Background

Jiang Wen was born on January 15, 1963 in Tangshan, Hebei, China in a family of military personnel.

Education

In 1973 Jiang Wen attended Beijing No. 72 Middle School. In 1980, he entered China's foremost acting school, the Central Academy of Drama, graduating in 1984. After graduation, he was assigned to China Youth Art Institute as an actor. That same year, he started acting both on the stage (with the China Youth Theater) and in films.

Career

Jiang's debut role was in the film The Last Empress, where he portrayed Puyi. He then starred in Hibiscus Town directed by Xie Jin; his role as an intellectual revolutionary earned him the Best Actor Award at the Hundred Flowers Awards. Jiang once again paired with Hibiscus Town co-star in the film Chun Tao directed by Ling Zifeng. Jiang was cast in Zhang Yimou's debut film Red Sorghum. Jiang also featured in the France-Chinese film Tears of the Bridal Sedan, and his first commercial film The Trial.

After appearing in many television series and films, Jiang became known in China for his role in the 1992 television series A Native of Beijing in New York, based on the novel Beijinger in New York, which made him one of the most popular actors of his generation. In addition to these he also starred in Black Snow (1990), Li Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch (1991), The Emperor's Shadow (1996), and The Soong Sisters (1997). Apart from Red Sorghum, Jiang also collaborated with Zhang Yimou for the 1997 film Keep Cool.

Jiang wrote and directed his first film in 1994, In the Heat of the Sun, adapted from a novel by Wang Shuo. A tale set in the Cultural Revolution, it won for its young lead actor Xia Yu the Best Actor prize at the Venice Film Festival and garnered six Golden Horse Awards in Taiwan.

In 2000, Jiang co-wrote and directed the black comedy film Devils on the Doorstep. The film premiered at the 2000 Cannes Film Festival and clinched the Grand Prix but was subsequently banned in its home country; said to undermine the country because it "seriously distorts Chinese history". Jiang himself was banned from making films for seven years. In 2001 he was a member of the jury at the 23rd Moscow International Film Festival.

Jiang starred in several films in the early 2000s; namely The Missing Gun, Green Tea, My Father and I, Warriors of Heaven and Earth, Jasmine Women and Letter from an Unknown Woman. Jiang has also acted in television series, such as Da Qing Fengyun (2006), in which he played Hong Taiji. He also played notable historical figures, Mao Renfeng in the propaganda film The Founding of a Republic; and Cao Cao in the historical war film The Lost Bladesman.

Jiang returned with his fourth feature The Sun Also Rises in 2007; a fantasy realism film which contains a polyptych of interconnected stories in different time-zones; the film received positive reviews from critics but bombed at the box office. He then collaborated with 10 other directors on the romance anthology film New York, I Love You.

Jiang's fifth feature, a Western-styled action comedy Let the Bullets Fly set a box office record by becoming the fastest Chinese-language film to break RMB100m mark ($15.15m) in Chinese cinemas; and received critical acclaim.

In 2013 he was named as a member of the jury at the 70th Venice International Film Festival. In 2014, Jiang directed the action comedy film Gone with the Bullets, which screened at the 65th Berlin International Film Festival.

Jiang co-starred in the Star Wars anthology film Rogue One, released in December 2016. In the film, he portrays Baze Malbus, a native of the moon of Jedha who is drawn into the war against the Galactic Empire.

In 2018, Jiang directed the Republican-era spy comedy Hidden Man. The film was China's submission to the 91st Academy Awards.

Jiang is set to return to the small screen in upcoming historical drama Cao Cao.

Works

More photos

• film

  • Watch Warriors of Heaven and Earth

    (Two rival swordsmen team up to defend a sacred holy relic...)

    2003
  • Watch Let the Bullets Fly

    (In 1920s China, a bandit posing as town's new mayor faces...)

    2010
  • The Lost Bladesman

    (Set in 198 A.D., when the Eastern Han Dynasty has collaps...)

