Chinese Actress Liu Xiaoqing Performs Her Drama In Guangzhou (Photo : Getty Images)
A TV series about China’s only empress in the country’s 4,000 years history would be shown in the U.S. as a series in late 2018. The producers for the show are Chinese actress Liu Xiaoqing; Christopher Newman, the executive producer of “Game of Thrones;” Starlight Media; and Kia Jam, CEO of K. Jam Media.
Liu Xiaoqing is the best person to co-produce a series about Wu Zetain, the empress who ruled for 20 years during the Zhou dynasty, since she has played the role of the empress in four productions. One of the series was “Wu Zetian” which was first aired in China in 1995.
The Chinese actress was performing the role of the Chinese female monarch as part of her global tour of the play about Wu Zetian when Peter Lu of Starlight Media talked to Liu Xiaoqing about the possibility of developing “Empress” for American TV, Variety reported.
Since U.S. TV is more liberal, Li Xiaoqing hinted of the possibility of including in the American version two elements not found in the four Chinese versions. These are the empress’ desire for sex and killing. The actress pointed out that Wu Zetian had all ministers who did not agree with her killed.
The 61-year-old actress, who has won a number of Hundred Flowers awards since she started acting in the 1970s, hinted of a modern approach to the upcoming TV series. She hopes when American TV viewers watch “Empress,” they would realize that “history and feminism can neither be ignored nor separated.”
Like the empress, Liu XIaoqing is an influential woman and considered a mega star and movie legend in China. Dragon TV, the second-largest TV network in China, tapped her in mid-2015 for a 20-day shoot in Sydney, Australia, to entice wealthy Chinese to invest in property in the key Australian city. She planned then to buy a flat in Double Bay, Daily Telegraph reported.
