Age: 69
male
Zhang Fengyi (张丰毅), born on September 1, 1956, in Changsha, Hunan, is a celebrated Chinese actor best known for his role in Farewell My Concubine, portraying a stage performer caught between political turmoil and personal longing. He also gained acclaim for playing Jing Ke in The Emperor and the Assassin and the warlord Cao Cao in Red Cliff. Originally from Tanghe, Henan, Zhang moved to Dongchuan, Yunnan with his veteran father at just one month old. He left high school in 1971 and began performing with a local opera troupe, later joining a singing and dancing team. In 1978, he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy’s acting department. His film debut came in 1980 with Treasure Hunting in the Desert. A year later, he earned critical praise for his role in Rickshaw Boy, which cemented his status as a rising star in Chinese cinema.
In the beginning, the Earth was without form, and void. But the Sun shone upon the sleeping Earth and deep inside the brittle crust massive forces waited to be unleashed. The seas parted and great continents were formed. The continents shifted, mountains arose. Earthquakes spawned massive tidal waves. Volcanoes erupted and spewed forth fiery lava and charged the atmosphere with strange gases. Into this swirling maelstrom of Fire and Air and Water the first stirrings of Life appeared: tiny organisms, cells, and amoeba, clinging to tiny sheltered habitats. But the seeds of Life grew, and strengthened, and spread, and diversified, and prospered, and soon every continent and climate teemed with Life. And with Life came instinct, and specialization, natural selection, Reptiles, Dinosaurs, and Mammals and finally there evolved a species known as Man and there appeared the first faint glimmers of Intelligence. The fruits of intelligence were many: fire, tools, and weapons, the hunt, farming, and the sharing of food, the family, the village, and the tribe. Now it required but one more ingredient: a great Leader to unite the quarreling tribes to harness the power of the land to build a legacy that would stand the test of time: a CIVILIZATION!
