Huang Shengyi

Stephen Chow's Broken Contract

Stephen Chow was looking for a clean-faced look for Kung Fu Hustle and found it at an acting academy in Shanghai. Huang Shengyi had no prior experience, but in 2004 her silent face flooded screens across half the world.

That image of an ice cream vendor made her an overnight international star. But her relationship with her mentor fell apart before the film's promotion tour had even ended.

In 2005, the actress unilaterally broke her contract with Star Overseas. The company accused her of shooting provocative photo shoots for a men's magazine without prior permission. That legal dispute dragged on for years and stalled her career progress in Hong Kong cinema.

And then everything blew up.

The dispute ended in court with a private settlement that pushed her permanently out of Chow's circle. Huang decided to seek refuge in mainland Chinese television and in the support of a man who would change her career forever.

The Shadow of the Media Giant

In 2007, she began a close collaboration with Yang Zi, a businessman in the industrial and media sectors. The relationship fueled speculation for nearly a decade, since no one knew whether they were partners, lovers, or both.

They co-founded Ju Li Media together, and she went from being a contracted actress to having a say in production decisions. In 2011 she starred in It's Love, a fantasy film in which she shared the poster with Jet Li. The movie earned millions at the Chinese box office, but critics were merciless about her performance.

Her career became a strange mix of big-budget projects and a private life shielded by lawyers.

In 2015, she finally confessed that she had been married to Yang Zi for eight years. The announcement was not a burst of honesty, but a response to photos of her that leaked from the funeral of the businessman's father.

The gamble paid off only partially.

Because Chinese audiences began to see her more as a high-society celebrity than as a prestigious actress. Her roles in The Sorcerer and the White Snake and her brief appearance in the American production Race to Witch Mountain in 2009 failed to recapture the shine of her early days.

Her Return Through Reality TV

Huang Shengyi realized that television was the only way to avoid being forgotten. In 2020 she took part in the competition Sisters Who Make Waves, a show that brought veteran stars together to form a pop group.

Her time on the show was controversial. Viewers criticized her for supposedly arrogant behavior and for bringing eight suitcases to the set while other cast members brought only one each.

The show drew more than 400 million views at its premiere, restoring a relevance that film had denied her for some time.

In 2024, her appearance on the reality show See You Again revealed a much rawer side of her personal life. The show, which focuses on couples with marital problems, revealed that her marriage to Yang Zi was on the brink of collapse after seventeen years.

Huang admitted on camera that she lived in an environment of excessive control by her husband. Her annual income in 2023 was estimated in the millions thanks to live-commerce (live streaming sales), a sector her family dominates.

Ju Li Media's audit for fiscal year 2024 showed a 12% drop in profits compared with the previous year.