Do we like Fan Bingbing?
Our score: 6 out of 10. Nothing harmful turned up, but the record is thin on causes, and the 2018 tax case is a real stain.
Fan Bingbing was a household name in China long before the West caught on. She began acting in the mid-90s, became famous in 1998 on the hit drama My Fair Princess, and for years was reportedly the country's highest-paid actress. Time put her on its 100 most influential list in 2017.
Then came 2018. She dropped out of public view for months, and in October Chinese authorities ordered her to pay back taxes and penalties. Her personal share was about 479 million yuan, with companies she controlled owing another 404 million. Under the rules cited by Caixin, she avoided criminal charges because she paid by the deadline.
Her public apology was blunt: she said she was ashamed and regretted what she'd done. A year later she told The New York Times the whole saga was a trough that was actually a good thing. Some people heard that as growth and some heard it as a performance for the authorities, so you can make up your own mind. Either way, she paid, said sorry and went back to work.
On the harm test, the cupboard is bare in a good way. We found nothing from her on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet that you'd wince at, and no run of dodgy projects. If anything, she took on Green Night, a Korean film about two women drawn together. She said it was about two women supporting each other, and that when souls connect, there is love.
She was also on the receiving end of nastiness. A Beijing court ruled in her favour in 2019 against a man who repeatedly claimed on Weibo that she had improper sexual relationships, and ordered him to publish an apology. She was awarded 161,500 yuan.
The comeback has been the best part. Largely shut out of Chinese screens, she went abroad and in November 2025 won Best Actress at Taiwan's Golden Horse Awards for the Malaysian film Mother Bhumi, playing a widowed farmer and ritual healer. She said she told the director he could go as far as he liked with her look for the part. She also built a beauty brand that reportedly made 1.45 billion yuan in 2024.