- Du Chun
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Chun Du 
Du Chun at News Conference for "Down the South We Go" 1/26/2010 Beijing, ChinaChinese name 杜淳 Pinyin Du4 Chun2 (Mandarin) Origin People's Republic of China Born May 22, 1981
Beijing, ChinaOccupation Actor Years active 2003–present Official Website www.duchunhome.com Du Chun (Chinese: 杜淳; pinyin: Du Chun; born May 22, 1981) is a young Chinese actor with a thousand faces. Du has played as leading roles for more than a dozen of TV drama series. He is such a chameleon that you remember the characters he creates instead of his persona or even his name. His name became well recognized in 2009 as “Red Idol” after he portrayed a spy hero Jiang Bo in “In Enemy Camp for 18 years” and a self-made businessman Tian Qin in “Emigrate to the West”, which won him a nomination as best actor on Monte Carlo TV Festival 2009. His new role as a graduate from oversea in a TV comedy “Rent a girl friend for New Year” won him a huge number of young fans. He just finished shooting TV version of “Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior”. Most of the roles he played are ideal Chinese man with traditional values. His electric screen energy and compassionate personality won so many people’s hearts from all age groups. Du is coined by the media as one of the leading young actors in China.
Contents
Early life
Du Chun was born in Hebei, China. His parents are also in the performing business. His father, Du Zhiguo is also an actor, and his mother, Yang Li, is a dancer and dancing instructor. He is the only child in the family and was very shy in his childhood. His father was not a leading actor on TV or movies when Du Chun was a kid, for he took his first major roles in 1998. Du was often left alone in his early school years. His father went to looking for acting opportunities and his mother was on dancing tours a lot. He started dance training by his mother. After two years, at the age of 11, Du Chun got admitted to The Dance School of Central University of Nationalities (CUN) (i.e. Minzu University of China), one of the key disciplinary bases of national minority arts and the cradle of ethnic dancers, to fulfill his mother's dream to be trained professionally in one of the top dancing schools in China. As the youngest kid in class, his life was tough during six years at this boarding school. He rarely mentioned the detail about that part of his life. He destroyed all his photos during that period. His family was poor at that time and he was never a good dancer. He grew from a teenager into a young man. Hard life made him more mature than people at his same age. He found passion on performing arts during his six years of dancing training. After graduate, he tried to get into China's prestigious Central Academy of Drama but failed. His father and several other famous actors thought he was not suitable to be an actor because he is too shy. He knows he loves acting and he made up his mind about his future career. After one year preparation, including coached by several prestigious actors, Du finally got admitted into Beijing Film Academy in 1999 with one of the highest admission test scores even though he did not take the regular middle and high school courses. He was among the best students academically in college. Before his graduation in 2003, his father asked help from his director friend Hu Mei,to give him a small role in a big TV historical costume drama production Han Wu Dadi (Emperor Wu of Han, one of the greatest Emperor in Chinese history). After audition, the director gave him an important role, the young Emperor. He did great job on portraying an ambitious and playful young leader which established his acting career.
Career
From Emperor to Wuxia Hero
After the successful debut in Han Wu Dadi, Du Chun landed a leading role in a Wuxia drama, the Legend of the Banner Hero, which is adapted from famous Wuxia (Kungfu) writer Gu Long in 2005. He played a tragic hero who brought peace to the Jianghu world with self-sacrifice. He saved many people, but had to endure misunderstanding, isolation, injury, and heartbrake from love. Du Chun’s performance is vivid and touching. His martial arts action was smooth and elegant which is accredited to his six years of professional dance training. The TV drama "The Banner" won the “Most favorite Costume Drama series” in 2007. Interestingly enough, his father played the villain.
