Fan Bingbing, one of China's most famous actresses, returns to the spotlight/The story is not over

foreign [Applause] [Music] [Music] biggest film stars appeared on the red carpet at the Berlin nail on February 23 2023 it's seen as her official comeback after being out of the public eye for some time five years ago fan was involved in a tax evasion Scandal she was classified as a bad artist by Chinese authorities and shut down at the berlinel van wore white cheong Sam style dress with a lotus flower pattern on it she attracted a lot of Limelight and Chinese fans were thrilled by her appearance midnight yes so of course so I'm really happy a lot of bands come to here and saw this movie yeah but today it's raining here so maybe it's really lucky for me yeah foreign Knight a racy Thriller by a Chinese director set in the crime-infested Underworld of Seoul South Korea brings that chapter to a close fan told Reuters she was already preparing for a new film project [Applause] hey yes maybe we can we can create creative another different Rose yeah next time why did we choose to cover this Chinese actress in this episode because behind her an unbelievable political turmoil has swept through her experience reflects China's very turbulent time over the last five years in May 2018 fan bing bing started his woo yuei the protagonist in a big name movie called cell phone 2. as is the industry Norm she posted a social message to promote the film writing uua is Happy on the sets of the movie cell phone 2. a popular movie cell phone was released in 2003 it told a story of a well-known talk show host who had an extramarital affair with uua because of a cell phone the role played by Fawn the host in the movie became depressed later the male lead in the movie shared a lot of similarities in many aspects to sway Yong Yuan a then popular talk show host of China's Central television who also suffered from depression for many years this has led many audiences to believe that the real-life host had an extramarital affair according to him the movie had caused significant damage to him physically and mentally as well as to his family when the sequel to the movie started filming sway was Furious and demanded that the film be stopped but the studio ignored his request despite repeated talks in order to stop the release of the film sway took to weibo a social media in China and exposed that the actress van bing bing had used a shady contract to receive a total of 60 million Yuan or about 8.6 million for a 4 day performance the so-called Shady yin and yang contract refers to two contracts one that's real for internal use and one that's fake for the external use for the purpose of avoiding tax later its way explained that the contract of 8.6 million US dollars for four days worth of work didn't refer to Fawn and that stars involved in the matter weren't any singular person but a group of people the real amount of money involved was far more than 10 times the amount exposed so far he told the media he had a drawer filled with such Shady contracts in the Chinese film and television industry he also said that the tax department had already contacted him and might need to provide some materials or Clues and if needed he would provide all the contracts he had he said just pick out anyone who was involved he or she will have trouble in hand not only fan bing bing but also all the big names involved in China the personal income tax rate is the highest which is 45 percent the corporate income tax is 25 percent as a result movie stars are setting up Studios and using companies to avoid the high income tax despite this many high-income earners can still find other ways to avoid more income tax one of which is the yin yang contract sway young yuan's Revelations exploded on the Chinese internet the many unspoken rules of the film and television industry such as Shady contracts fake box office records bribing box offices smearing Rivals money laundering and black money have all returned to the Public's attention and become the subject of criticism Chinese people argue that taxes collected should be used on the people through the state's provision of public services such as compulsory education Medical Care Public Safety public transportation Disease Control and epidemic prevention but in China a large amount of taxes and levies while being the main source of state revenue are largely siphoned off in the process of redistribution China's taxation is a tool to rob the poor and benefit the rich the rich can only legally and reasonably evade taxes but also receive various Financial subsidies while the poor under the heavy burden of Taxation not only have no way to avoid taxes but also don't receive the corresponding benefits for their taxes and they can't even question where the tax money has gone the Chinese government seems to be waiting for this opportunity though in 2018 there were already signs that the Chinese government was short of money and the Communist Party began to use the same tactics as in the mouse era to lead the common people to hate the rich and accelerate its ideological ship to the left there were rumors at the time that the Communist party was planning to share money from celebrities and other wealthy individuals and this set of photos came out at that time when the CEOs of tencent and Jing dong group visited yanan Pony ma CEO of tencent and others were military uniforms and experienced firsthand the unique revolutionary culture of yanan the Holy Land of the Chinese Communist party or CCP the rich and Powerful in China had already begun to feel insecure so they wanted to express their loyalty to the party in this fashion in this way a personal Feud and entertainment gossip intertwined to become a