Annie Yi

• Name — Annie Yi • Native Name — 伊能靜 • Birth Name — Wu Chin-yi (吳靜怡) • Born — 4 March 1968 • Birthplace — Taipei, Taiwan • Other Names — Shizuka Inoh • Occupation — * Singer • Actress • Writer • Years Active — 1986–present • Children — 2 Wu Chin-yi (born 4 March 1968), professionally known as Annie Yi or Annie Shizuka Inoh (Inō Shizuka), is a Taiwanese singer, actress, and writer.

Wu Chin-yi was born on March 4, 1968, in Taipei, Taiwan, the youngest of seven daughters of Yang Shu-wan and Wu Min. Her mother is from Keelung and her father is from Shandong. Her father divorced her mother to marry another woman who gave him a boy, her half-brother Wu Pu-hui. During her childhood, she was sent to study in an English-language primary school at Hong Kong. Then, she moved to Japan to live with her mother and her step-father, Yoshimitsu InohInō Yoshimitsu, a Japanese man from the Ryukyu Islands. She took her step-father's surname and took a Japanese name "Shizuka Inoh"Inō Shizuka. She lived in Tokyo, Japan for six years and studied at Tokyo Chinese School.

At the age of 17, she returned to Taiwan from Japan and became a singer under Liu Wen-cheng’s Flying Eagle Production. She took the stage name "Yi Nengjing"Yi 1 Neng 2 -ching 4, by simplifying her Japanese name dropping the last character. She debuted alongside her labelmates Donna Chiu and Fang Wen-lin, becoming a popular teen idol in the late 1980s and 1990s, and also expanded her singing career to Hong Kong and Japan. Since 1995, Yi successfully transitioned from music to film, working with Taiwanese director Hou Hsiao-hsien on three films, including her debut Good Men, Good Women (1995), followed by Goodbye South, Goodbye (1996), and a cameo in Flowers of Shanghai (1998). In 1999, Yi starred in 8 ½ Women, a film by British director Peter Greenaway. Yi is also a writer of both fiction and nonfiction, known for her self-help books on relationships. Since the early 2000s, Yi shifted her career focus to mainland China. In addition to acting, she was a regular judge on talent shows, notably serving as a four-time judge from 2010 to 2013 on China's Got Talent. In 2020, Yi participated in the reality show Sisters Who Make Waves.

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On 14 February 2000, after a relationship of 14 years, Yi married Taiwanese singer Harlem Yu in the United States. They have a son Harrison Yu Enli, originally named Yu Hanrui, who was born on 16 March 2002 in the United States. On November 10, 2008, photos of Yi holding hands with Taiwanese actor Victor Huang during a date in Beijing were exposed, with further allegations that they had been having a three-year affair since co-starring in the TV series Concubines of Qing Emperor (2006), while Yi was married and Huang was in a relationship. In March 2009, Yi and Yu issued a divorce statement. On 21 March 2015, Yi married Chinese actor Qin Hao in Phuket, Thailand. Yi gave birth to their daughter Cindy Qin in 2016 in the United States.

In the early 2010s, Yi was actively engaged in public discussions on Weibo, such as in the 2011 Wenzhou train collision, cultivating a civic-minded, pro-democracy image, sometimes referred to as a public intellectual. However, her career was derailed due to her criticism of the Chinese government's censorship and her support for press freedom during the 2013 Southern Weekly incident, which resulted in a brief Weibo ban and a year-long TV ban. Since her return, Yi has shifted her public stance towards a pro-CCP and pro-unification position, which has sparked controversy in her native Taiwan. In 2024, she was invited to attend the reception celebrating the 75th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic of China, held at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing.

In 2019, Yi raised controversy on Weibo for promoting the teachings of Indian godman Kalki Bhagwan, the founder of a spiritual organization Oneness. After the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) and China Anti-Cult Association (CACA) issued a warning about the Oneness cult's activities, she removed the related Weibo posts.

On 25 September 2013, Yi announced that she adopted Xia Junfeng's son Xia Jianqiang as her godson and his wife Zhang Jing as her blood sister.

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• Year — English title — Original title — Role — Notes • 1991 — The 700-Million Bride — 七億新娘 — Jiang Xujie • 1997 — Portrait of a Fanatic — 情在艰难岁月中 — Fu Lu • 1998 — Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow — 明天有你 — Tian Jingzi • 2000 — April Rhapsody — 人間四月天 — Lu Xiaoman • The Voices Within — 心灵物语 — Su Huimin • 2001 — Poor Prince — 貧窮貴公子 — Lingzi • Married Off to Japan — 远嫁日本 — Zhou Mingli • 2002 — In Love — 偷偷愛上你 — Ni Chunchun • 2003 — A Leaf in the Storm — 風聲鶴唳 — Zhang Wanxin • Painting Soul — 畫魂 — Xia Mengying • 2005 — Lovelorn High Heels — 失戀高跟鞋 — Zhang Ning • 2006 — The Life and Death Love — 生死绝恋 — Yang Yinghong • Concubines of the Qing Emperor — 大清後宮 — Consort Xiang • 2007 — Sad Songs of the Qinhuai River — 秦淮悲歌 — Liu Rushi • 2008 — The Spirit of the Sword — 浣花洗劍錄 — Princess Tuochen • The Long River East Flows — 長河東流 — Yuniang • 2009 — Love Tribulations — 鎖清秋 — Li Yue'e • Fuego — 狼烟 — Lu Peipei • The Young Lawyer Ji Xiaolan — 少年訟師紀曉嵐 — Wu Shishi • Three Women's Secret — 三个女人的秘密 — Wang Ding • Great Porcelain Merchant — 大瓷商 — Wei Qiuhe

• Year — English title — Original title — Role — Notes • 2020 — Sisters Who Make Waves — 乘风破浪的姐姐 — Cast member

* • Annie's Internet Conservatory Official site (in Chinese) • Annie's Blog