To use bjcat's words, how do you know that? How many Chinese and laowai have you met and asked? 100? 10000? 10000?

chinese hate her because she is arrogant in interviews, and also they think her looks are common (which they are I suppose).

laowai love her bc she has exotic looks and talent.

^ What are you talking about. Ask just ask any westerner off the street in Europe or North America if Zhang or Lucy Liu look "exotic". ( A spaniard would probably slant his eyes in appreciation !)

She does have talent though, and is underappreciated by her own people. Too bad she's kind of a bitch.

I like her either way, but she seems a touch sweeter in the English interviews than in her native language.

Here's another one about earthquake relief...and then catch the look on her face as it ends.

Says who?

She is good looking, I would have no problem if she wanna visit my bedroom.

I dont hate her, I just dont think she is that good at acting. Basically just the same expression on her face in every movie she has made. She is pretty in camera though.

Bravo!

Better actress, yes. I'm not sure I'd agree with the "remarkably fine looking woman", however. But to each their own.

Western people like her because they think she's hot (I'm not saying she's hot, I'm just saying people think she's hot). Chinese people hate her because Western people think she's hot and they're jealous.

It seems like some people in the Chinese movie industry lose some respect in China when they are seen as "selling out" China for the West. (I'm thinking specifically of Zhang Yimou).

I think Zhang Yimou's case is different than Zhang Ziyi's though. Zhang Yimou had good movies before he started pandering with commercial crap for the West (even if it was "pretty"). Zhang Ziyi had some okay parts in China, got famous, and chose to work with Western filmmakers. I don't see a change or net loss in the quality of her work.

Hence my conclusion: Chinese people hate her because Western people think she's hot and they're jealous.

chinese hate her because she's getting a mile of laowai cock up her.

I'm a Laowai and I HATE HER ! I want her to die. She's not an actress. She's got, at most, 2 facial expressions. She couldn't act to save her own life. People who like her must either 1)never have seen another chinese actress in their life, or 2)cannot tell the difference between "being pretty" and "being a good actor".

C'mon. Brigitte Lin was a good actress. Maggie Cheung is a good actress. Zhang Ziyi ? She was good in ONE movie : 2046, and for only one reason : WKW was genius enough to make her act her own role as a psycho slut.

As for the chinese... Well, they tend to hate anyone who gets famous abroad. Never quite understood why. With the notable exception of Yao Ming, who they love, they always bash on any actor or director who gets famous abroad. They used to love Gong Li... and began shitting on her as soon as she got a rep in Europe. It's like "if foreigners like it, it's bad...". Quite strange for a country who always complains about not being understood / not getting validation abroad, to at the same time spit on its best ambassadors in foreign countries.

1. Many people in china hate Yao Ming too, they think he really sucks in playing basketball but he is freaking tall. So they call Yao Ming "姚大傻” Yao Da Sha"(Big Stupid Yao)

2. Chinese People hate Gong Li because she just changed her nationality to become a Singarpore Citizen.

3. Ordinary people like me are always boring so they talk about gossips,rumors of famouse people. Hate or not, it's really doesn't matter, we just live our ordinary life.

I think that many chinese girls are jealous of her hahahha. And yeah I'm one laowai that loves her .

someone made the effort to create a vector image of her photo via illustrator!

here you can have a bigger view of this masterpiece:

http://gmesh.deviantart.com/art/Day-Dreamer-24422890