judicial case China State Tax Agency indicated that it would investigate tax evasion by film and television practitioners in the CCP media Outlets also put out harsh words against fan bing bing this sent the share prices of several major Chinese private companies down a number of senior Executives of a company fan once endorsed were subject to criminal measures by the police and billions of yuan in assets were seized at that time the ccp's party media people's daily suddenly satirized that fan bing bing could not enjoy privileges no matter how famous she was how many fans she had or how well connected she was it's an Open Secret that China's entertainment industry is messy and dark a lawyer in the entertainment industry said at the time yin and yang contracts are very common in the industry and everyone is used to the tax evasion of celebrities and turn a blind eye to it Von bing bing was particularly unlucky to be the first fat sheep that the CCP shared off from the entertainers Not only was she fined 883 million Yuan or 129 million US Dollars by the official tax Bureau but her career which was booming at the time came to an abrupt halt she didn't appear in any new films in mainland China for five years in the film she had finished before were banned from airing her guest appearances were deleted and her name disappeared from the movie posters the Chinese Performing Arts industry is in fact dominated by the communist party's second red generation and it's a place where the top families of the Communist Party launder their money a female actor with little or no family background can have a very difficult time rising to the top of this circle and becoming a first tier or Superstar the owner of evergrand China's second largest real estate company but now heavily in debt has been reported to have a special relationship with fan Bing Bing Fon bing bing came from a Grassroots background she was born in 1981 when the Chinese Society was still quite conservative Fawn was beautiful as a child and liked by many people her parents were said to be very strict and didn't permit her to have any boyfriend on one occasion her father saw her on the back seat of a boy's bicycle he stormed out of the house with his slippers about to get physical it scared away the boy after the 1990s under the influence of the so-called reform in opening up the whole social atmosphere in China has changed dramatically in 1996 fan bing bing Mr Middle School graduation exam because of a car accident her parents gave her three options to repeat her studies and retake the exam to work in a factory or to learn a skill in an occupational School fan disliked all three options she was Restless one day she saw information about a school of stars founded by a famous director in the newspaper and she thought that being an actress might be a good path the big director thought fan looked great and told the admission officer straight this little girl doesn't need to take the preliminary exam in the review exam let her go straight to the third exam it didn't take long for fan to be accepted to the school in 1996 fan bing bing starred in a TV drama My Fair Princess the TV drama's reading succeeded 62.8 percent when it aired setting a record for Chinese TV dramas since statistics became available the main three actresses including fan who had little Fame before all Rose to fame Fawn later received help from a renowned agent from Taiwan Under The Branding of this agent fan won huge popularity in the media circles both at home and abroad her quotes were widely circulated such as I don't marry a rich family I am rich however much slander I can stand however much praise I can bear a million arrows will pierce your heart just get used to it these quotes upgraded Finn's image who was no longer a silly girl who reacted negatively to negative news she looked independent resilient and strong at heart and strength is one of the most desired qualities for many white-collar workers in China who are struggling in difficult situations this Public Image earned her a lot of fans Forbes China has a celebrity list it mainly ranks celebrities from mainland China Hong Kong Macau and Taiwan including singers actors hosts directors models and athletes it excludes business and internet celebrities and ranked celebrities according to multiple indicators such as income visibility and influence of their works in the five years before the incident van bing bing reigned as the number one on the Forbes celebrity list and public information shows that her annual income was U.S 43 million in 2017. 34.5 million in 2016 and 18.4 million in 2015. fan bing bing starred in a TV series named the Empress of China it premiered in December 2014 and featured the legendary life of wooza Tien the only recognized female emperor in Chinese history in 2015 the oshao Ching another well-known actress who also portrayed wuzu Tien before and had been jailed for the same crime IE tax evasion wrote A Memoir titled don't be afraid to start over again she gave a copy to Fan bing bing the book reads we are born with nothing life is just a trip to the world of Fame and Fortune why should we be afraid to start all over again perhaps in 2015 at the peak of her career fan bing bing had no idea that this book like a prophecy foretold her future Leo Xiao Jing was the most popular movie star in the 70s and 80s in China overseas Chinese media reported that Leo was jailed for tax evasion because she offended former party leader Jung Zoomin Leo was on good terms with Deng Xiaoping the second CCP leader at the home of dengzomen was intense on courting Leo and the actress who had a successful career at the time was not guarded enough she made a joke at Jung's expense to avoid his lustful gaze