Li Chun (born January 11, 1988), known professionally as Li Qinyao, is a Chinese actress and former singer. From 2007 to 2010, she was a member of the

Japan Japan is an island country in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean off the northeast coast of the Asia, Asian mainland, it is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan and extends from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea ...

ese

girl group A girl group is a music act featuring two or more women in music, female singers who generally vocal harmony, harmonize together. The term "girl group" is also used in a narrower sense in the United States to denote the wave of American female p ...

Morning Musume , formerly and commonly known as and colloquially referred to as , is a Japanese girl group, holding the second highest overall single sales (of a female group) on the Oricon, Oricon charts as of February 2012, with the Oricon record of most to ...

under the stage name . As an actress, Li has appeared in television and film projects including ''Moon Embracing the Stars'' and ''Eastern Battlefield.''

Career

2007-2010: Morning Musume

In 2006, Li auditioned for '' Super Girl'', but failed to enter the top 10.

Tsunku , known professionally as , is a Japanese singer, record producer, and songwriter. He was the lead singer of the rock band Sharam Q. As a songwriter, Tsunku is the primary producer for Morning Musume and other Hello! Project acts, such as Co ...

, who planned on expanding

Hello! Project is a Japanese musical collective consisting of all female recording artists and groups under Up-Front Promotion, a subsidiary of Up-Front Group. The name was initially used as Michiyo Heike and Morning Musume's fan club name in 1999, but ...

into overseas Asian markets, offered her and the other eliminated ''Super Girl'' contestants an opportunity to enter an audition for

Beijing Beijing, Chinese postal romanization, previously romanized as Peking, is the capital city of China. With more than 22 million residents, it is the world's List of national capitals by population, most populous national capital city as well as ...

China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...

, which was kept secret from the members of Morning Musume themselves. Li accepted in spite of her family's disapproval due to the Japanese-Chinese tensions. On March 15, 2007, Li was officially announced as an eighth generation member in Morning Musume as a "foreign exchange student" along with Lin Lin. On March 18, 2007, she made her first Japanese television appearance on ''

Hello! Morning was a weekly Japanese TV show featuring members of Morning Musume, and sometimes other Hello! Project members on TV Tokyo. It was also known by the shorter name of . On April 1, 2007, the show ended after seven years of broadcast. A new show fe ...

'', Morning Musume's variety show. Within the same week, she moved to Tokyo, Japan. Li made her first stage appearance took place during Morning Musume leader

Hitomi Yoshizawa is a Japanese former singer and actress. In 2000, Yoshizawa debuted as a 4th generation member of the idol girl group Morning Musume and became their leader in 2005 until leaving the group in 2007. Following her departure, Yoshizawa continued to ...

's graduation concert on May 6, 2007, at

Saitama Super Arena is a multi-purpose indoor arena located in Chūō-ku, Saitama, Chūō-ku, Saitama (city), Saitama, Saitama Prefecture, Japan. It opened preliminarily on May 5, 2000, and then was officially opened on September 1 of the same year. Its maximum capa ...

. In July 2007, Morning Musume released the single " Onna ni Sachi Are", Li's first song with the group. In 2009, Li, along with Morning Musume members

Sayumi Michishige is a Japanese singer, actress and model. She is a former sixth-generation member and former leader of the J-pop group Morning Musume. Following the departure of fifth-generation member Risa Niigaki on October 12, 2013, Michishige held the longe ...

and

Koharu Kusumi is a Japanese actress, model, television personality, and singer. In 2005, she became the only seventh generation member of the Japanese idol girl group Morning Musume, a part of Hello! Project. While Kusumi was in Morning Musume, she provided t ...

and

Berryz Kobo was a Japanese idol girl group formed by Up-Front Promotion in 2004 and associated with Hello! Project. The group's members consisted of Hello! Project Kids members Saki Shimizu, Momoko Tsugunaga, Miyabi Natsuyaki, Chinami Tokunaga, Maa ...

member

Risako Sugaya is a former Japanese singer and actress. She first gained recognition when she joined Hello! Project Kids and later became one of the lead vocalists of the girl group Berryz Kobo from 2004 to 2015. Career 2002–2004: Hello! Project Kids, ...

, released the song "Sekai wa Futari no Tame ni" as the group Zoku V-U-Den. During the final show of Hello! Project's 2010 summer tour on August 8, 2010, Li, along with Lin Lin and

Eri Kamei is a Japanese pop singer and model. She is a former member of the Japanese pop group Morning Musume. She joined in late 2003 as a sixth generation member along with Miki Fujimoto, Sayumi Michishige, and Reina Tanaka. She graduated on Decemb ...

, announced they would be leaving Morning Musume after the final show of their fall tour, ''Morning Musume 2010 Rival Survival''. Her final single with the group was " Onna to Otoko no Lullaby Game", which was released on November 17, 2010. Li's final performance with the group took place on December 15, 2010, during which she sang " Furusato" as her graduation song.

2011-present: Return to China

In late August 2011, she was announced to be cast in a Chinese school-life film "Love for a Second" and as of early September 2011, she was discovered to be enrolling in the famous

Beijing Film Academy Beijing Film Academy (BFA; zh, first=s, s=北京电影学院, labels=no) is a municipal public college in Beijing, China. It is affiliated with the City of Beijing and co-funded by the Beijing Municipal People's Government, the National Radio ...

, studying Performance Arts. On May 8, 2015, Li announced through her

Weibo Weibo (), or Sina Weibo (), is a Chinese microblogging ( weibo) website. Launched by Sina Corporation on 14 August 2009, it is one of the biggest social media platforms in China, with over 582 million monthly active users (252 million daily ac ...

account that she would be changing her professional name to "Li Qinyao".

Personal life

On December 26, 2014, Li announced on

that she had married Chinese music producer Bernard Zheng.

Discography

Filmography

Television

Film

References

External links

Official blog
{{Authority control 1988 births Living people Japanese female idols Morning Musume members 21st-century Chinese actresses Chinese expatriates in Japan V-u-den members Super Girl contestants People from Yueyang Japanese-language singers of China Musicians from Hunan