not wear his engagement ring. In September, Montblanc, Chopard, Swisse, and Thailand's King Power terminated their endorsement contracts with Fan, while other brands erased her image. On September 6, Securities Daily reposted an article from a WeChat self-media account, claiming that Fan "had been placed under control" and that the "yin-yang contracts" were "only the tip of the iceberg," alleging further involvement in "bank loan irregularities and corruption cases." The original post was later deleted by WeChat for "violating the Cybersecurity Law" following user complaints, though the article remained accessible on Securities Daily's official website.

In January 2022, two Hollywood films starring Fan, The 355 and The King's Daughter, were released. Her participation in The 355 had been announced at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival shortly before her tax investigation. Production was subsequently delayed and did not resume until the summer of 2019, when scenes involving her character were filmed in Paris using a body double, Chinese actress Lu Ning. Fan was eventually permitted to leave China to complete filming in Los Angeles, shot against a green screen and integrated through post-production. The film, her first project following her reemergence, saw its Douban page removed prior to its premiere. The King's Daughter, which had completed filming in 2014, was released shortly after The 355. Fan's performances in both films received negative notices and earned her a nomination for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actress. In the same year, Fan had a cameo role in the South Korean TV series Insider (2022) and received the ACA Excellence Award at the Busan Film Festival's Asian Content Awards.

In 2023, she starred in the Hong Kong-produced, South Korea-set independent film Green Night (2023), directed by Chinese director Han Shuai. The film, which contains queer themes that would be banned in China, premiered in the Panorama section of the 73rd Berlin International Film Festival, marking her return to the film industry after five years. In September 2023, she served as a jury member at the 71st San Sebastián International Film Festival. In October 2023, she received the Cinema Icon Award at the 34th Singapore International Film Festival. In November and December 2024, two of Fan‘s earlier films, Bodyguards and Assassins (2009) and Sacrifice (2010), were screened in two themed retrospective exhibitions across China, marking the first time her works were shown in the country since her tax case.

In February 2025, Fan joined the competition jury at the 75th Berlin International Film Festival, presided over by Todd Haynes. That same year, she played a Sherpa in the American action-thriller Ice Road: Vengeance, opposite Liam Neeson. She also played a widowed farmer and spiritual healer in the Malaysian independent film Mother Bhumi, directed by Chong Keat Aun. The film was selected for the main competition section of the 38th Tokyo International Film Festival, and earned her Best Leading Actress at the 62nd Golden Horse Awards. The win made her the first major mainland Chinese actor to compete for and receive the award since it was boycotted by the Beijing government following a pro-Taiwan independence speech by a Taiwanese winner at the ceremony in 2018. Despite having expressed a strong desire to attend the ceremony in Taipei, Fan did not appear and instead delivered her acceptance speech by phone through the director on stage. News of her win was heavily censored on Weibo and other Chinese social media platforms, with posts by both her studio and herself deleted. From 25 to 29 December 2025, Mother Bhumi was screened in Hong Kong in five theatrical showings to meet the eligibility requirements for the 44th Hong Kong Film Awards. On 15 January 2026, when the list of eligible films was released, Mother Bhumi, along with three other films, was absent and therefore ruled ineligible, with no explanation given. In March 2026, Mother Bhumi was selected for the main competition of the 28th Far East Film Festival in Udine, Italy, with Fan receiving the Golden Mulberry Award for Outstanding Achievement. In July 2026, Fan received the Global Icon Award at the 30th Bucheon International Fantastic Film Festival.

Fan has been on the covers of Grazia (Korea, Middle East, Singapore, Malaysia, International), L'Officiel (Italy, India, Liechtenstein, Russia, Singapore), Vogue (Czechoslovakia, Singapore), Wonderland (China, UK), Marie Claire (Malaysia), Harper's Bazaar (Serbia), T (Singapore), Numéro (Netherlands), Schön! and more.

On 13 May 2010, Fan wore a "dragon robe" on the red carpet of the 63rd Cannes Film Festival. The dress, co-designed by Chinese designer Laurence Hsu and Fan herself, features two leaping dragons and crashing waves on the hem, in the bright yellow color that was exclusively used by emperors in ancient China. The dress was collected by the Victoria & Albert Museum in London on 12 March 2012. Laurence Hsu announced that the dress shown at the museum is a modified version of the original, which was bought by Madame Tussauds. On 11 May 2011, Fan wore a crane dress on the red carpet at the opening ceremony of the 64th Cannes Film Festival. On the red carpet of the opening ceremony of the 65th Cannes Film Festival, Fan wore an elegant pale strapless gown designed by her friend Christopher Bu, decorated with bright floral designs and stories about the Four Beauties of ancient China. Inspired by a porcelain vase, the ancient vibe of her dress was complemented by her hairstyle, which made her look like a young maiden in the Tang dynasty.

Fan received various invitations from fashion brands such as Valentino, Giorgio Armani S.p.A., Salvatore Ferragamo S.p.A., Atelier Versace, Christian Dior and Louis Vuitton, to attend fashion shows in Paris, Beijing and Shanghai. On 3 July 2012, she closed the Stéphane Rolland's Haute Couture show in Paris, and was featured in the fashion show's finale. On July 31, 2012, she was ranked number nine on Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed list 2012. On 19 September, she was honoured with the Personal Style Award by Elle (USA Edition). On December 2, 2012, she became the Asian ambassador of Louis Vuitton "Epi Alma" series of handbags. On 5 December, she was awarded "The Most Beautiful Woman of the Year" by the magazine Esquire (China Edition).

In 2013, Fan became the first Asian celebrity ambassador for the Champagne House Moët & Chandon, and also the brand ambassador for Chopard. On May 18, 2013, she was honoured as the International Artist of the Year in Cannes by The Hollywood Reporter. Fan joined the opening ceremony of 2013 Cannes Film Festival premiere, wearing a custom Louis Vuitton gown, and that was the first time the French fashion house had created a gown especially for an Asian actress.

In April 2013, Fan became the Greater Chinese face of Louis Vuitton's "Chic on the bridge" advertising campaign, promoting the classic "Alma" handbag launched in 1934, shot by American fashion photographer Steven Klein. In December 2013, Fan starred as the global face of the Louis Vuitton's Spring/Summer 2014 collection, which marked Marc Jacobs's final advertising campaign for the brand, featuring alongside Catherine Deneuve, Sofia Coppola, Gisele Bündchen, Caroline de Maigret and Edie Campbell. Fan was ranked on Vanity Fair's International Best Dressed list 2015 and 2016. Fan was named global ambassador of several brands such as ReFa Beauty Care Tools, De Beers, King Power, and Montblanc. In August 2020, French luxury beauty house Guerlain announced that Fan as the brand's global spokesperson.

In 2001, Fan dated actor Han Qing after co-starring in the 2001 TV drama Luan Shi Piao Ping.

From 2004 to 2007, Fan dated actor Wang Xuebing after co-starring in the 2004 TV drama Jian Lin Tian Xia. Fan took a nine-month hiatus from acting to spend time with him.

In 2024, Fan moved to Hong Kong after acquiring residency through an investment immigration program.

Lieutenant of the Exalted Order of Malacca (DPSM) – Datuk (24 August 2025)