25 Facts About Siqin Gaowa

Siqin Gaowa, born Duan Anlin, is a Chinese-born Swiss actress.

Siqin Gaowa was born in Guangzhou to a Han Chinese father and a Mongol Chinese mother.

Siqin Gaowa's father died when she was 4, she was raised by her mother in Inner Mongolia.

Siqin Gaowa has been married to musician Chen Liangsheng since 1986 and currently holds Swiss citizenship together with her husband.

Siqin Gaowa made her debut in the 1981 film Anxious to Return, in which she plays Yuzhen, a woman that during the Sino-Japanese War saves a wounded soldier, and falls in love with him.

Siqin Gaowa was awarded the Ministry of Culture's Youth Creativity Award for her performance.

Siqin Gaowa achieved fame and garnered wide acclaim for her performance in the 1982 film Rickshaw Boy, an adaptation of Lao She's novel of the same title, in which she portrayed "Tigress", the love interest of Zhang Fengyi's character "Xiangzi".

Siqin Gaowa won the Golden Rooster Award and Hundred Flowers Award for Best Actress that year.

Siqin Gaowa won the award for Best Actress at the 4th Hong Kong Film Awards for Homecoming, becoming the first Mainland Chinese actress to win the honour.

Siqin Gaowa was born Duan Anlin in Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China, on 20 January 1950.

Siqin Gaowa's mother was a Mongolian woman, while her father was a Han Chinese army officer originally from the Shanxi Province, who was stationed in Guangzhou at the time of her birth.

Siqin Gaowa's father died of an illness when Siqin Gaowa was four years old, and her mother subsequently moved back to Inner Mongolia with her.

Siqin Gaowa had a rough childhood in Inner Mongolia, where "life was hard, and material comforts rare".

Siqin Gaowa became initially known for her performance in this movie.

Siqin Gaowa achieved fame and wide acclaim with her portrayal of Hunui in Rickshaw Boy, literally translated, Camel Xiangzi.

In 1989, Siqin Gaowa starred in Full Moon in New York, where she acted again alongside Koo.

The movie tells about three Chinese women who immigrated to New York City from Hong Kong, Taiwan and the mainland, with Siquin Gaowa playing Zhao Hong from the mainland.

In 1993, Siqin Gaowa played the lead role in Woman Sesame Oil Maker, which tells the story of a woman in a small village in Hebei who runs a small sesame oil business that becomes unexpectedly successful, but who then uses her money to buy a peasant bride for her mentally disabled son.

The film won the Golden Bear for Best Film at the 43rd Berlin International Film Festival in 1993, and Siquin Siqin Gaowa was awarded the 1993 Silver Hugo Award for Best Actress at the Chicago International Film Festival.

In 2006, Siqin Gaowa starred alongside Chow Yun-fat in The Postmodern Life of My Aunt, presented at the Toronto International Film Festival.

For he performance in this movie Siqin Gaowa won several awards, including the 27th Hong Kong Film Award for Best Actress, and was nominated for the Golden Horse Award for Best Leading Actress at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards.

In 1968, at the age of 18, Siqin Gaowa married Inner Mongolia Film Studio director Sun Tianxiang.

In 1977, Siqin Gaowa remarried to Ao Xingchen, a Chinese actor of Daur descent, and they divorced in 1983.

Siqin Gaowa has won nearly all the most prestigious awards in Asia, including China's two most prestigious awards in movie industry and the Hong Kong Film Award, Honk Kong's equivalent of the Academy Awards.

Siqin Gaowa was nominated for Best Actress twice at the Golden Horse Awards.