Education
All through the three years at the high school, Li was among the top five students in academic performance. After graduation, she taught at a primary school.
A friend who knew about her fondness for art, suggested that she take the entrance examination for the Shanghai Drama Institute. In 1993, Li entered the Shanghai Drama Institute.
Career
Her film debut was Zhang Yuan's Seventeen Years (1999), which won her the "Best Actress" Award in the 1999 Singapore Film Festival. In 2001, Li starred in the television series Young Justice Bao, which propelled her to become one of the most famous actresses in China. That year she was awarded the title of one of the "Top Ten Best TV actors/actresses in China". From then on, Li was approbated as an "action actress" as she starred in a number of wuxia television dramas, such as Taiji Prodigy and Eight Heroes.Li won the title of "The Most Popular Actress" at the 12th Beijing College Film Festival. She went on to star in Feng Xiaogang's A World Without Thieves, which earned her a nomination for "Best Supporting Actress" Award at the 2005 Golden Rooster Awards.Li won the "Best Actress" Awards at the 2007 Huabiao Awards and at the 2008 Hundred Flowers Awards for her performance in The Knot; the film was also China's entry for the Best Foreign Film award at the 2008 Academy Awards.She also co-starred and co-produced with Jackie Chan in 1911, which was released in September 2011 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. She plays video game character Ada Wong dubbed by Sally Cahill, an action femme fatale in Resident Evil: Retribution (2012), starring alongside Milla Jovovich, Sienna Guillory and Shawn Roberts and directed by Paul W.S Anderson.