How did China abandon its most beautiful actress? Fan Bingbing and the scandal that shook the film industry

How China abandoned its most beautiful actress: Fan Bingbing and the scandal that shook the film industry

China's most beautiful actress, Fan Bingbing, turned 45 on September 16. There are more than 50 films in her filmography, but the public is currently discussing not her roles, but a fraud scheme that took place a decade ago. In 2018, Fan Bingbing disappeared from the screens. Later, she sent a letter full of anguish to all her fans, promising to "pay for everything." As it turned out, she was under house arrest at that very time. So, what happened back then, and what caused the disappearance of the actress whose wealth was estimated at 100 million dollars?

On May 28, 2018, the actress was flying to Los Angeles with her friend and team. At that time, a real war was raging against her — famous TV presenter Cui Yongyuan published two copies of Fan's contract for filming in the movie "Cell Phone 2" at once on the Weibo network. For a long time, the actress's relationship with the producers of "Cell Phone 2" had not been good. Fan had played the role of the mistress of a character who closely resembled Cui himself.

One of the contracts showed a fee of 7.8 million dollars, and the other showed 1.5 million dollars. Thus, it was revealed that Fan had submitted a declaration with a deliberately understated fee amount in order to avoid paying taxes. This did not seem like a very big problem to Bingbing, but suddenly everything changed — her compatriots turned away from her. Fans had always known that Fan's income was not bad, but they were shocked to learn how high her fee actually was.

The film company that produced the movie "Cell Phone 2" issued an official statement, noting that Cui would receive a warning letter from their lawyers. The presenter himself apologized, but the process that had started could not be stopped.

Shares of companies associated with Fan immediately fell by 10 percent — the highest drop that can occur in a single day on the Chinese stock market. Just three days later, Chinese censors put Fan herself under a "ban" — all information related to her, her income, and her films disappeared from the internet.

The scandal affected not only Fan's career but also the film industry of the entire country. Thus, a new law appeared in China: now actors are set a maximum fee of forty percent of the film's total budget.

Because of Bingbing, the government suddenly noticed that the film industry was "violating social values" and promoting "money worship" by "constantly involving stars in filming." Now they would have to pay the price for this — from then on, film industry workers were forced to pay income tax to the treasury at the highest rate of 45 percent.

As for Bingbing herself, she was ordered to pay 131 million dollars in taxes and fines, including 70 million dollars from her personal funds.

In 2020, she began to return to creative work. The actress appeared on the covers of Harper’s Bazaar Vietnam and New York Times Style Magazine Singapore. She also returned to her homeland to work on one of the most expensive TV series in Chinese history, the filming of which had been suspended due to her absence.

As a reminder, Fan is the most famous Chinese actress. She has an army of fans who are ready for any plastic surgery to look like her: the actress's face is in the shape of a "melon seed," which is considered the ideal of beauty in China. The star has collaborated with major brands such as adidas, Louis Vuitton, and others. While she initially gained popularity in her homeland through the TV series "My Fair Princess," she became known to the world with the film "Lost in Beijing."