Do we like them?

Do we like Dilraba Dilmurat?

Our score: 6 out of 10. A decent record with one contested 2021 brand decision made under heavy pressure, but too little reporting on how she treats people to score higher.

Dilraba Dilmurat grew up in Ürümqi, in China's Xinjiang region, and is Uyghur. She has said her first dance class came at age nine, and she trained for six years in ethnic dance and ballet. She then danced with the Xinjiang Song and Dance Troupe before studying acting at the Shanghai Theatre Academy.

The acting took off from there: she won the Golden Eagle Goddess award in 2018 and became a brand ambassador for big names like L'Oréal. Reports say she insisted on doing a whipping scene herself in her debut series Anarhan, and spent three months researching police work for a role as an anti-trafficking officer. She's the kind of actor who does her homework and her own stunts.

The harm check turns on one episode. In March 2021 a state-backed nationalist backlash hit foreign brands over their stance on Xinjiang cotton, and she announced she was ending her Adidas contract. The Telegraph reported that celebrities felt forced to pick sides, with supporting Beijing the only viable option for anyone wanting to stay in the public eye. That makes it a contested call: some will read it as a star protecting her career, others as taking a side on a human rights dispute.

We found no words of her own attacking LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or any other group, and nothing on the environment either. That's honestly the whole list on the harm side. It's also worth saying what isn't hers: a Hong Kong legislator, Regina Ip, once held her up online as proof that reports of persecution of Uyghurs were wrong, but the article carries no statement from Dilraba herself, so that one isn't on her.

Nothing new on her lately that bears on either test. The most recent reporting we could open is from March 2026, when she was reportedly stuck in Dubai for three days while travelling to a Dior show in Paris, amid disrupted Middle East flights. She posted that she and her team were safe and apologised to fans for worrying them.

The good stuff is mostly about craft and pride in where she's from. She introduces herself at international events as being from Urumqi, Xinjiang, and says she hopes her work lets more people appreciate the region's beauty. She also played Xinjiang folk songs on the dutar on a TV variety show. That's heritage on show, though it isn't the same as using her platform to speak up for others.