He played some small roles in other TV drama series before "The Banner". He portrayed Li Yong (real name is Li Ling (Han Dynasty)), a young controversy general who was captured by Xiongnu and surrendered, but never betrayed his own country. Audiences could feel his pain of missing family and homeland. He also played a nice funny prince in a costume comedy, "Pretty Girls in Jianghu" in 2004. Another major role he played in 2005 is Kangxi Emperor in the Qing Dynasty in a historic costume drama "Yellow River Homage". His father also played an important role here, too. This series was bought by CCTV but has not aired yet.
Love with No Regrets (Sad Prince)
The first leading role Du Chun played is Jiang Nanyu in Vixen Executives in 2004. With genetically inherited heart disease, he devoted his limited life to his career to help the girl he loved. This TV series is not popular partially because of the tragic ending.
After that he appeared as leading roles in two period pieces. One in 2006 in Prince to Pauper, he played a golden hearted young men who was raised up as a servant in a rich family, but actually the only son of the family resulted in his selfish nanny. He grew up to be a nice, hard-working, and responsible young man. He lost so many things which supposedly belonged to him, include his love due to his wrong identity. After he knew the truth, he has no complaining, but only appreciation for life. He still treated his nanny as his mother and did everything to protect her from hurting by others. You can see a decent and beautiful person inside and out from his moving performance. In another period piece, Love with no regret, Du played a faithful lover who unconditionally supported a lady he loved for all his life even she could not marry him. His tears is so heart wrenching. These two TV series had high ratings and he got a new name “Sad Prince”.
In 2007 he and his father played together in TV drama, Mistaken Son. His father played the rich dad. He played the young man who took the responsibility to support his aged biological father after he found out the truth and his real father was a poor peasant. He refused the good life his rich dad offered and chose to be with his poor dad. He started from scratchy and was forced to leave his love. Eventually he grew up to be an independent and responsible person, and won his love back. His role as a singing star was not that natural and brought him some criticism.
New Generation Red Idol (War time hero)
In 2006 Du Chun was selected to play little Boss in TV drama series Logistics depot 51, a remake of a classical Chinese spy movie during World Wars II. Initially he was worried about if he can replace the image of the other famous actor. Using a cover as a businessman and the little boss in a gangster, he provided many war supplies to Chinese Army from Japanese occupied Shanghai. Young and mature, witty and brave, his role won him the title of “Best Actor’ award in Southern China TV festival.
In 2007 and 2008, he started a role as an undercover Jiang Bo in a three parts of total 120 episodes of TV drama series Enemy Camp for 18 years. This is a remake of the Chinese first TV drama series debuted in 1980. He finished the first two parts of total 84 episodes. The third one is in his future plan. This drama is intense both on storyline and emotion. He constantly struggled to finish his tasks and protect the people he loved the most. He had to sacrifice completely for a bigger cause he believed in. People are moved by his detailed portrait of a real emotional-rich hero, who was loyalty to his friends and to his country, cared for people, and showed well controlled emotion. He was a handsome, caring, brave, and honorary man. His role as Jiang Bo brought him a new title “new generation red idol”.
His new milestone is his appearance 1n 2009 CCTV-1 New Year's TV premier, Emigrate to the West”. He played a traditional Chinese young men growing up to be a successful business man despite of all misfortune in his life. He eventually devoted all his fortune to the revolutionary war and joined political movement. He portrayed a perfect man who succeed in business and won everyone’s heart by following traditional values in Confucianism: Ren (仁 Humanity), Yi (义 Righteousness), Li (禮 Ritual), Zhi (智 Knowledge), and Xin (信 Integrity). He is smart and hardworking, decent, open-minded, loyal to friends, responsible to family, forgiveness to people who hurt him. This TV drama won a lot of awards. He got best actor nomination on 41st Monte Carlo TV festival.
He played another hero in To the South We Go in 2009. This is a totally different figure other than all the ones he played before. He started as a volunteer to support the army, joined and followed the army to big city Shanghai, made a lot of mistakes, eventually become an outstanding public servant in the big city in 1950s. He took the responsibilities of his fallen soldier friends to support their families. He married to a wrong person and finally returned to his true love. All of his mistakes are because he followed his hearts with rooted Chinese traditional values. He touches many people’s hearts because he made people feel he was so real in life.
