Bai Ling

Born October 10, 1970 (age 36)
Other name(s) Ling Bai
Notable roles Jing Huan in Hu guang , Shen Yuelin in Red Corner , Tuptim in Anna and the King

Bai Ling (Traditional Chinese: 白靈; Simplified Chinese: 白灵; pinyin: Bái Líng) (born October 10, 1970) is a Chinese American actress. Bai is her surname, which literally means "white". Ling, a common given name for Chinese, means alert, intelligent, or spirit.

Biography

Bai Ling was born in Chengdu, China. Her father was a music teacher, and her mother was a dancer and stage actress. Her parents were persecuted during the Cultural Revolution because of their jobs, and soon after her birth, Bai moved to her grandmother's residence elsewhere in Sichuan. She has described herself as a very shy child who found that she best expressed herself through acting and performing. She has since said that acting allows one to ignore how society tells one to behave and allows other parts within oneself to be expressed. She began a three-year stint as a "soldier" in the People's Liberation Army in Tibet at the age of 14. Her main activity there was to entertain with musical theater[citation needed].

As she matured, she appeared in several movies. However, her rebelliousness caused friction with the army. She was accused of insubordination for using tobacco and alcohol, was briefly hospitalized for depression by the end of her army service, and partook in the Tiananmen Square protests in 1989[citation needed]. She temporarily moved to New York in 1991 to attend New York University's film department as a visiting scholar, but later obtained a special visa that allowed her to remain in the United States until she became a citizen in 1999.

Controversy

It must be noted that events in Ling's past have only been asserted by Ling herself. Ling's political past in China is in doubt. No independent source besides Ling has verified her claims of her time spent in the Chinese army, her time in New York as a visiting scholar (when her age would have made her a suspiciously young candidate for such a status, especially given the paucity of her academic achievements), or especially her participation in the Tiananmen Square protests, given the fact that she attended Moscow Movie Festival in 1989 as a member of an official Chinese movie group.

Ling has claimed publicly and vocally in the past to being engaged to Nick Carter, but Carter immediately denied it and the two have never married. Ling has further claimed that she was "cut out" of Star Wars due to her appearance in Playboy while also insinuating a large role for her character; immediately, George Lucas denied this, citing the facts that the edit had been done months before the Playboy appearance was known and stating that Ling's role was only a few lines of unimportant dialogue. Additionally, Go Fug Yourself has documented Ling numerous times appearing publicly in revealing outfits that happen to "slip" and show her nipples in pictures, despite the fact that the events at which she is photographed neither have any overt sexual content nor is Ling involved in the events in any capacity other than as a guest.

Acting career

Bai has starred in seven feature films and has appeared in many plays.

She had appeared in several Chinese movies when she was in China. In 1984, at the age of 14, Ling appeared as a fishing village girl in the movie On the Beach (海滩). Later she filmed several other movies, including Suspended Sentence (缓期执行), Yueyue (月月), Tears in Suzhou (泪洒姑苏) without much attention. Her role as a girl with psychological disorder who had affair with her doctor gained her fame, in the movie Arc Light (弧光) directed by director Zhang Junzhao (张军钊). She attended Moscow Movie Festival in 1989 due to this role.

When she was in China, her photographs had been used in magazines and calendars frequently, mostly with her whole shoulder and upper breasts exposed, which was not common in China at that time.

Since coming to the United States in 1991, she has appeared in a number of American movies.

She began in the cult movie The Crow (1994), playing the half-sister/lover of the main villain, Top Dollar. It was her character that figures out the key to The Crow's power. Hu guang was her most celebrated role in the Chinese film industry, and Red Corner (1997) would be considered her break-out role in English film.

She filmed scenes for Star Wars: Episode III (2005) as Senator Bana Breemu, but her role was cut during editing. She claimed that this was because of her posing nude for the June 2005 issue of Playboy magazine, whose appearance on newstands coincided with the movie's May 2005 release, but director George Lucas denied this, stating that the cut had been made more than a year earlier. Her scenes were included in the "deleted scenes" feature of the DVD release.

