Ten fun facts about Ziyi Zhang

Fact 1
Along with Muhammad Ali and Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ziyi has become a Special Olympics’ Global Ambassador.

Fact 2
The Chinese media refer to her as the one of the “Four Dan Actresses”. Zhou Xun, Zhao Wei and Xu Jinglei are the other three. She has not been trained in martial arts and ends up incorporating a lot of dance moves into her fighting scenes.

Fact 3
Ziyi started learning dance at the age of 8yrs. At 11, she signed-up at the Beijing Dance Academy and won the national youth-dance championship at 15. Soon after, she started appearing in TV commercials, in Hong Kong.

Fact 4
According to the 2004 Forbes Magazine China edition, after Yao Ming, the NBA player, Ziyi was the second most-popular celebrity.

Fact 5
Has been a spokesperson for several big brand-names such as Tag Heuer, Pantene, Maybelline, Coca-Cola Asia, Lenovo Computers, Garnier and also a Korean mineral water.

Fact 6
By 2000, the western world had started recognizing Ziyi. This was soon after she played the role of Ziyi in the Chinese version of “Crouching Tiger, hidden Dragon”, Yu Jiao Long.

Fact 7
In 2001, when the China Film Foundation included her in the community, she became its youngest member.

Fact 8
Ziyi first role in an American movie was in the 2001 film, “Rush Hour 2”. At that point of filming, she could speak no English and Jackie Chan had to be her translator.

Fact 9
On June 27, 2005, Zhang accepted an invitation to join the AMPAS, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Science. This placed her in the ranks of those who are eligible to vote on the Academy Awards.

Fact 10
Zhang has a penchant for singing, and featured on the soundtrack of “House of Flying Daggers”. The song featured in two different scenes in the movie.