His recent premiered Red Idol role in “Kill Traitor” was in highest ranking in TV shows. It's a story about two brothers during Japanese Occupation in China. Du Chun played a hero, Li Biao, who fight against Japanese while his brother became a traitor and helped Japanese killing Chinese. Li did not believe that his brother became a real traitor at beginning. He tried to helped him left Japanese but failed. He was mistreated as a traitor and almost got killed. He lived by his principle. He finally killed his brother, the bloody traitor after the war ended. He turned down several similar roles because he wanted to try different type of characters.
In July 2010, He starred as a leading role in a production for Xinhai Revolution 100 year anniversary, the Great HanKou. He appeared as a small role "Xu Deheng", a student movement leader, in the all-star movie "Creation of the Party" in September 2010.
Transformation
His transformation started in late 2008 in a big TV project of 300-episode Chinese Family. He played a leading role in part I as an ideal husband who lived in the fight between his wife and mother, and made all his effort saving the family. He is rich, mature, decent, loving kids, respectful to parents, loyal to his love, good on deal with all kinds of relationships. His role does not exist in real life, but his performance make people believe in the perfect man. He gave a try in a comedy Rent a girlfriend for the New Year in 2009. He played a handsome and well educated men who could not get out of tragedy caused by the breakup of his first girl friend eight years ago. As the only son in the family, he has to please his family by pretending living a normal happy life. So he hired a girl as his girl friend to go home with him for the New Year. In a beautiful setting in a small ancient town rich with Chinese culture, it delivered a funny and warm story about a traditional Chinese family with a happy ending. Du is a charming men, arrogant and fashion on surface, but a good heart and caring underneath. This TV show is very hot on internet and brought him a lot of young fans.
After he played so many emperors, heroes, he changed to be a regular person living on the bottom of the society as a security guard in TV drama Nanny and Security Guard. He was mistaken as a real guard by nearby people who had no knowledge of the TV shooting. He presented detailed pictures of the struggle and love of the poor people. Close to reality, this story touched many people's hearts and the TV drama received very high rating in many TV channels.
The biggest changes are two small roles he took in 2010 as villains. One is Ximen Qing, a notorious playboy figure in Chinese classical literature All Men Are Brothers, who had relationship with a married lady and murdered her husband together, and eventually killed by the brother of the deceased man. He did not take pay to play this character, he just wanted to try a totally different role. The other one is an ambitious general in Three Kingdom Era who would do anything to get his power in another costume drama, the Legend of the Honest Stone, which is planned to be premiered on CCTV-1 on New Year’s day 2011.
He finished shooting of Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior in April 2010 which is a remake of the classical movie played by Zhang Yimou and Gong Li. This is a romantic story covering three love stories in three dynasties between two lovers, his co star being Ady An. He finished a youth comedy “Puberty hit Menopause” in May 2010 and just start shooting another modern drama "Grown Up" in Oct 2010.
Others
Singing
Du Chun's passion for singing has become known, as he has sung on soundtracks in his TV dramas: 2008 “Dilemma”(Enemy Camp for 18 Years) and 2009 “Truthful” (Nanny and Securiety Guard). He will also sing the theme song in his new TV drama “Love and Fight with a Terracotta Warrior".
TV host
Appeared on October 10, 2009 on CCTV-6 Movie Channel as a Star anchor
Hosted four episodes of Success Factors in Jilin TV in 2008.
Personal life
Du Chun lives in low profile life. He believes “reward is proportional to efforts”. He lives in Beijing, but rarely home due to his busy acting schedule. He is well liked by his colleagues and never had any rumors or scandals in the news. He likes photography. He communicates with his fans through blogs in which he often gives updates about his new roles and photos, as well as shares his feelings about the world, especially related to natural disasters and environmental issues. He called for prayers and donations many times when disaster happened. He is a good son to his mother and father even though they divorced many years ago, which won him the title of “Top Ten Model Sons of Filial Piety (孝子)” in 2010. He was also named the “2009 Youth Inspirational Figure in China” and established himself as a role model for the young people for his positive attitude and diligent work.