She was named one of People magazine's "50 Most Beautiful People in the World" in 1998. She was briefly said to be romantically linked to Backstreet Boy Nick Carter. Rumors spread that Ling was engaged to him, but Carter denied the rumors, saying they were "just friends."

Later in 2005 Ling was a castmate of the VH1 program called But Can They Sing?. The show gave several non-singer celebrities an attempt at singing on every episode and then allowed the audience and home viewers to vote off one contestant each week. Bai Ling was most famous for her risque and raunchy get-ups and her performances of Madonna's "Like a Virgin" and The Ramones' "I Wanna Be Sedated". Bai was eliminated just before the grand finale but was invited back on the final week for a special performance of Divinyls' I Touch Myself.

Ling was singled out for ridicule in an episode of The Showbiz Show with David Spade in late 2005. Spade noted that her high level of exposure in magazines and tabloids, frequently being photographed at movie premiers and parties, was not justified by the relatively minor roles she has been playing, and he implied that she was engaging in desperate self-promotion.

She is scheduled to appear in the show Lost as part of Jack's flashbacks. She is expected to be on for three episodes.

Personal life

According to New York Daily News (May 19, 2004), Ling "came out" as bisexual, but the context makes it unclear whether she was engaging in clever wordplay or not.

Filmography

In USA

* The Crow (1994) as Myca
* Dead Funny (1995) as Norico
* Dead Weekend (1995)
* Nixon (1995)
* Red Corner (1997)
* Somewhere in the City (1998)
* Wild Wild West (1999)
* Anna and the King (1999) (directed by Andy Tennant)
* Angel (episode: "She") (2000)
* Row Your Boat (2000)
* The Breed (2001)
* The Lost Empire (2001)
* Face (2002)
* Point of Origin (2002)
* Storm Watch (2002)
* Paris (2003)
* Taxi 3 (2003)
* The Extreme Team (2003)
* 2003 MTV Movie Awards (2003)
* Three... Extremes - Dumplings (2004)
* Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004)
* She Hate Me (2004) (directed by Spike Lee)
* My Baby's Daddy (2004)
* The Beautiful Country (2004) (written by Sabina Murray)
* Entourage (2005) ("Chinatown" episode as martial arts trainer, Li Lei)
* Edmond (2005)
* But Can They Sing? (2005)
* Lords of Dogtown (2005)
* Star Wars: Episode III (2005) (Scene as Senator Bana Breemu deleted before release)
* The Gene Generation (2006)
* Man About Town (2006)
* Southland Tales (2006)
* After Sex (2006)
* Living & Dying (2006)
* Lost (2007)

Bai Ling also provided the voice of "Mui" in the dubbed American version of Shaolin Soccer, 2001.

In China

* At the Beach 海滩（1984）
* Suspended Sentence 缓期执行（1985）
* Tears in Suzhou 泪洒姑苏（1985）
* The Bloody Trace 血案疑踪（1986）
* Yueyue 月月（1986）
* On Their Own 大学生轶事 or College Student Stories（1987）
* Arc Ligh 弧光（1988）as Jing Huan
* Hit Without Gun 无枪枪手（1988）
* The Illegal Gunman 非法持枪者（1989）

Trivia

* Made an appearance on (then) G4TechTV's The Screen Savers, confusing the two hosts at the time (Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht) as gay.
* Shaved off her hair, which had exceeded a length of 36 in. (91.44 cm.) for her role in Anna and the King, and is widely known in Thailand as "Tubtim", her character's name from the film, even though the movie is officially banned because of its depiction of the Siamese king.
* Her eccentric fashion sense often gets her featured on the website Go Fug Yourself.
* Dated Chris Isaak 1999-2001.
 

  

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