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Joan Chong Chen (Chinese name: traditional Chinese: 陳冲; simplified Chinese: 陈冲; Pinyin: Chén Chōng; born April 26, 1961) is a four-time Golden Horse, Asian Film Awards, AFI Award, Film Critics Circle of Australia Awards, Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award, One Hundred Flowers Award and National Board of Review winning Chinese American actor, film director, screenwriter and film producer. She became famous in China for her performance in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor. She is also known for her roles in Twin Peaks, Red Rose White Rose, Saving Face and The Home Song Stories, and for directing the feature film Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl.
BiographyEarly life and careerShe was born Chen Chong in Shanghai, China, into a family of doctors (her grandparents were educated at Oxford and her parents were trained at Harvard).[1] She grew up during the Cultural Revolution. At age 14, Chen was discovered on the school rifle range by Mao Zedong's wife Jiang Qing, as she was excelling at marksmanship. This led her to be selected for the Actors' Training Program by the Shanghai Film Studio in 1975, where she was discovered by veteran director Xie Jin who chose her to star in his 1977 film Youth (青春, Qīngchūn)[2] as a deaf mute whose senses are restored by an Army medical team. She soon enrolled in the prestigious Shanghai International Studies University, at age 17 (one year before one could go), where she majored in English.[3] Acting careerChen Chong first became famous in China for her performance in Zhang Zheng's Little Flower (Chinese: 小花; pinyin: Xiǎo Huā) in 1979 for which she won the Hundred Flowers Award (Chinese: 百花; pinyin: Bǎi Huā Jiǎng), in which she played a revolutionary's daughter in pre-Maoist China, who falls in love with the wounded soldier whom she and her mother care for. Little Flower was her second film and Chen soon hit the status of China's most loved actress, which earned her to be dubbed "the Elizabeth Taylor of China" by Time magazine, for having achieved stardom while still a teenager.[2] In addition, Chen is famous in China for her role in the 1979 film Hearts for the Motherland (Chinese: 海外赤子; pinyin: Hǎiwài Chìzǐ) (aka Overseas Compatriots or A Loyal Overseas Chinese Family), which depicts an overseas Chinese family that returns to China from southeast Asia out of their patriotic feelings but encounter political troubles during the Cultural Revolution. The songs, "I Love You, China" (我爱你中国) and "High Flies the Petrel" （高飞的海燕）, sung by Chen's character, are perennial favorites in China. At age twenty, Chen moved to the United States where she studied filmmaking at California State University, Northridge. Her first Hollywood movie was Tai-Pan, filmed on location in China. She was hand-picked by Jadin Wong in New York. She went on to star in Bernardo Bertolucci's The Last Emperor in 1987 and the David Lynch/Mark Frost television series Twin Peaks. In 1993 she co-starred in Oliver Stone's Heaven & Earth. She portrayed two different characters in Clara Law's Temptation of a Monk (Chinese: 誘僧; pinyin: Yòu Sēng): a seductive princess of Tang dynasty, and a dangerous temptress. The award-winning film was adapted from a novel by Lilian Lee. In 1994 she came back in Shanghai to star in critically acclaimed Stanley Kwan's Red Rose, White Rose (Chinese: 紅玫瑰白玫瑰) opposite Winston Chao and Veronica Yip. Tired of being cast as an exotic beauty in Hollywood films, Chen moved into directing in 1998 with the critically acclaimed Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (Chinese: 天浴; pinyin: Tiān Yù), adapted from the novella Heavenly Bath (天浴) by her friend Yan Geling. She later directed Autumn in New York in 2000. In the middle of the 2000s, Chen made a comeback in acting and began to work intensely, alternating between English and Chinese-language roles. In 2004 when she starred in Jasmine Women (Chinese: 茉莉花开; pinyin: Mòlì Huā Kāi) and in Asian American independent film Saving Face. She then appeared in the Asian American independent film Americanese. Chen has appeared in 7 films which were released in 2007 and 2008: Singapore film The Leap Years (based upon a novel by Catherine Lim and starring Wong Li-Lin, Ananda Everingham and Qi Yuwu), Australian film The Home Song Stories (directed by Tony Ayres, again co-starring Qi Yuwu), American films Michael Almereyda's Tonight at Noon (along with Ethan Hawke and Rutger Hauer) and All God's Children Can Dance (opposite Tzi Ma), Chinese film Jiang Wen's The Sun Also Rises (opposite Jaycee Chan and Anthony Wong Chau-Sang), and Chinese American film Ang Lee's Lust, Caution (along with Tony Leung Chiu-Wai). She is currently working on 2 films: Seventeen (Chinese: 十七; pinyin: Shíqī), directed by Ji Cheng (姬诚) and co-starring Vision Wei Chen (魏晨) and Sam Chow (邹爽), in which she portrays a rural mother of a 17-year-old in eastern Zhejiang province,[4][5] and Bruce Beresford's adaptation of the autobiography of dancer Li Cunxin Mao's Last Dancer, along with Wang Shungbao and Twin Peaks co-star Kyle MacLachlan.[6] Personal lifeChen married her second husband, cardiologist Peter Hui, on January 18, 1992. She was formerly married to actor Jimmy Lau from 1985 to 1990. Joan and her current husband have 2 daughters and live in San Francisco, but spend part of every year in Shanghai, China with Joan's family, so their daughters can be familiar with Chinese culture. During her early years in California Chen attended California State University, Northridge. In 1989, she became a naturalized citizen of the United States. On April 9, 2008, Chen wrote an article entitled "Let the Games Go On" on the Washington Post, about the politization of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.[7] Awards and nominations
Other recognition
Filmography (as actress)
Filmography (as director)
Filmography (as writer)References
Articles and interviews
External links
Categories: 1961 births | California State University, Northridge alumni | American film actors | American film directors | American television actors | Asian American actors | Asian American filmmakers | Chinese Americans | Chinese film directors | California Republicans | Female film directors | Naturalized citizens of the United States | People from San Francisco, California | People from Shanghai CommentsNo comments have been added. |
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