Liu Xiaoqing

Liu Xiaoqing (born 30 October 1955^[1]) is a Chinese actress and businesswoman.^[2] One of the leading actresses in China in the 1980s,^[3][4] she is known for her roles in the films The Little Flower (1979), Reign Behind a Curtain (1983), The Burning of Imperial Palace (1983), Hibiscus Town (1986) and in the TV series Wu Zetian (1995).

In her early days Liu worked as a farm labourer, a propagandist for the People's Liberation Army and then a stage actor for the Chengdu Military Drama Group.^[3][5]

Liu rose to national fame in a series of Chinese films such as The Great Wall of the South China Sea (1976),^[3] The Little Flower (1979), and What a Family (1979).^[6] Her star power reached new heights when she portrayed the ruthless Qing dynasty Empress Dowager Cixi in Chinese-Hong Kong co-produced epics The Burning of the Imperial Palace (1983) and Reign Behind the Curtain (1984), directed by Li Han-hsiang.^[7] During the back-to-back shooting of the film series, in response to the unprecedented publicity and scrutiny as a movie star in newly opened China, Liu published a 30,000-character autobiography titled I Did It My Way in a magazine in 1983, which included her famous quote: “Being a person is hard; being a woman is harder; being a famous woman is even harder; and being a single famous woman is the hardest of all.” Her autobiography sparked a major debate on "individualism" in Chinese society at the time, was translated into 14 languages, and distributed worldwide. Liu also became a member of the China Writers Association as a result.

Liu later reprised the role of the Empress Dowager Cixi in two unrelated films, including Li Lianying: The Imperial Eunuch (1991). She won Best Actress at the Hundred Flowers Award for her role as Hua Jinzhi in The Savage Land, filmed in 1981 but not released until 1987,^[3] and again for her role in Hibiscus Town (1986).^[8] She holds a record for having won the most number of awards in the actress categories of the Hundred Flowers Award, with three Best Actress and one Best Supporting Actress.^[9]

Since the 1990s, she had shifted from acting to a successful business career. She became one of the richest people in China, appearing at 45 on Forbes' list of the 50 richest Chinese businesspeople in 1999.^[2][10] She promoted her success by publishing a book titled From A Movie Star to A Billionaire. However, in 2002, she was arrested for tax evasion in connection with her company, Beijing Xiaoqing Culture and Arts Company Ltd.,^[6] fined 7.1 million yuan, for which she was forced to sell some of her possessions, and imprisoned for a year.^[9][11] After her release, she made a comeback to the entertainment industry. From 2005 to 2008, she performed in a stage play, The Last Night of Tapan Chin, in China and Taiwan.^{[4][12][13][14]}

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• Liu Xiaoqing at IMDb
• Xiaoqing, Liu. "A Star Reflects on the Sun". Shades of Mao. Retrieved 16 December 2009. - essay about Mao Zedong