Is it true that Chinese celebrity Fan Bingbing is out from the cold storage after her tax evasion controversy?
This could be the case after the 37-year-old’s name was mentioned in the People’s Daily, the official newspaper of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, as reported in some news portals.
The Chinese beauty rose to stardom when she starred in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
On November 22, she accepted an invitation for a public welfare event in Zhengzhou, Henan Province of China where Fan was appointed as the event’s ambassador.
Speculation went rife among netizens who debated whether the star could be making a comeback to the silver screens after photos of her with the young participants appeared on Weibo.
Last October, Fan’s acting career took a hit with many producers still wary of inviting her for their events following her tax evasion controversy. She was fined 884 million yuan.
Prior to that, Fan topped Forbes magazine’s list of top-earning Chinese celebrities with an income of 300 million yuan in 2017.
Last October, Fan was ordered by authorities to pay back taxes, fines and penalties as part of a wider crackdown on the entertainment industry.
Fan said sorry to China’s Communist Party and her 63 million fans on China’s popular Weibo social media platform.
Earlier this year, her engagement with fiance Li Chen got called off.
Rumours floated around that she was dropped from the cast of a Hollywood movie.
The actress is a household name in China and is of international fame for her role as teleporting mutant Blink in X-Men: Days of Future Past.
With 20 years in China’s entertainment industry, Fan has cultivated a feminist, almost masculine image on her climb to the top of the cinematic food chain. Her nickname is Lord Fan.
On the spectrum of reputational tropes pitting the likes of Angelina Jolie (independent woman, maneater) against Jennifer Aniston (America’s sweetheart, always needs a man), Fan’s image is closer to the former.