In recent days, Mainland Chinese actress Fan Bingbing, whose focus has shifted to Hong Kong due to a tax evasion scandal, shared a series of ancient costume photos on Weibo. She was dressed in a green and white long dress, portraying the classic character “Xiao Qing” from the movie “Green Snake,” emulating the iconic look of actress Maggie Cheung from years ago. She confessed to her fans, “How long has it been since you’ve seen me in ancient costumes? Just for fun.”
In the photos, Fan Bingbing is pictured amidst a wild stream and a thicket, with the damp environment highlighting the curves of her dress. With a slight turn, she exudes a cold yet alluring demeanor. While some netizens believe her makeup is too heavy and the styling is overly complex, even questioning whether the photography style failed to capture her essence, many fans have come to her defense, stating that the heavy makeup actually accentuates the character and ambiance. Comments praising her flooded the post, with remarks like “I love ancient costumes! Please take more photos” and “She looks stunning as always.”
Fan Bingbing cemented her status as a Mainland Chinese actress with works like “Empress of the Ming” and “I Am Not Madame Bovary.” However, in May 2018, she and other crew members, including director Feng Xiaogang, made a high-profile announcement of the filming of the movie “Cell Phone 2.” A former CCTV host, Cui Yongyuan, pointed out that in the movie “Cell Phone” released 15 years ago, there were implications of extra-marital affairs and depression, causing concern that the audience would easily identify the characters in the sequel and tried to stop the filming, but negotiations with the production team were unsuccessful. In anger, Cui revealed that Fan Bingbing was paid 60 million yuan for 4 days of work and exposed the existence of a drawer full of contracts of A-list stars.
At that time, amid the escalating trade war between the U.S. and China, the Chinese economy started to decline, and news emerged of the authorities possessing tax information related to 100 A-list stars, aiming to clean up the entertainment industry during this period.
According to reports from Chinese media, Fan Bingbing was “disappeared” for 123 days and was later fined over 880 million yuan for tax evasion. She issued an apology letter on Weibo, admitting her mistake, which triggered a storm of tax audits in the entertainment industry. By the end of 2018, within just three months, personnel in the mainland film and television industry declared and paid taxes totaling 11.747 billion yuan through self-auditing. The actual tax revenue collected was 11.553 billion yuan, with frontline actors collectively paying over one billion yuan in back taxes.
The incident caused Fan Bingbing’s career to plummet, making it nearly impossible for her to establish a foothold in the Mainland Chinese entertainment industry. After years of silence, she began to reemerge in the public eye in 2022, focusing on expanding internationally. Besides serving as a judge at the Berlin International Film Festival last year, she also starred in the new film “Mother Earth” directed by Malaysian filmmaker Tsai Chin, taking on the role of a peasant woman vastly different from her previous characters. Judging by the high level of engagement with Fan Bingbing’s recent release of the “Green Snake” look, although reactions may be polarized, her visual impact and ability to generate discussions remain significant.