The children of celebrities enjoy a silver-spoon upbringing, yet endure incessant media attention from the moment they are born – and the constant risk of living in their famous parents’ shadows.
They have to work extra hard to make people recognise them for who they are rather than who their parents are.
Yet these Chinese stars have overcome the pitfalls of a celebrity childhood to carve out successful show business careers and even outshine their star parents.
Arthur Chen Feiyu
The son of film director Chen Kaige and actress Chen Hong, Feiyu was born in the United States.
Currently studying at the Beijing Film Academy, the 21-year-old cut his teeth in show business when he starred in the campus movie Secret Fruit (2017) opposite Ouyang Nana.
He played the male lead again in the 2018 period drama series Ever Night. Feiyu has also appeared in movies directed by his father, including My People, My Country (2019). His performance in the 2019 romantic comedy My Best Summer was widely praised and won him several best newcomer awards in film festivals.
Mason Lee
The son of Academy Award-winning Taiwanese film director Ang Lee, the 30-year-old made his movie debut as a baby in The Wedding Banquet, the 1993 film which catapulted the elder Lee onto the international stage.
A fan of theatre, Mason Lee, now 30, starred in Shakespeare plays such as The Tempest in secondary school. The New York University drama graduate appeared in Hollywood film The Hangover II in 2011. In 2015, he played the soldier Foo in the Iraq war in Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk, directed by his father.
Mason Lee has also appeared in Chinese films, including Where the Wind Settles (2015) and The Opera House (2019). His most memorable performance was as a crazy cop involved in killing and mutilation in Who Killed Cock Robin (2017). He was nominated for best supporting actor in the 54th Golden Horse Awards for the performance.
Leah Dou
The daughter of Chinese musician Dou Wei and Hong Kong singer Faye Wong, Leah Dou, 24, followed in the footsteps of her songstress mother in pursuing a music career, and has moved into acting. She composed the music and lyrics and sang the title track of romance film Soul Mate (2016) – (It’s not a crime) It’s just what we do – which was nominated for best original score at the 53rd Golden Horse Awards.
In The Eleventh Chapter (2019), she plays an unruly daughter whose unwanted pregnancy and refusal to have an abortion exasperates her stern mother, played by Zhou Xun. Dou won the best supporting actress award in the Beijing International Film Festival for the role. She plays her first leading role in upcoming Bipolar, an experimental movie which follows a young woman’s quest to understand and define herself.
Guan Xiaotong
Daughter of Chinese actor Guan Shaozeng and actress Li Jun, the 23-year-old Guan Xiaotong was only four when she made her first television appearance in the crime drama Yan Hai Chen Fu (2004).
In 2005, she had a role in the epic fantasy film The Promise, which was directed by Chen Kaige and stars Cecilia Cheung Pak-chi. Her breakthrough role was as a devoted daughter in the 2014 television series A Servant of Two Masters. Her portrayal of an acid-tongued mistress with a kind heart in the drama series Twenty Your Life On (2020) earned widespread praise.
Ouyang Nana
The second daughter of Taiwanese singer, actor and politician Ouyang Long and former actress Fu Chuen, Ouyang Nana was a music prodigy who won a full scholarship to the prestigious Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia to study cello. But she dropped out in 2015 to pursue a career in show business.
Now 20, Ouyang has appeared in films alongside stars such as Eddie Peng Yu-yan in To The Fore (2015) and Huang Xiaoming in Mission Milano (2016), and in television shows such as Yes Mr Fashion (2016).
She was nominated for best supporting actress at the 7th Macau International Movie Festival for her role in To The Fore. Ouyang has also branched into singing and released her first pop album, Nana I, with Sony Music Entertainment in 2020. Nana I features three love songs in English for which she shares writing credits.
