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 The star's vanishing act - she dropped off the radar in June
when reports started to swirl that she was involved in a probe
into tax evasion in the film industry - has sparked wild
speculation in China about her fate, including reports the
actress had been detained.
Reuters was unable to contact Fan. Calls to her agent went
unanswered. When asked about Fan, a spokesman for China's
Foreign Ministry replied: "Do you think this is a question of
diplomacy?" The Beijing Public Security Bureau declined to
comment.
The real-life drama has been playing out at a time when Beijing
is tightening the reins on popular culture, looking to stamp out
behavior seen as going against the ruling Communist Party's
ideological line and co-opting movie stars, pop bands and online
celebrities to endorse socialist values.
"It is written in our new movie promotion law that entertainers
need to pursue both professional excellence and moral
integrity," said Si Ruo, a researcher at the School of
Journalism and Communication at China's prestigious Tsinghua
University.
"In the unbridled growth of the industry in the past few years,
we might have overlooked the need for positive energy, so the
government's intervention is reasonable."
Fan Bingbing is the most prominent example. The actress, 36, is
China's equivalent of Hollywood star Jennifer Lawrence. She
topped Forbes' China celebrity rich list last year with earnings
of 300 million yuan ($43.78 million).
A Chinese TV anchor in May was widely reported to have posted
tax-dodging pay agreements online known as "yin-yang" contracts
- one setting out the real agreed payment terms and a second
with a lower figure for the tax authorities - that appeared to
implicate Fan.
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported that Fan's studio
denied she had ever signed separate contracts for a single job.
China's tax bureau said in June it was launching a tax evasion
investigation into the film and television industry.
CULTURE CLEAN-UP
But the culture clean-up is more widespread, snaring video
games, online bloggers and rap artists. Critics say it threatens
to stifle creativity in some sectors, and is hitting the bottom
lines of firms such as tech and gaming giant Tencent.
State-run media have begun using phrases such as "tainted
artists", with official bodies pledging to ban stars who behave
badly, including drug taking, gambling or visiting prostitutes.
An open letter earlier this month from members of the Beijing
Trade Association for Performances said the body would "purify"
the city's entertainment and performance sector and guide
artists towards "core socialist values".
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"Celebrities are seen as a weapon in the Party's ideological battle,
which is fought across all sectors all the time," said Jonathan
Sullivan, Director of China Programmes at the University of
Nottingham.
China has long sought to control the creative arts, from censoring
movies to literature. However, a boom in online media has prompted a
new push to cleanse the arts world, as President Xi Jinping looks to
tighten his grip over a huge and diverse cultural scene popular with
China's youth.
That drive has created a dragnet that has swept over the creative
arts, leaving few unaffected.
Fangu, a grunge band from Beijing, which has toured across China,
said it had hit an issue with its name, which translates literally
as "anti-bone", though means something closer to "rebellious
spirit".
The band was forced to change its name this week ahead of a concert
in Shanghai.
"The relevant bodies do not allow the word 'anti' so we have to
change the name temporarily," Qi Tian, an assistant to the band,
told Reuters.
Video game makers have had to tweak their offerings to add patriotic
Chinese elements. Others have simply seen approvals withheld. Big
media platforms have been rapped for not censoring their content
enough and some have had to take sites offline.
A report this month from a state university and circulated in
official media, ranked Chinese stars in order of their social
responsibility, including their moral conduct - underscoring an
increasingly puritanical focus on good behavior.
Fan came in last place with zero points.
The ongoing shake-up is also hitting China's burgeoning movie and
entertainment industry hard. Share prices of related companies
tanked after the government probe was announced and many are
conducting self-checks on their tax situations.
Claire Dong, partner and attorney at Beijing-based Tiantai law firm,
said there has been a surge of consulting requests since Fan got
into hot water.
New policies are swiftly eroding the favorable tax treatment that
actors and artists once enjoyed.
"This is what the government needed to do," Dong said. "The
government needed to guide the actors to be more focused on acting,
not money making." ($1 = 6.8528 Chinese yuan renminbi)
(Editing by John Ruwitch and Alex Richardson
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