Mystery shrouds missing Chinese star Fan Bingbing
BEIJING >> “X-Men” star Fan Bingbing’s Beijing management office is dark and abandoned. Her birthday passed almost unremarked in China’s hyperadrenalized social media environment.
For one of China’s bestknown 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 star turns on the red carpet at Cannes, France, as recently as May. She was booked to star with Penelope Cruz in the Hollywood film “355” and has a role in the upcoming Bruce WillisAdrien Brody feature “Air Strike.”
Yet for nearly three months, Fan hasn’t been seen or heard from in public in any verifiable way.
One of China’s wealthiest entertainers, 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.