Actress Yang Mi Named Influential Woman of the Year at Women's Media Awards

Yang Mi at the 2015 Women's Media Awards ceremony [Women of China/Fan Wenjun]

Renowned Chinese actress and singer Yang Mi was awarded as the Influential Woman of the Year at the 2015 Women's Media Awards, held in Beijing on January 12, 2015.

This was the biggest award at the event. But in an interview with reporters, Yang said that she "did not perform so well in her work in 2014" and that becoming a mother was her biggest achievement in the last year.

When discussing the criteria for what makes a successful model woman, Yang said that the key lies in one's determination and independence — two qualities that she strives to embody to the best of her ability.

Yang gained her popularity primarily through her breakthrough role as Luo Qingchuan in the 2011 TV series Palace, which aired on Hunan TV, China's second-biggest television network. Additionally, she played a big hand in the TV drama V Love, which was broadcast on Tencent Video on July 21, 2014 and marked Yang Mi's first time as a producer.

Yang returned as the female lead in Tiny Times 3.0, which was released in the summer of 2014 as the third movie adaptation in the Tiny Times series, directed by Guo Jingming.

Yang Mi and Hawick Lau, a Hong Kong actor and singer, were married in Bali, Indonesia, on January 8, 2014. She gave birth to their first child, a baby girl, on June 1, 2014 in Hong Kong.

Yang was given the Best Overseas Influence award during the second Chinese International Film Festival, held in London on December 6, 2014.

The Women's Media Awards was launched in 2007 by NetEase — a leading China-based Internet technology company that pioneered the development of applications, services and other technologies for the Internet in China — and jointly hosted by the United Nations Entity for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women (UN Women).

This year, it presented 15 awards to 14 individuals and one organization to recognize their contributions to women's development and the promotion of gender equality in China.

Julie Broussard, the national program manager of UN Women China, said that every single person who stepped forward to accept an award at the ceremony is a role model for all people, for their efforts in challenging the gender stereotypes surrounding the role of women in society.

(Source: Beijing Times/Translated and edited by Women of China)