2024 Manga Adaptations (January - June)
Fan Bing Bing, the most famous and wealthiest Chinese actress, lived through quite a disastrous scandal last year, to say the least.
Not only did she get arrested and charged around $129 million for tax evasion, but her fiancee Li Chen broke up with her this year in June. And as you probably know, the media outrage was even worse.
This was quite a setback for the actress who was born into a humble family and basically paved her way through a male-oriented industry.
BingBing has been inactive since October 2018 when she issued a public apology for tax evasion. She's lost many brand endorsements, and her fiancee as well.
However, it seems that she is back. After having not been seen in public for 10 months, Fan attended the iQIYi Ninth Anniversary Gala in Beijing on April 22. Just 4 days later, she released her own brand Fan Beauty Secret. She was also in attendance at the Shanghai Beauty Summit on July 12 and the 12th China Cosmetic Summit on July 22. Fan became the spokesperson of the Chinese brand milk powder Be Strong on July 23.
And the biggest news is that the production of the upcoming and long-awaited female-lead spy thriller 355 finally began on the 27th. The film stars Fan Bingbing alongside Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Diane Kruger, Marion Cotillard and Penelope Cruz as international spies teaming up to save the world.
However, it has also been announced that Chinese company Zhejiang Talent Television & Film will spend $11.6m to remove scenes with Fan Bingbing and Gavin Gao from The Legend of Ba Qing.
Air Strike was blocked from Chinese theaters. Several of her dramas that she started filming back in 2017 and 2018 are still on hold. After she participated in a poetry reading in Beijing in July, reactions online were very harsh.
The Chinese society is angry and many of them don't want her back. But it seems she is not giving up: "There are regrets, pain and fragility," she said. "But I still feel that I need to keep on living."
