Famous Chinese Americans Entertainment: Acting

Actress. She starter her career at 14 as an entertainer in the People's Liberation Army. She later performed in the theatre and film before her first starring role in 1989. She went to New York University to study and played a minor role in The Crow. Her first major American starring role came with Red Corner, a thriller which painted an unflattering picture of China's legal system. As a result, Bai Ling had her Chinese passport cancelled and lost roles in two Chinese projects. She played minor roles in Wild, Wild West and Anna and the King. She has also made guest appearance on several TV programs and starred in the The Lost Empire mini-series.

Movie actress and director. She first appeared in several Chinese movies before coming to the US for further study. Her first starring role in an American movie was in Tai-pan, the adaptation of the Clavell novel, quickly followed by Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor. She also appeared in the Twin Peaks TV mini-series. She went to Hong Kong to star in Temptation of a Monk but returned to Hollywood to appear in On Deadly Ground and Judge Dredd . She turned to directing her own project in 1998 with Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl, which was secretly filmed on location in Tibet and was promptly banned in China. It won critical acclaim and enabled her to direct her first Hollywood film Autumn in New York.