More than just a pretty face

Fan Bingbing [photo provided to China Daily]

Fan Bingbing has such exquisite looks that she may have had a career no matter what. But she wants it all. She has proven that she can play parts that either play on her beauty or work in spite of it.

Fan Bingbing knows she is beautiful. She wants to be known for more than that. When she makes an appearance outside China, she wants others to know she is Chinese.

"Whenever they see an Asian face, they assume it is Korean or Japanese, and that makes me unhappy," says the 31-year-old actress. That's why she donned a gown that clearly states her cultural identity while walking the red carpet at the French Riviera. For four consecutive years, she has chosen designs featuring distinctly Chinese motifs.

"The biggest difference between Asian and Western aesthetics is in the temperament," she theorizes.

In China, Fan Bingbing is widely seen as one of the most gorgeous female stars. That perception carries with it certain stigma, such as the suspicion that she is used in movies chiefly as window dressing, that she has a limited acting range and she has had an easy ride on the road to stardom.

A simple look at her schedule would debunk some of those myths. Fan works extremely hard. One year she appeared in as many as nine movies, although some in supporting roles. In recent years, she has cut down to one or two film projects a year, but the movies were obviously built around her persona and she appears in almost every scene.

Fan Bingbing also runs China's largest actors studio, an operation that involves other artists and the development of projects from the ground up. Aside from movie and television deals, she has numerous commercial engagements and dabbles in singing, philanthropy and an endless stream of activities.

One thing she wants to experiment with but cannot find time for is theater. "If one day a play truly touches me, I'd go for it. Not to prove anything to others, but to have a new experience for myself," she says.

In the past year, Fan made two cameos. She was originally invited to play the female lead in Lost in Thailand, but had to bow out due to a scheduling conflict.

The role was shrunk to one scene, in which she played the object of desire for the idiot savant. She appeared at the end of the movie as a surprise to the audience. She fulfills the dream of tens of millions of young Chinese men at the bottom of the social hierarchy who dream of meeting a beautiful woman. The role has cemented her stature as the national "diva" or "goddess".