One of the most well-known and prosperous Chinese actresses, Zhou Xun is best known for her roles in the movies “Perhaps Love” and “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress.” For more than 20 years, she has dominated China’s film and television industries. She made her film debut in the early 1990s before branching out into television. Suzhou River was her breakthrough film, while “Palace of Desire” was the first TV show that made her famous. With the latter, she gained international recognition and took home the Best Actress prize from the 15th Festival du Film de Paris. Zhou, regarded as one of China’s Four Dan Actresses, has a vast resume that includes TV shows and a number of well-received domestic and international motion pictures. These include well-known TV shows like “The Legend of the Condor Heroes” and “Red Sorghum,” as well as motion pictures like “Suzhou River,” “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” “Painted Skin,” and “Painted Skin: The Resurrection.” Her commitment to social service has also garnered her numerous accolades, including the 2008 designation as China’s first United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Goodwill Ambassador.
Early Life & Childhood of Zhou Xun
On October 18, 1974, Zhou Xun was born in Quzhou, Zhejiang, into the middle-class family of Chen Yiqin and Zhou Tianning. Her mother was a salesperson at a department shop, and her father was a local cinema projectionist.
She attended the No. 1 Middle School in Quzhou. Despite her parents’ wishes for her to attend college, she enrolled at the Zhejiang Arts Institute because she was passionate about dramatic arts.
Career of Zhou Xun
She made her acting debut in the early 1990s in a number of movies, including “Temptress Moon” (1996), “Old Grave” (1991), and “The Pampered Wife” (1995).
Her first major part on television came as a young Princess Taiping in the Chinese television historical series “Palace of Desire” after she debuted in the 1997 series “Hong Chu Fang” and a few other series. That year, at the 18th China TV Golden Eagle Award, she won Best Supporting Actress and Audience’s Choice for Actress.
The movie “Suzhou River,” which Lou Ye wrote and directed in 2000, ended up becoming her big-screen breakthrough. She portrayed both Mei Mei and Mou Dan in the movie, which had positive reviews overseas. It brought her not only attention on a global scale but also the 15th Festival du Film de Paris’s Best Actress prize.
She was called one of the Four Dan Actresses in 2000, together with Xu Jingleias, Zhao Wei, and Zhang Ziyi, meaning that these four divas were regarded as the most commercially successful young actresses in Mainland China.
After a career spanning several movies and television shows, including “Beijing Bicycle” (2001) and “April Rhapsody” (2000) and “Love Story in Shanghai” (2001), she finally made her breakthrough in Hong Kong with “Hollywood Hong Kong.” Fruit Chan received praise from critics for her 2001 picture, which was directed by her and was released in 11 nations, including the US, South Korea, Singapore, and Italy.
She also starred in the Franco-Chinese romantic drama film “Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress,” which was directed by Dai Sijie. The movie had its world premiere on May 16, 2002, at the 55th Cannes Film Festival. It was based on Sijie’s semi-autobiographical novel of the same name, published in 2000.
She continued to make notable appearances in TV shows and movies, and eventually she was cast as Sun Na in the Hong Kong musical “Perhaps Love.” Despite its box office failure, this 2005 movie closed the Venice Film Festival and was Hong Kong’s official entry for the 78th Academy Awards in 2006.
Zhou received a great deal of critical praise for her film “Perhaps Love,” which was directed by Peter Chan. She also won Best Actress honors from the Golden Horse, Golden Bauhinia, Hong Kong Film Critics Society, and Hong Kong Film Awards.
Her career took off when she starred in movies such as “The Banquet” (2006), “Ming Ming” (2007), and “The Equation of Love and Death” (2008), the latter of which won her a Best Actress prize at the Shanghai Film Critics Awards, Golden Rooster Film Festival, Asian Film Awards, and Chinese Film Media Awards.
Over time, her incredible range of performances combined with the box office success of her films elevated her to the status of one of China’s most coveted actresses, earning her the nickname “Angel in the World” from the public.
Her next picture, “Painted Love,” a supernatural-fantasy, made history in Chinese cinema when it debuted on September 25, 2008, in Hong Kong and the next day in China.
For accomplishing such box office successes, she was recognized in 2009 as the Asian Star of the Year by Asia-Pacific Producers Network (APN). Additionally, she won the Star of the Year award at the Hong Kong-based Cine Asia exhibition and distribution convention.
She tried her hand at directing with the 2011 short film “Five Demon Traps,” reveling in her success as an actress. Tony Leung Chiu-wai was portraying a demon murderer in it. In that same year, she was formally appointed as a new “Chanel” ambassador.
Zhou starred in “Painted Skin: The Resurrection,” the 2012 follow-up to “Painted Skin,” which is another noteworthy movie from her career. With over 700 million yuan in box office receipts, the film in which she played Xiao Wei again became the highest grossing Chinese-language film ever.
2012 saw her make her Hollywood debut in the German-American epic science fiction picture “Cloud Atlas.”
Other noteworthy works by Zhou include the TV series “Red Sorghum” (2014) and the motion pictures “The Message” (2009), “Confucius” (2010), “Flying Swords of Dragon Gate” (2011), and “Our Time Will Come” (2017).
In 2014, Laurent Fabius, the French Foreign Minister, awarded her a “Chevalier medal in the Order of Arts and Letters” for her work in public welfare, film, and Sino-French cooperation.
In the upcoming historical series “Ruyi’s Royal Love in the Palace” on Chinese television, she will portray Ulanara Ruyi. The launch on Dragon Television and Jiangsu Television is scheduled for December 2017.
Her singing endeavors include albums like “Summer” (2003) and “Come Across” (2005), as well as soundtrack contributions to movies like “Baober In Love” (2004) and “Perhaps Love” (2005).
Individual Life of Zhou Xun
She wed American actor Archie Kao on July 16, 2014. After Hangzhou, China’s charity show, they got married on stage. Her citizenship is based on the “Quality Migrant Admission Scheme” for Hong Kong residents.
Zhou has received multiple recognitions for her social work practice. She was appointed China’s first Goodwill Ambassador by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in 2008.
She is the first performer in history to have been named a 2010 United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Champions of the Earth (Inspiration & Action) laureate.
She was recognized as one of the 2011 Young Global Leaders by the World Economic Forum.
Net worth of Zhou Xun
The estimated net worth of Zhou Xun is about $1 million.