Fan Bingbing's return is an exceptional example for a Chinese star previously blacklisted from her country's strict entertainment industry. Fan Bingbing is set to return to Chinese screens with , a Hong Kong-Korean production that is the actor’s first Chinese work since she was blacklisted in 2018. Besides a brief cameo in the Korean TV show ‘Insider’ in 2022 and two roles in American productions, the 43-year-old actor has been absent from screens for the past six years.
Her return with a starring role in , a film about a repressed Chinese immigrant that runs away with a mysterious green-haired woman, is something most never expected to see. In 2018, Chinese tax authorities investigated Fan after the filmmaker Feng Xiaogang publicly spread contract details of Fan’s, leading the public to believe she might be guilty of tax evasion. Later that year, it was confirmed the government had ordered Fan to pay CN¥883 million (around €110 million) in taxes.
Following these events, Fan’s work was blacklisted in mainland China. She was unable to work on film and television projects in the country, while her previously completed works were not allowed to be released. Prior, she was one of the country’s biggest domestic and , with roles in and .
Her tax evasion scandal also led to a wider tax audit crackdown on China’s entertainment industry, leading to an increase in over CN¥11.747 billion (€1.52 billion) being declared.
Unusually, the actor was permitted to retain her.
