MYSTERY SURROUNDS ACTRESS
Rumours swell amid possible disappearance of rising star Fan Bingbing
X-Men star Fan Bingbing ’s Beijing management office is dark and abandoned. Her birthday passed almost unremarked in China’s hyper-adrenalized social media environment.
For one of China’s best-known stars and a rising Hollywood actress, Fan’s vanishing is stunning, coming amid vague allegations of tax fraud and possibly other infractions that could have put her at odds with Chinese authorities. Fan has starred in dozens of movies and TV series in China and is best known internationally for her role as Blink in 2014’s X-Men: Days of Future Past, a cameo in the Chinese version of Iron Man 3, and appearances on the red carpet at Cannes as recently as May. (Chinese practice is to list surnames first, followed by given name, the opposite of most Western style. In Hollywood films she is billed as Bingbing Fan.) Fan was booked to star with Penelope Cruz in the Hollywood film 355 and has a role in the upcoming Bruce Willis-Adrien Brody feature Air Strike.
Yet for nearly three months, Fan hasn’t been seen or heard from in public in any verifiable way. Fan pulled down tens of millions of dollars for her roles, along with handsome sums in appearance fees and product endorsements. Some of those contracts may have landed her in hot water with the authorities. Fan’s name has been mentioned in reports about a reportedly common entertainment industry practice — an actor having a public contract stating an official salary and a private contract detailing the true, much higher payday. A talk-show host, Cui Yongyuan had said in May that Fan had such an arrangement — which allegedly helps facilitate tax evasion — and revealed details that sparked a public outcry. Cui later apologized. At Fan’s management office in Beijing’s Dongcheng district, doors are locked, the lights are out and a calendar hanging alongside posters advertising Fan’s film appearances is still turned to July. A worker at an office across the hall said she couldn’t remember the last time she’d seen anyone enter the company premises.
Fan turned 37 on Sept. 16, but only a handful of entertainment notables sent greetings online, a stark break from the past when her birthday celebrations were lavish, well-attended affairs, marked last year by a public marriage proposal from boyfriend Li Chen. An automatic birthday greeting on her once-active account on Weibo, China’s main microblogging service, was apparently deleted by persons unknown.
Shi Shusi, a columnist and commentator on Chinese popular culture, suggests Fan’s high profile was her undoing, having made her a target for officials wishing to set an example for would-be tax cheats amid China’s slowing economy.
“Such a famous actress and no one knows her whereabouts. And no authorities have made any clarifications. This is the real suspense,” Shi said.
Fan’s disappearance even brought a message of concern from Hu Xijin, editor of the Global Times tabloid known for its hardline pro-Communist Party nationalist opinions.
“A timely clarification and public notification of Fan Bingbing ’s status would also be beneficial to setting the record straight internationally,” Hu wrote on his Weibo account on Sept. 15.
Fan, her production company and her agent could not be reached for more recent comment. Police rarely acknowledge such investigations are taking place until a conclusion has been reached. Her disappearance had come as Chinese authorities seek to rein in high salaries for actors. In June, regulators capped star pay at 40 per cent of a TV show ’s entire production budget and 70 per cent of the total paid to all the actors in a film.
Though China has become the world’s second-largest film market, authorities keep tight control on local productions, exercising final say over choice of cast, director and script. If Fan had stepped on official toes, it would be a simple task to retaliate by destroying her career, with Chinese authorities wielding broad powers to detain, interrogate and accuse citizens out of the public eye.
Known as a classical Chinese beauty with almond eyes and porcelain skin, Fan usually maintains a prominent presence on Weibo, where she has more than 62 million followers. Her account has been largely dormant for weeks, however, with a July 26 “like” about a posting on her charitable foundation being the last activity before the deletion of her birthday notice. Photos on social media also appear to show her visiting a pediatric cardiac ward at a Shanghai hospital for a charity event on July 1.
The strongest clue to Fan’s status may have been a Sept. 6 notice posted on the website of the Securities Daily, a newspaper published by the official Economic Daily. It says the local tax bureau had sent a notice to Fan’s studio that she had been “placed under control” — a legal term for being held under investigation.
The article was later deleted from the website.