Shanghai star's turns full circle home to China
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Vivian Wu |
After a 20-year career as an international film star, Chinese-American actress Vivian Wu is embarking on another prospective career - raising funds for charity.
The hostess of a recent annual charity event, Wu invited a galaxy of her celebrity friends and entrepreneurs to play golf and spend money at an auction for a good cause at the Nine Dragons Estate in neighboring Zhejiang Province.
"The initial idea (of this golf-cum-auction event) is to bring awareness of charity and giving back to society. At the same time it will also launch my own charity foundation," said the 42-year-old Shanghai native, also known as Wu Junmei in Chinese.
Supported by a large group of show biz and general business types, the proceeds of the two-hour buffet and auction totaled half a million yuan (US$73,206) which was donated to Shanghai Youth Development Foundation, an official organization dedicated to helping needy children.
"I'm happy with the result and I hope more children will benefit from my charity foundation," Wu said shortly after the event.
"Charity is all about courage, kindness and responsibility. I will get great joy and meaning from others by helping (them). It's a big goal that requires persistent effort."
Wu's charity aspirations were largely inspired by her second-time portrayal of Soong Mei-ling, the youngest of the three famous Soong sisters and wife of former Kuomintang leader Chiang Kai-shek, in the star-studded epic blockbuster "The Founding of a Republic" which pays tribute to the 60th anniversary of establishment of the People's Republic of China.
Wu first portrayed Soong's legendary life in the 1997 movie "The Soong Sisters," starring with celebrated Asian actresses Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung.
She won critical acclaim for her vivid performance of Soong Mei-ling, one of the most significant women of the 20th century who devoted her late life to charity causes.
"It's an honor to play this charismatic character again. And now, after a decade, I have developed a deeper understanding of Soong who inspired me a lot more this time and thus become a role model for me," Wu said.
This self-assurance is a far cry from Wu's big screen debut back in her teens.
Born into a highbrow Shanghai family of a renowned actress and a college professor, Wu made her first feature film "Forever Young" with the veteran director Huang Shuqin in 1982 when she was still a high school student.
"I 'hated' my first experience on the movie set - I was nervous and lost. And when the cameras and lights were on me, all of a sudden I came to realize how hard it was to act. You see, I simply didn't know how to order and coordinate my body," she said.
"What's even worse was that I could hardly recognize my own face the first time I saw it on the big screen at the Shanghai Film Studio. Then I said to myself, 'Oh, gee, that face wasn't mine! How could that face be mine?" Wu recalled.
The somewhat awkward first attempt at performing led the fledging star to perfect her acting through a series of movie and TV roles in China until the day she was "discovered" by the renowned Italian director Bernardo Bertolucci.
He offered Wu the role of Wen Hsiu in his 1987 epic "The Last Emperor" which racked up nine Oscars including Best Director and Best Picture at the 60th Academy Awards in 1988. For her acclaimed performance of Wen Hsiu, a courageous concubine of the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty (1644-1911), Wu earned the attention of the international film community and was nominated for Best Supporting Actress at the David Donatello Film Festival, widely recognized as the Italian Academy Awards.
"The significance of playing Wen Hsiu is beyond mere fame. She taught me how to be brave and independent and somehow inspired me to make a bold decision at that time - to study abroad," Wu said.
In 1987, with only hundreds of dollars in hand, she took off to pursue her "American dream" and attended Hawaii Pacific University, majoring in travel industry management. She continued her study of film art at the University of California in Los Angeles two years later and appeared in a long list of films and TV series.
With her Oriental good looks and charisma, Wu was selected as one of the "50 Most Beautiful People" by People Magazine in 1990, the same year she moved to Hollywood.
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