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ASIAN AMERICAN ISSUES
Zhang Ziyi: Major Talent or Lucky Starlet?
or some she was the most memorable part of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. They were mesmerized by the dark energy she brings to her portrayal of a freespirited young adventuress. For others she was one more annoying thing about a glacial, poorly edited sword-fight flick. They were left cold by the hard, souless gleam of her obsidian eyes and her puckish face.
    
Regardless of your opinion of Zhang Ziyi, one fact is indisputable: since the release of CTHD in late 2000, the media has lionized the gamin-faced actress. Virtually every glossy and tabloid has hailed her as the hot new Asian female actor and/or great new beauty. In the heat of CTHD's surprise success Zhang was signed to several projects, including Rush Hour 2, The Legend of Zu, 2046 (a science fiction flick), Hero (a Jet Li kung-fu flick) and Musa (a Corean film set during the wars between the Yuan and Ming Dynasties).
    
Luck is essential to every success, but Zhang Ziyi appears to have enjoyed more than her share during her brief acting career.
    
She was born February 9, 1979 in Beijing to an economist father and a kindergarten teacher mother. At the age of 11 she enrolled in a dance school. Four years later she decided to switch to acting despite some promise as a dancer. She went for a shampoo commercial audition and was picked out by the legendary director Zhang Yimou to play a schoolgirl who falls in love with her teacher.
    
When The Road Home was released in China in 1999, the young actress was promptly dubbed "Little Gong Li" on the popular suspicion that she had followed the great actress into Zhang Yimou's bed. (Zhang Yimou had discovered Gong Li in 1987 and lost her in 1994 when she left him to marry Singaporean businessman Ooi Hoe Siong.)
    
The Road Home received no attention in the U.S. but won the 2000 Jury Grand Prix Silver Bear at the Berlin Film Festival. It also caught the eye of Ang Lee who was casting Crouching Tiger. No one suspected that the low-budget film he was planning to shoot in China would go on to become the next year's most profitable film, ultimately grossing $150 million worldwide. It turned Zhang Ziyi into an international superstar in one fell, elaborately-wired swoop.
    
Is Zhang Ziyi really a great beauty and first-rate actor? Or is she a second-rater whose fame is as un-credible as her CTHD fight sequences?
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WHAT YOU SAY
[This page is closed to new input. --Ed.]
(Updated
Tuesday, Apr 1, 2008, 05:49:57 PM)
pssh, all asian female celeb's are sellouts!!!,
Perhaps her dating Mr. Isaac is an issue. But how do we know it is not she who is taking advantage of Mr. Isaac's asianphile tendency to advance her career. Can't say I'm a fan of Mr. Isaac to follow his latest video. The last video I saw of him was 10 years ago butt nake on the beach with a model.
I guess I will wait for ZZY to get a white boyfriend
AC Dropout
  
Monday, March 18, 2002 at 08:14:51 (PST)
i think you're all going too deep into what you think zz's intentions and her personaility. From what ive seen from her public appearances she looks like a very nice women who likes to act and works very hard to be a good actor. She is a very good actor, she just happens to be good looking aswel.
gulabok
  
Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 21:27:34 (PST)
Zhang Ziyi may have already turned her back on the asian community...Her boyfriend is the producer of Rush Hour 2 who happens to be a "White Man". What could a white man possibly want with an asian girl who can barely speak a word of english?!? I only wonder...
ZZ tops the sell outs
  
Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 13:04:44 (PST)
pssh, all asian female celeb's are sellouts!!!
Look at it this way. If they don't date white men, they won't be celebs. So it's a give and take situation for them.
FOP
  
Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 12:02:23 (PST)
ZZ all the way,
"But when she masters the english language, she will be a powerful weapon to represent Asians in the media"
She does not need to master English to represent us. She already has without Hollywood's endorsement. You AA need to fight your own battle here. Good luck.
FOP
  
Sunday, March 17, 2002 at 11:59:57 (PST)
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