after deng's death Zhang zomin gained real power according to the media report Leo's company had no financial problems but was in fact set up by someone sent by Zhang who made false accounts it eventually led to Leon losing everything and being sent to prison for 422 days she later told the Hong Kong media if I die one day it will never be a suicide it must be a homicide also in 2015 Fon bing bing posted a photo on a social media platform with her boyfriend a male actor who was far less well-known than herself but had some background in the Beijing military the romance was officially announced and fan told the media that he would be her last boyfriend in 2017 the men announced that the proposal was successful meaning the two were engaged however a year later fan Shady contract incident happened in June 2019 her boyfriend announced that they broke up bonds agent from Taiwan was detained for the crime of instructing employees to conceal and intentionally destroy accounting documents and accounting books of the companies involved in the case and obstruct the investigation Von bing bing became a loner overnight and was defined as a bad artist by the official media falling from the top to the bottom it said that in order to pay off her debts she even sold face masks online at the Berlin Film Festival after walking the red carpet Fenn attended a press conference the moment the press conference started she was asked about how she felt when coming to the Berlin Film Festival after disappearing for months due to the tax controversy five years ago a staff tried to stop the media right away stating that you can only ask film related questions but fan was quite Frank and she talked about her State of Mind at the time we're going to keep the question related to the film if that's okay we'll move to the next question please it's fine I was at home I'd really like to thank my friends around the world for the concern they've shown I was well and at home and dealing with some things everyone's life has highs and lows and when you reach a low you gradually and steadily start to climb back up again it's a very tough process but at the same time you learn a lot of new things and also learn to see things and people in a new way I think in retrospect it was a very good experience for me so thank you very much for asking the question and everything is fine with me now thank you fun tried various ways to make a comeback in China but in vain so in the past year she changed her strategy and shifted her attention to Hong Kong and Korea in Green Knight fan plays the role of Jin Shah a Chinese immigrant working as a security guard at the Seoul airport there she encounters a green-haired woman a mysterious and rebellious drug trafficker played by Lee Joo young who leads her on a journey through seoul's gritty underworld the biggest challenge was that I hadn't acted for five years during these five years I did a lot of things but I always wanted to find the right story and character that would allow me to bring my state of mind and emotions at the time to it not making a movie for five years is actually quite tough for an actor acting is something I love and it is a process that involves a certain amount of exploration and experimentation and from that point of view I really cherished this opportunity more than I ever did before as for the challenge I felt I had to use 120 percent of my ability and give all of myself to get this done right I wanted to prove to the director that I'm worthy of her trust and proved myself worthy to myself and all the people waiting for me that was my biggest wish so he um coming back to Berlin feels I'm restarting again acting is something I will probably be doing my whole life I'm going to stick to it no matter where I am or who I'm playing it is what I want to be doing and I would like to thank you all all my friends around the world for supporting me I hope to be able to play lots more different roles and to bring them to you in the future the TV series My Fair Princess which was a phenomenal hit in China and Asia back then made three of the main actresses popular so what has happened to the remaining two the first lead Yahweh was officially listed as a bad artist by Chinese officials in 2021 and all artists who knew her at the time rushed to delete their weibo posts related to her to show that they were cut off no clear official reason has been given for yahweh's invisibility so far in several Chinese media outlets at home and abroad have revealed that she might be involved in an internal struggle at the very top of the CCP on June 10th 2022 Zhao Wei posted a black and white photo of her father saying she had nothing and posted a tribute to him however the post was deleted immediately afterwards the second female lead Ruby Lin is a Taiwanese actress who wrote off her studio in mainland China in 2021 moving her acting career from China back to Taiwan the Taiwanese media wrote leaving the double-digit annual growth of China's TV market and returning to her home country Ruby Lin is facing a Taiwan TV industry that is growing at less than two percent Ruby Lynn's career has peaked in the last two years in 2021 she produced and starred in the trilogy light the night which was broadcasted exclusively on Netflix worldwide and performed well in the market it was well liked by the audience what fan Bing Bing her predecessors and peers have experience exhibits the power of a red system this power is so distorted and bizarre that the beauty intelligence hard work etc of any individual cannot compete with it the only way to be truly safe is probably to recognize the nature of the red system and its ideology to break away from it from one's heart and to stay away from it thank you [Music]