Chinese actress Gong Li (鞏俐) is reportedly unhappy about the “unjust” nature of the Golden Horse Awards, after she failed to win the best lead actress honor at the award ceremony on Saturday last week, saying through her agent that she would never attend the event again.
Gong had been nominated for her role in Coming Home (歸來) and was widely tipped to be the winner for the category. However, she ended up losing out to Taiwan’s Chen Shiang-chyi (陳湘琪), who won for her performance in Exit (迴光奏鳴曲).
Gong left Taipei on Monday with no signs of being unhappy as she smiled and told the media that she enjoyed her stay and would return soon, which is why the message delivered by her agent, Zeng Jingchao (曾敬超), on Tuesday came as a surprise to many.
Photo: CNA
“I would like to give special thanks to the Golden Horse Awards for giving me this opportunity to see just what an unprofessional film festival looks like,” Gong’s message said. “And this unprofessional film festival will leave all workers in the arts looking down on it. All the criticisms should be enough to let the Golden Horse Awards know it needs to reflect on itself. I like Taiwan, and I will visit Taiwan many more times in the future, but this was my first time coming to the Golden Horse Awards and it will be my last.”
The “criticisms” refer to the many of Gong’s fans on Weibo, who blasted Joan Chen (陳沖), the two-time Golden Horse winner for best actress who headed the jury this year, as selfish and unfair.
After the awards ceremony, Joan Chen praised Gong in her role Coming Home, calling it the most difficult to play and saying the star had been very precise in her performance.
However, “the results were determined jointly by 17 judges,” she said, adding that the jury had deliberated a long time on who deserved the best actress award.
Sylvia Chang (張艾嘉), chairwoman of the executive committee of the Taipei Golden Horse Festival, played down Gong’s criticisms.
“These words did not come from Gong herself, but from her agent, so it is not the same,” Chang said.
The controversy has triggered an Internet war of words between Taiwanese and Chinese.
While many in Taiwan have described Gong as a sore loser, Chinese have responded by saying the actress would never make such remarks.
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