Fan Bingbing tops the Forbes China Celebrity List for the second year in a row, which means I get to reuse the same photo as last year.
Riding on her foray into Hollywood, actress Fan Bingbing has retained her top-ranking position on the Forbes China Celebrity List. The list, which ranks the top 100 Chinese celebrities based on media exposure and income, sees more Mainland stars this year than ever before, with 60 (or so) of the listees basing their careers in Mainland China. Aside from a handful of actors, however, the biggest A-listers were overwhelming from Hong Kong or Taiwan, with 14 of the top 20 hailing from either of the two islands.
According to Forbes, Fan raked in nearly $20 million last year, putting her on par with Jennifer Aniston and Kanye West. The celebrity with the deepest pockets, Jay Chou, banked $25 million, around the same as Ben Affleck or Buffy creator and Avengers director Joss Whedon.
Despite the success of China’s biggest stars (this year’s top 10 took home $20 million more than last year’s), the overall earnings of the Celebrity 100 decreased for a second consecutive year, accumulating $65 million less wealth than the year before. However, the celebrities still managed to bring home more than half a billion dollars between them.
Actors and actresses made up the bulk of the list, accounting for 72 of the celebrities. It is common for celebrities to both sing and act in the Chinese entertainment industry, however, and several were identified as both.
Of the 29 singers and musical groups on the list, only six were from Mainland China. Of those six, five were involved in reality television singing competitions, with the exception of Hong Kong-launched Faye Wong.
Mainland Pianists Lang Lang and Li Yundi maintained their presence on the list, with Li (ranked 56) overtaking Lang Lang (57) for the first time.
New entrants to the list include Tiny Times author Guo Jingming who debuted at 27, model Zhang Liang of Where Are We Going, Dad? fame, and I Am A Singer runner-up G.E.M and Taiwanese actor Kai Ko just sneaking onto the list at 91 and 97 respectively.
Meanwhile, notable dropouts include Taiwanese film director Ang Lee (previously ranked 29), Hong Kong funnyman Stephen Chow (24), Jet Li (41), Nobel laureate Mo Yan (16), Olympic gold medalist Sun Yang (31), former Super Junior member Han Geng (87), and Super Girls Chris Li (15) and Jane Zhang (45).
| Rank | Name | Income (million RMB) | Income (million USD) | Income rank | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Fan Bingbing | 范冰冰 | 122 | 19.5 | 4 |
| 2 | Andy Lau | 刘德华 | 89 | 14.2 | 5 |
| 3 | Jay Chou | 周杰伦 | 156.5 | 25.0 | 1 |
| 4 | Huang Xiaoming | 黄晓明 | 66.5 | 10.6 | 10 |
| 5 | Zhang Ziyi | 章子怡 | 56 | 9.0 | 14 |
| 6 | Yang Mi | 杨幂 | 52 | 8.3 | 18 |
| 7 | Lin Chi-ling | 林志玲 | 60 | 9.6 | 13 |
| 8 | Li Na | 李娜 | 141.5 | 22.6 | 2 |
| 9 | Nicky Wu | 吴奇隆 | 67 | 10.7 | 9 |
| 10 | Jackie Chan | 成龙 | 54 | 8.6 | 17 |
