Christy Chung | |||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Born | (1970-09-19)19 September 1970 (age 54) Montreal, Quebec, Canada | ||||||||||
| Alma mater | Université du Québec à Montréal | ||||||||||
| Occupation | Actress | ||||||||||
| Years active | 1984–present | ||||||||||
| Spouses | |||||||||||
| Chinese name | |||||||||||
| Traditional Chinese | 鍾麗緹 | ||||||||||
| Simplified Chinese | 钟丽缇 | ||||||||||
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Christy Chung (born 19 September 1970)[1] is a Canadian actress. She is best known for starring in filmsMermaid Got Married,The Bodyguard from Beijing,Love on Delivery andJan Dara.
Chung was born inMontreal, Quebec, to aChinese-Vietnamese father and a nativeVietnamese mother.[2] She grew up inBrossard,Quebec, a suburb ofMontreal, withFrench andVietnamese as mother-tongues. She later learnedEnglish,Mandarin andCantonese.
While studying for a career in the tourism industry at theUniversité du Québec à Montréal (UQAM), she entered and won theMiss Chinese Montreal contest in 1992. She then went toHong Kong, in her first trip away from home, to participate in theMiss Chinese International Pageant 1993, in which she won despite not knowing a single Chinese word. This opened doors for her to launch her acting career there, despite not speaking a word of Cantonese at the time, and despite her extremely limited acting experience (an uncredited ten-second non-speaking role as a gum-chewing prostitute inDenys Arcand'sLove and Human Remains). She had to choose between acting in Hong Kong and becoming the weather-forecast presenter atSociété Radio-Canada, the French-language government television network inCanada.
A role inThe Bride with White Hair 2 brought her instant recognition, and she became a well-known star in Chinese-language popular culture, acting in a large number of films including some films starringStephen Chow, as well asThe Bodyguard from Beijing starringJet Li.
Giving birth to her daughter in 1998 temporarily had a negative effect on her career because of a stereotypical impression that a mother could not function as a sex symbol, but her career recovered in 2000. She subsequently had roles inSamsara andJackie Chan's movieThe Medallion. She addedThai to her language repertoire when she starred inNonzee Nimibutr's 2001 filmJan Dara. SingaporeFHM magazine voted her the "Sexiest Woman in Asia" in 2000.
In 2010, she starred inBruce Lee, My Brother, playing the role ofBruce Lee's mother andAarif Lee portrayed Lee.[3]
She is a brand ambassador and spokeswoman to slimming service Marie France Bodyline, prominently appearing on billboards and print ads.
Despite her success, she remains mostly unknown inQuebec, where she was born and grew up, because she has done most of her film work in Cantonese.
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Chung married Glen Ross in 1998, and gave birth to their daughter Yasmine in Montreal in the middle of the1998 Ice Storm. Chung and Ross divorced in 2002, and Chung has sole custody of Yasmine.
In 2003, Chung married music producer Jon Yen. They have two daughters, Jaden Chloe, born in August 2008, and Cayla Janie, born in February 2010. Chung and Yen divorced in 2011.
In November 2016, Chung married Chinese actor Shawn Zhang Lunshuo, also known as Golden Zhang who is 12 years her junior.[4]
Chung currently resides inBeijing. She is currently a restaurant owner.
| Achievements | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Miss Chinese International 1993 | Succeeded by |
