Zhang Ziyi makes Time magazine's 100 list
While we in Hong Kong still think of Zhang Ziyi as just an award-winning actress who dates rich kid Eric Fok Kai-shan, the 26-year-old beauty has apparently fashioned herself into one of the most influential people in the world.
Well, at least according to Time magazine's newly released 'The Time 100', which chooses the 100 most important people who 'shaped the world' in the past year. Zhang not only made the list but her picture is also front and centre on the magazine's website for the artists and entertainers category - flanked by Quentin Tarantino and Jamie Foxx.
The only other Asian who made the entertainer list is Japanese animation master Hayao Miyazaki, who has produced numerous blockbusters over the past 20 years, including this year's Howl's Moving Castle.
Also on the list in other categories are President Hu Jintao , US President George W. Bush and former South African president Nelson Mandela. So why was Zhang - who is described as 'China's Gift to Hollywood' - as influential as state leaders? Time's Richard Corliss, who predicted Zhang would be the first Chinese actress to achieve stardom in the west, wrote: 'Zhang can inhabit any character with passionate plausibility ... and has finessed that early promise into a resume unmatched by any other actress her age.'
