There was one big concern, though: Who would play the star of the live-actionMulanmovie?
Her birth name was An Feng, but she changed it after her parents divorced.
Liu was primarily raised by her mother, dancer and stage performer Liu Xiao Li.
The actress took her mother’s family name, changing her name to Liu Qian Mei Zi.
Later, when she was establishing her career, Liu adopted the stage name of Liu Yifei.
According toIMDb, she has also performed under the name of Crystal Liu.
After leaving that position, he worked in Paris at the Chinese embassy.
In 2017, he became dean of Paris Diderot University’s Confucius Institute.
The actress has another interesting connection.
She is the goddaughter of one of the richest men in China, Chen Jinfei.
Mulan star Liu Yifei started her career as a model
Liu Yifei is multi-talented.
According toHuffPost, Liu started modeling at the age of 8.
Branching off of her modeling success, Liu Yifei decided to break into acting.
Being accepted to the institution was quite a feat, as 15-year-olds are generally not accepted.
Liu became the youngest student ever accepted at the school.
She graduated from the school in July 2006.
According toIMDb, her first role was in the 2002 TV seriesThe Story of a Noble Family.
Two years later, she landed a role in her first film,Love of May.
I realized that acting is not all about receiving people’s applause or cheer.
At the time of this writing, she has more than two dozen credits listed on herIMDbpage, includingMulan.
Liu is in good company.
Starring in the live-actionMulanmovie will no doubt help her gain international attention.
She has even lived in America, giving her ample opportunity to hone her English language skills.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, part of Liu Yifei’s childhood was spent in the United States.
She moved to the NYC borough of Queens with her mother when she was 10 years old.
They lived there for the next four years.
Liu Yifei has also acted in English language films.
In 2008, she starred inThe Forbidden KingdomwithJackie ChanandJet Li.
In 2014, she was inOutcastwith Nicolas Cage and Hayden Christensen.
Liu also starred in the period romanceThe Chinese Widow.
According toThe Hollywood Reporter, the search for the star of the live-action film was intense.
The criteria to be Mulan was quite strict.
The meticulous search finally ended when it was announced in November 2017 that Liu Yifei had landed the role.
The comment received thousands of likes.
Douban’s users nominated Liu for China’s worst actress in 2012, 2013, and 2016.
Liu is reportedly often criticized for her lack of facial expression.
HerIMDb biosays that she reportedly landed a recording contract with Sony Music Entertainment Japan in 2005.
She has two albums out, at the time of this writing.
The other was released in Japan and is calledAll My Words.
Those skills were certainly put to good use when filming the live-actionMulanmovie.
InThe Forbidden Kingdom,she performed alongside legendary martial arts experts Jackie Chan and Jet Li.
The two icons gave Liu some tips to improve her own fighting skills.
To Liu, what’s more important than her movie star good looks is her acting talent.
The world sees Liu as a greatbeauty, but she looks at things a bit differently.
This makes you more attractive on the screen.
That’s why I focus more on acting rather than my appearance.
Sometimes, I don’t even bother taking out the mirror to fix my makeup before filming."
#Disney made a wrong call and now people #BoycottMulan."
Some people came to Liu’s defense, though.
Skyler Shuler ofThe DisInsideralleged on Twitterthat Liu had been coerced into supporting the Hong Kong police.
“Apparently Liu wasn’t the only Chinese celebrity forced.”
But Liu Yifei is pretty open about what she is like in real life.
According to Liu herself, her personality is multi-faceted.
The actress says that her defining personality trait, though, is her flexibility.
“However, to simply summarize into one, I am a flexible person.
I’m not bound by rules.
I enjoy talking to people while standing, and even comfortably sitting down on the ground.
I seek comfort wherever and whenever.
I have a pretty lenient personality, but sometimes can be aggressive as well.
But this is only seen when I am acting on stage.”
Again, this sounds like another thing that Liu Yifei has in common with the laid-back Mulan.
In 2018,Cfensireported that the actress had been taking in stray cats for years.
Liu feeds the cats, has them spayed or neutered, and finds homes for them.
Liu has housed dozens of cats at the same time.
“When I play a different role, my perspectives and ideas change each time.
My emotions play a huge role in deciding vacation spots and traveling in general.”
