Chinese actress Qin Lan has become a significant role model for women’s rights on the mainland after her powerful quote, “My uterus is none of your business,” went viral.
At 45, the star spoke out in a 2020 interview in response to comments urging her to marry and have children.
After beginning her studies in accounting at Shenyang University of Technology in her hometown in northeastern China’s Liaoning province in 1999, she discovered she did not enjoy it.
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She won a beauty contest six months later, prompting her to launch an acting career that met with instant success.
She became a household name after portraying Zhihua, the concubine of Prince Yongqi, in My Fair Princess 3 (2003).
The story’s writer, Chiung Yao, hand-picked her for the role and remarked on her beauty with the poetic line: “A teardrop of Qin is a star in the sky.”
Many viewers of the television drama assumed she mirrored her character – timid, elegant, and someone willing to please her man.
However, in reality, Qin is an independent, outspoken individual who defies conservative values like the pressure to marry and have children at an appropriate age, choosing to date men for love instead.
From 2004 to 2006, she was in a relationship with Chinese actor Huang Xiaoming, the former husband of mainland actress Angelababy, even agreeing to pay her management agency a 10-million-yuan (US$1.4 million) penalty to be with him.
Actors and entertainers often face penalties from their management companies for being in relationships, based on the belief that dating can negatively impact their marketability and public image.
Qin later dated Chinese director Lu Chuan after collaborating on the film City of Life and Death (2009), though they parted ways in 2014.
Recent reports suggest that Qin is now in a relationship with 35-year-old actor Wei Daxun.
Remaining unmarried, she mentioned in an interview that her ex-boyfriends proposed to her, but she rejected their offers, stating she does not wish to marry.
“Everyone wants to find a perfect match in romantic relationships, but a perfect match only exists in a screw factory,” she stated.
She advocates for living life like stars, “just shining for yourself.”
Qin continues to thrive in show business, taking on leading roles in television dramas such as the 2018 hit Story of Yanxi Palace, the feminist drama The Magical Women (2023), and The Assassin, directed by the renowned Hong Kong director and producer Jonathan Chik Gei-yee, which is slated for release this year.
Many on social media admire Qin’s independence and career-driven focus.
“She is our role model. Only get married if you truly want to, not because others pressure you to,” one user commented on Weibo.
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