Shu Qi

Who is she?

Lin Li-hui, who goes by her stage name Shu Qi, started working when she was still in high school to help her family’s finances. The actress eventually dropped out of school when she was 16 and started making adult-content films. She moved from Taiwan to Hong Kong the next year when she landed a role in the sex comedy Viva Erotica (1997), a “Category 3” (i.e. R-Rated) movie in Hong Kong. Playing a porn star in the film, Shu won Best Supporting Actress at the Hong Kong Film Awards for her role.

Why is she famous?

With the win, Shu’s career quickly took off and she began making regular appearances in mainstream movies. In 2001, she starred as the lead actress in art-house filmmaker Hou Hsiao-hsien’s Millennium Mambo, for which she won Best Actress at Taiwan’s Golden Horse Awards.

Shu and Hou reunited again in 2005 with Three Times and more recently Assassin in 2015 (see WiC295). The prolific actress has also starred in a slew of Hollywood and big budget mainland features like the action flick The Transporter and Feng Xiaogang’s romantic comedy series If You Are The One (see WiC11).

Why is she in the news?

The actress recently grabbed headlines when she spent HK$127 million ($16 million) to buy a luxury property in Hong Kong, according to the Hong Kong Economic Times. The property – a 2,499 square-foot duplex in Mid-Levels West, a mid-market residential area – costs around HK$51,000 per square foot.

“She got a pretty good deal for a four-bedroom ocean view luxury flat in Mid-Levels West,” commented Raymond Li at Centaline, a local brokerage. “Higher prices are likely in the development’s later tender sale.”

Shu is not the first celebrity to have purchased a luxury apartment in Hong Kong recently. Actress Angelababy bought a flat in a waterfront project for HK$36 million. Similarly, Joey Yung, a Canto-pop singer, splashed HK$200 million for a house in Repulse Bay back in May.

In all cases the headline grabbing purchases are a reminder of the exorbitant level of Hong Kong’s residential property prices – particularly given Shu’s flat is not in one of the island’s more traditionally sought after streets.

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