    2011
  • Red Sorghum 187
  • Chun Tao 1989
  • The Emperor's Shadow 1996
  • The Soong Sisters 1997
  • Devils on the Doorstep 2000
  • Watch Missing Gun 2002
  • Green Tea 2003
  • Jasmine Women 2004
  • The Sun Also Rises 2007
  • Gone with the Bullets 2014
  • Rogue One: A Star Wars Story 2016
  • Hidden Man 2018

Personality

Close to his family, Jiang has a deep bond with his parents: whenever he is on site for shooting or acting, he arranges for them to come to his workplace so that he can spend time with them. Each movie he makes, he saves the best seats for them and asks for their opinions. Even on artistic composition, he sometimes resorts to them for advice. It was his parents' endorsement on the original novel of A Native of Beijing in New York that propelled Jiang into his performance. Later, during the filming of his first feature film, In the Heat of the Sun, Jiang again considered their evaluation of Xia Yu, before settling on him as the leading actor.

Connections

Hibiscus Town was the movie that first catapulted Jiang, a then-obscure university student, into fame and popularity. His partner in the film was Liu Xiaoqing, he was 23 and she was 31, and they were passionately involved during the shooting, making a sensational news in the entertainment industry at that time. Reportedly, the crew was very supportive of their relationship. After successive appearances in Hibiscus Town and Red Sorghum, Jiang was gradually garnering his own reputation, and yet in the face of Liu Xiaoqing, who was already an internationally acclaimed actress, he was still the fledgling junior. Even after years, Liu Xiaoqing never admitted this romance herself, only claimed that the media pressure was so suffocating that she once conceived going abroad. Years later at one ceremony, Director Xie Jin finally verified this rumor, revealing that they had actually lived together for three years. In 1994, they broke up in an amicable manner, and have managed to keep alive their friendship to this day.

Jiang and his French ex-wife Sandrine Chenivesse first encountered each other at an artistic celebrity gathering in 1995: he was sitting alone at a corner, staring blankly at space, so she went up introducing herself to him, and that was the beginning of their romance. Chenivesse was a Doctor of Anthropology at the University of Paris, who happened to be researching topics in philosophy and Taoism in China. In the autumn of 1997, they registered for marriage in Paris and had a daughter together, but they remained low-key on media until their appearance on the red carpet of the 2000 Cannes Film Festival. In 2005, Chenivesse announced divorce with Jiang after coming back from France with their daughter, the main factor of the divorce being their long-distance separation.

In 2001, during the filming of Warriors of Heaven and Earth, famous actress Zhao Wei introduced Zhou Yun, a cast member from the same movie, to Jiang. Zhou Yun, a laureate Miss Beauty of Wen Zhou Beauty Pageant, was mesmerized by the City of Beijing and decided to pursue an acting career there, so she entered the same school with Jiang, the Central Academy of Drama. Graduating from the same school and disciplined by the same mentor, Jiang and Zhou, despite a 15-year age gap, shared the same passion and interest. Later, Jiang recommended Zhou to the cast of The Music Box, but each left the crew after a creative difference between Jiang and the director Chen Yifei. Their successive withdrawals spawned much speculations about the ambiguous relationship between them, and rumors started to spread. Once, when Zhou was studying a character at Jiang's studio, she happened on him drinking and sulking for missing his daughter. When Jiang sobered up, he opened up to her about his history with the French ex-wife. It was when Jiang was confiding to her that she realized her affection for him and decided to stay with him. At the end of 2005, they were officially married, and now they have two sons.

Father:

Jiang Hongqi

Jiang Wen's father is Jiang Hongqi, a veteran of the Korean War. Described as taciturn and bookish, he played a minor role in his son's 2011 film, Let the Bullets Fly.

Mother:

Gao Yang

Spouse:

Sandrine Chenivesse

Spouse:

Zhou Yun

Zhou Yun is a Chinese actress. Zhou is noted for her roles as Hua Jie and Shu Man in the film and television series Let the Bullets Fly and Golden Marriage 2 respectively.

Brother:

Jiang Wu

Sister:

Jiang Huan

Daughter:

Jiang Yilang

Son:

Jiang Mahu