Pioneering Chinese actress and producer, known widely as the “Weibo queen”, Yao Chen, is one of the nation’s first filmmakers to focus on feminist issues. -- Photo: SCMP composite/Weibo
BEIJING (SCMP): At the latest Berlin International Film Festival, Chinese director Huo Meng won a Silver Bear award for best director with his film Living the Land.
Chinese actress and producer Yao Chen congratulated Huo on her Weibo account which has 84 million followers.
Yao is the supervisor of the film, and her company, Bad Rabbit Pictures, produced it.
Yao and her husband, cinematographer Cao Yu, founded the company in Shanghai in 2016.
The firm has been a pioneer in weaving feminist themes into Chinese films in recent years.
Yao, 45, was first widely known for her chivalrous waitress character in the 2006 comedy drama My Own Swordsman.
She rose to further prominence around 2010, becoming known as the Weibo queen, for amassing more than 10 million followers on the social media platform.
Yao Chen’s down-to-earth storytelling style has endeared her to millions. -- Photo: QQ.com
What marked her out was her humorous linguistic style and ability to tell personal stories despite being a celebrity.
As one of the first influencers on the platform at a time when it allowed relatively free speech, Yao spoke up on social issues and for disadvantaged groups.
She was named the first United Nations Refugee Agency Goodwill Ambassador in China in 2013.
In 2014, she became one of the most influential people on the Times 100 List.
Yao said she treated Weibo as a platform for serious discussions, and did not want to “post whatever I want to post”.
She calls herself a self-disciplined freelance writer.
“Every time when I post content, I question what my purpose is. Do I want to help people or just make myself look good? I will not post anything if the reason is the latter,” she said.
Yao has won multiple awards for her work and taken her place on the world stage. -- Photo: Xinhua/Guo Cheng
Many people have also been attracted to her content because it depicts the daily life of her and her ex-husband, Chinese actor Ling Xiaosu.
They were classmates at Beijing Film Academy, and tied the knot in 2003 immediately after graduation.
They separated in 2011. Yao married Cao in 2012. The couple have a son and a daughter.
Yao starred in many phenomenal TV dramas, including Lurk in 2018, Divorce Lawyers in 2014, and the 2019 production All is Well.
Yao also played leading roles in many films her company produced, such as the 2019 feminist film Send Me to the Clouds.
Directed and written by woman director Teng Congcong, the film tells the story of a self-disciplined journalist in her 30s, who discovers she has ovarian cancer and decides to seek sexual pleasure before it is too late.
Yao has been recognised for her work multiple times.
She has won best actress at the Huading Awards, and was nominated numerous times at the Magnolia and the Flying Apsaras Awards. -- SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
