Let's make this birthday one to remember.

59 years old (Born on September 20, 1964)

Actress; She is famous from In the Mood for Love and Hero..

Spokesmodel of LUX shampoo. Declined lead role in "Memoirs of a Geisha" because of racial sensitivity between the Japanese and the Chinese, due to WWII. Her parents are Shanghainese. While she cannot speak the dialect, she understands it. Acted in 6 movies with Brigitte Lin Ching Hsia, whom she considered her idol and an actress she respected. Although an icon of Asian cinema, she is actually a European with extended residence in Hong Kong.

Grew up in Bromley, Kent, when she lived in the UK.

Member of the jury at the Cannes Film Festival in 2007.

The first Chinese actress ever to win the Best Actress award at the Berlin International Film Festival (1992 - for Yuen Ling-yuk) and Cannes Film Festival (2004 - for Clean)

She was a finalist to star in Memoirs of a Geisha (2005).

Signed her divorce paper with Olivier Assayas on the set of Clean (2004/I) which was directed by her ex-husband.

Was offered a role in X2 (2003) but turned it down because "If I start making films like that, they won't be proud. I'd feel like I was cheating. And I don't want half the world, we have 1.3 billion people in China, to know I'm cheating. That matters to me. I have more pride than that."

Member of the jury at the Venice Film Festival in 1999.

She and Tony Leung Chiu Wai made 7 movies together: 2046 (2004), A Fei zheng chuan (1991), Dung che sai duk (1994), Fa yeung nin wa (2000), Haomen yeyan (1991), Se diu ying hung ji dung sing sai jau (1993), and Ying xiong (2002). They also starred together in a short-lived tv-series: _"Sun sap si hing" (1984)_.

Learned French for her role in Augustin, roi du Kung-fu (1999).

Spokesmodel of Hermes.

Member of the jury at the Berlin International Film Festival 1997.

Clean (2004/I) was turning point in her career. Before this film was made, she was only offered the roles of beautiful Asian women in Western films.

Wanted to be a hairdresser as a child.

In Hong Kong, she has been handed every role she has played since she was 18 without an audition.

First runner-up Miss Hong Kong. [1983]

Olivier Assayas wrote the characters of Maggie Cheung (in Irma Vep (1996)) and Emily Wang (in Clean (2004/I)) specifically with her in mind.