Cheung, Maggie

(née Zhang Manyu)

b. 20 September 1964, Hong Kong

Actress

Born in Hong Kong, emigrating to England with her family at eight, returning to Hong Kong and emerging as the runner-up in the 1983 Miss Hong Kong Contest, Maggie Cheung moved on to a career in the movie and TV industry. Her superb performance of a variety of characters, both historical and fictional, in some seventy films since 1984 enables her to become the most awarded Hong Kong actress.

Starting as a ‘flower vase’ (huaping) actress, she gradually matured and began to play more sophisticated characters. Her first collaboration with Stanley Kwan in Full Moon in New York (Renzai niuyue, 1989) won her the Best Actress Award at the Golden Horse competition in Taiwan. Their second collaboration in Centre Stage (Ruan Lingyu, 1991), a filmic reconstruction of the life and films of the 1930s Shanghai tragic star Ruan Lingyu, won her a 1992 HK Film Award as Best Actress, an award at the 1992 Chicago International Film Festival, and a Silver Bear award at the 1992 Berlin Film Festival. Another film that has garnered multiple awards is Comrades, Almost a Love Story (Tian mimi, 1996), which deals with diasporic Chinese people. Her most recent internationally recognized film is In the Mood for Love (Huayang nianhua), directed by Wong Kar-wai.

Unlike Hong Kong actors such as Jackie Chan and Chow Yun-fat who underwent a clear transition from the Hong Kong to the Hollywood stage, Cheung has demonstrated a deeper range of international experience, collaborating with French director Olivier Assayas in Irma Vep (1996) and with Wayne Wang in Chinese Box (with Gong Li, 1997). Cheung has also continued her earlier career as model, walking the runway for Hermès during Paris Fashion Week, March 1998.

WANG YIMAN