Zhang Ziyi has been named Actress of the Decade by organizers of CineAsia, the annual three-day regional distributors and exhibitors trade show. Ziyi is no stranger to the event. In 1999 Zhang Ziyi who was a graduate of the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing was awarded the Star of Tomorrow prize before her career took off with her international breakthrough role in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. The film went on to gross over $213 million worldwide in 2000, a feat which few Chinese films have been able to match.
Zhang Ziyi is perhaps the most well known Chinese actress in America, listed as one of the most famous Chinese actors and actresses in Hollywood. In 2046, directed by Wong Kar Wai, Zhang played the female lead and won the Hong Kong Film Critics’ Best Actress Award and the Hong Kong Film Academy’s Best Actress Award in 2004. However her career hasn’t always found positive feedback from her home country. With the role in Memoirs of A Geisha, Ziyi has gained more positive publicity and popularity in America, but more of a negative publicity in mainland China, because of the unease feelings between Chinese people and Japanese people.
Zhang will accept her CineAsia award in a closing night ceremony for the trade show at the Hong Kong Trade and Convention Center.