Gong Li with Chinese traditional costume

Chinese Film Star Gong Li Caught Green-Handed.
Over the next several years after her 1987 debut in Red Sorghum, Gong Li received both local and international acclaim for her roles in several more Zhang Yimou films, becoming his muse.

She appeared in Ju Dou in 1990. Her performance in the Oscar-nominated Raise the Red Lantern thrust her into the international spotlight. and The Story of Qiu Ju, for which she was named Best Actress at the 1992 Venice Film Festival. The roles help solidify her reputation as, according to Asiaweek, one of the "world's most glamorous movie stars and an elegant throwback to Hollywood's golden era." Gong and Zhang, however were not only colleagues but lovers, and when Gong ended their personal relationship in 1995 (marrying a businessman the following the year) their professional relationship ended as well.

In 1993 Gong Li received a New York Film Critics Circle award for her role in Farewell My Concubine. Directed by Chen Kaige, the film was at the time her first major role with a director other than Zhang Yimou. In 2006, Premiere Magazine ranked her performance as the 89th greatest performance of all time.

With her ascent and influence, Gong Li began to criticize the censhorship policy in China. Her films Farewell My Concubine and The Story of Qiu Ju were both banned in her native land, reportedly for being thinly-veiled critiques of the government.

In regards to the sexual material in Ju Dou, one official called the film "a bad influence on the physical and spiritual health of young people."