Jiang Wenli (, born 20 June 1969) is a Chinese actress, director, producer, and screenwriter. A native of

Tianjin Tianjin (; ; Mandarin: ), alternately romanized as Tientsin (), is a municipality and a coastal metropolis in Northern China on the shore of the Bohai Sea. It is one of the nine national central cities in Mainland China, with a total popu ...

, she graduated from the

Beijing Film Academy Beijing Film Academy (BFA; ) is a coeducational state-run higher education institution in Beijing, China. The film school is the largest institution specializing in the tertiary education for film and television production in Asia. The academy ...

in 1992. Li ranked 52nd on ''

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

China Celebrity 100 The ''Forbes'' China Celebrity 100 is a list published annually by ''Forbes'' that ranks the influence of Chinese celebrities. First published in 2004, it is similar to Celebrity 100 also published by ''Forbes''. Factors that are taken into acco ...

list in 2014.

Early life

Jiang was born into an affluent family. Her father Jiang Peiji () was a railroad engineer and her mother was a railroad telephone operator. Both of her parents love literature and the arts. She is the youngest of three sisters, her elder sister is Jiang Wenjuan (). Since Jiang was a young girl, her father taught her to appreciate famous books, paintings, and songs. When she was 5 years old, she dreamt about being a gymnast, so her mother sent her to study dance and gymnastics. However, since her stature did not fit the standards of a gymnast, the coach of the

Bengbu Bengbu () is a city in northern Anhui Province, China. Its population was 3,296,408 registered residents at the 2020 census. 1,968,027 lived in the built-up area made of four Bengbu urban districts and Fengyang County in Chuzhou Prefecture, larg ...

city gymnastics team refused to regard her as a formal team member. Afterwards, she spent five years practicing as an informal member. At the age of 17, she took the college entrance examination with the goal of going to normal university. However, she was instead accepted by a water conservation secondary school because her score was five points below the acceptance line for a normal university. In 1986, she graduated from the secondary school and started to work at the

City Water Company. Her job was to design ways of water transportation for residents. Nevertheless, she was not satisfied with her life at the time and decided to go to

Beijing } Beijing ( ; ; ), alternatively romanized as Peking ( ), is the capital of the People's Republic of China. It is the center of power and development of the country. Beijing is the world's most populous national capital city, with over 21 ...

in 1988 to start her new life. Her niece Ma Sichun (daughter of Jiang Wenjuan) is also an active actress now.

Career

Without any preparation, Jiang was accepted by the

. After she became a student of the academy, countless film companies invited her to play roles in their films. Her first role was a nursery school teacher in a TV series called ''Lily on Cliff'', and that series won the

Flying Apsaras Awards China TV Drama Flying Apsaras Awards (), also known as Flying Apsaras Awards or simply Feitian Awards, is a biennial awards ceremony awarding excellent achievement in Television of China, Chinese television. Named after the ''Gandhanra'' aka ''Fl ...

the same year. Jiang was also a candidate for the Best Supporting Actress award. After this, she played Shuixiu in the movie ''Li Li Yuan Shang Cao'', which won an award at a French film festival. The last film of her college period was ''The Story of Xing Hua'' in which Jiang played a girl named Xing Hua. After graduating from college, she went to America for a long time before returning to China to continue her career. After coming back to China, Jiang played a role in Miaomiao Liu's movie ''The Story of Xinghua''. In 1993, she played an important role as Chengyi's mother in the movie '' Farewell My Concubine'', which won the Best Movie Award at the

Cannes Film Festival The Cannes Festival (; french: link=no, Festival de Cannes), until 2003 called the International Film Festival (') and known in English as the Cannes Film Festival, is an annual film festival held in Cannes, France, which previews new films o ...

that year. In 1999, Jiang acted in a 20 episode TV series called ''Lead by the Hand'', and for her performance she won one of the Chinese television industry's highest honors, Best Actress, from both the Golden Eagle Awards and the

. In 2000, for her performance in the film ''Female Coach & Male Player'', Jiang won the Best Actress award from Huabiao Film Awards.

Personal life

Jiang Wenli was married to

Gu Changwei Gu Changwei (born 12 December 1957) is a Chinese cinematographer and film director. Gu was born in Xi'an, Shaanxi in the People's Republic of China. Gu is considered one of the major Chinese cinematographers working today.Zhang, Yingjin & Xiao, Zhi ...

, the couple has a son Gu Hehe ().

Filmography

Film

Television series

Jiang Wenli at chinesemov.com
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Awards and nominations

Film awards

Television series awards

References

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External links

* *
Jiang Wenli
on Mtime
Jiang Wenli
on Douban
Jiang Wenli
at the Chinese Movie Database {{DEFAULTSORT:Jiang, Wenli People from Bengbu 1969 births Living people Actresses from Anhui Film directors from Anhui Chinese women film directors Chinese film actresses Chinese television actresses Chinese film directors 20th-century Chinese actresses 21st-century Chinese actresses