Chinese starlet Zhang Ziyi has been elected as one of the 100 most outstanding film actors at the centennial anniversary of the Chinese movie.
The result was announced by the China Film Performance Art Institute on Saturday morning during the ongoing 14th China Golden Rooster and Full Blossom Film Festival held in China's southernmost coastal city of Sanya. Zhang, who failed to show up in the film festival, is the youngest star in the list at the age of 26. As the most influential film festival in China, Golden Rooster and Full Blossom refused Zhang's earlier request to appear on videotape instead of being present.
The 100 movie stars also include Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan, Chow Yun-Fat, Maggie Cheung, Jet Li, Gong Li, as well as some late performing artists such as Ruan Lingyu, 1930s Chinese tragedienne, Butterfly Wu, Ruan's rival and friend, who starred in the first Chinese talking picture, and Chou Hsuan, Shanghai film and singing star of the 1930s-1940s.
They were elected by 100 judges consisting of prestigious Chinese film directors, critics and scholars such as Zhang Yimou, Chen Kaige, the organizer said.
The Golden Rooster and Full Blossom Film Festival will close on Saturday night after granting the 25th Golden Rooster awards, dubbed as China's Oscar.
The Chinese film is 100 years old this year, since Dingjun Mountain, showing a Peking opera routine, was shot in Beijing in 1905.
(Xinhua News Agency November 14, 2005)
