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Joan Chen

File:Joan_Chen_Sundance_2025_Cropped.jpg · Wikimedia Commons · See Wikimedia Commons

EntityQ270672· pop 46· linked from 514 articles

Chinese-American actress and director

OverviewAI-generated

Joan Chen is an American and Chinese citizen who works as an actor, screenwriter, film director, and television actor. Born in Shanghai on April 26, 1961, she began her professional career in 1975. She has resided in San Francisco and works in the United States. Chen speaks English and Chinese, with English as her native and writing language.

She studied at California State University, Northridge and Shanghai International Studies University. Her notable works include the film *Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl* and the television series *Twin Peaks*. Chen has received the AACTA Award for Best Actress in a Leading Role. She has also been nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Actress, the Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress, and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature.

Synthesized by Vinony from 35 facts across 7 sources: Wikidata, Open Library, MusicBrainz, Last.fm, TMDb, Crossref, Vinony graph. Generated from structured data (not the Wikipedia text) and checked against those facts — may still contain errors.

Person · Open Library

Works
1

Top works

  • Leaning on Water

via Open Library + Wikidata

Film & TV

Acting · Shanghai, China

Joan Chong Chen (born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese American actress, film director, screenwriter and film producer. She became famous in China for her performance in the 1979 film Little Flower and came to international attention for her performance in the 1987 Academy Award-winning film The Last Emperor. She is also known for her roles in Twin Peaks, Red Rose White Rose, Saving Face and The Home…

Known for

  • Montreal, My Beautiful — Feng Xia2026
  • Remarkably Bright Creatures — Janice Kim2026
  • No Other Love — Ms. Miao2026
  • The Wedding Banquet — May Chen2025
  • Oh. What. Fun. — Jeanne Wang-Wasserman2025
  • Dìdi (弟弟) — Chungsing Wang2024
  • Hachiko — Li Jiazhen2023
  • Under the Light — He Xiuli2023
  • A Murder at the End of the World — Lu Mei2023
  • The Heart — Fang Zhuqing2023

via TMDB

Listeners · Last.fm

Listeners
13
Total plays
109

<a href="https://www.last.fm/music/Joan+Chen">Read more on Last.fm</a>

via Last.fm · Joan Chen

Recent publications · Crossref

5 total works indexed

  1. XGBoost

    · 2016 · cited 44,900x

  2. Multiwfn: A multifunctional wavefunction analyzer

    · 2011 · cited 43,276x

  3. fastp: an ultra-fast all-in-one FASTQ preprocessor

    · 2018 · cited 27,665x

  4. <i>PHENIX</i>: a comprehensive Python-based system for macromolecular structure solution

    · 2010 · cited 23,560x

  5. MobileNetV2: Inverted Residuals and Linear Bottlenecks

    · 2018 · cited 21,938x

via Crossref · CC0

Key facts

Born
陳沖 (Chen Chong) , ( 1961-04-26 ) April 26, 1961 (age 65) , Shanghai , China
Citizenship
United States
Occupations
Actress, director
Years active
1975–present
Spouses
Jim Lau ​ ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. 1985 ; divorced</span>"}]]}'>div. 1990 ) ​ Peter Hui ​ ( married</span>"}]]}'>m. January 18, 1992</span>"}]]}'>1992 ) ​
Traditional chinese
陳冲
Simplified chinese
陈冲
Hanyu pinyin
Chén Chōng
Jyutping
Can4 Cung1

via Wikipedia infobox

~14 min read

Encyclopedic overview

Joan Chen (simplified Chinese; 陈冲; born April 26, 1961) is a Chinese-born American actress and film director. She is the recipient of numerous accolades, including four Taipei Golden Horse Awards and an AACTA Award. She made her film debut in the Chinese film Youth (1977) before starring in the film Little Flower [zh] (1979). She came to the attention of American audiences for her portrayal of Wanrong in the Bernardo Bertolucci historical epic film The Last Emperor (1987), which won nine Academy Awards including Best Picture.

She is also known for her leading roles in Heaven & Earth (1993), Golden Gate (1994), Red Rose White Rose (1994), Saving Face (2004), Sunflower (2005), and The Home Song Stories (2007) with supporting roles in Lust, Caution (2007), Tigertail (2020), and Dìdi (2024). As a filmmaker she directed the feature films Xiu Xiu: The Sent Down Girl (1998), Autumn in New York (2000), English (2018) and Hero (2022).

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “Joan Chen” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

Gallery (4)