Filmography
Film Year English title Chinese title Role Notes 2011 The Founding of a Party 建党伟业 Xu Deheng Television Year English title Chinese title Role Notes 2003 Han Wu Dadi 汉武大帝 Young Liu Che appeared in episode 16-24 2004 Vixen Executive 少女总裁 Jiang Nanyu 25 episodes 2005 Pretty Girls in Jianghu 江湖俏佳人 Hei Mu Supporting role 2005 The Legend of the Banner Hero 大旗英雄传 Tie Zhongtang 40 episodes, Won 2007 TV rating "Best costume drama Award" 2005 Yellow River Homage 大河颂 Kangxi Emperor not air yet 2006 Prince to Pauper 换子成龙 Lin Junshan 42 episodes 2006 Logistic Depot 51 51号兵站 Little Boss/Liang Hong 26 episodes, 2007 - Won "Best Actor Award" in 2007 Southern China Festival 2007 Love with No Regret 爱无悔 Du Haoran 36 episodes 2007 Mistaken Son 非亲父子 Qiao Xiaodong 24 episodes 2007 Enemy Camp for 18 Years 敌营十八年 Jiang Bo 40 episodes 2008 Enemy Camp for 18 Years 2 虎胆雄心(敌营十八年2) Jiang Bo 44 episodes 2008 Emigrate to the West 走西口 Tian Qing 52 episodes, Won "the audience favorite Actor Award" by CCTV viewers 2008 Chinese Family 中国家庭 Yan Chuan 30 episodes 2009 Rent a Girlfriend for the New Year 租个女友回家过年 Sun Yiwei 24 episodes 2009 To the South We Go 南下 Meng Siyuan 40 episodes 2009 Nanny and Security Guard 保姆与保安 Li Guoling 33 episodes 2009 Kill Traitor 锄奸 Li Biao 34 episodes 2010 Fight and Love with a Terracotta Warrior 古今大战秦俑情 Meng Tianfang/Lan Tian/Luo Kaiping 43 episodes 2010 Puberty hit Menopause 青春期撞上更年期 Deng Jiaqi In production 2010 Great Hankou 大汉口 Lu Xiuwu In production 2010 Hello 30 30岁你好 Dong Youyi In production 2011 All Men Are Brothers 水滸傳 Ximen Qing Awards and nominations
"2010 - Won Third Huading Award "Rookie of the Year Best performance of the Chinese Actor"
"2010 - Won title of 2010 "China Top Ten Model Sons of Filial Piety”
"2009 - Nominated for Best Actor on the 49th Monte Carlo International Television Festival
“2009 - Named Youth inspirational figure in China (Youth Role Model)"
"2007 - Won "Best Actor Award" in 2007 Southern China Festival
Reference
1 “Du Chun’s Red Idol” Culture and Art of China, May 2009, cover story
2 “Du Chun’s Portrait of Liang Hong” Film Pictorial --China, Vol 291, April 2008 cover story
3 “Du Chun and his ‘Little Boss’” Popular Cinema (China) vol 12, 2007
4 “Story of Du Chun: Seven collaboration with his Father” Popular Cinema (China) Vol 3, 2009
5“Du Chun’s performance: Bright as lighting, Cool as Snow“ Fashion & Life (Taizhou, China) vol 12 2007
6. Du Chun’s information on Chinese Central Television Site
7. Du Chun’s information on Chinese Broadcast and TV Association official site
10. Announcement “Du Chun Named 2009 Youth Inspirational Figure”
11. News “Du Chun awarded as Top Ten Model Sons of Filial piety in Chinese Entertainment world”
12. 49th Monte-Carlo Television Festival 2009 Normination
Links
Categories:- Living people
- Chinese film actors
- Chinese television actors
- 1981 births
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