In San Francisco, a special guest has just arrived for the Lunar New Year. And while the visit requires no special visa, international star Fan Bing Bing will have to return to Madame Tussauds in China by the end of April.
Until then, standing next to other Asian and Asian-American stars like Jackie Chan and basketball player Jeremy Lin at Madame Tussauds’ San Francisco site, Fan’s life-like wax figure is holding her own.
“She had a sitting and took more than 250 measurements of her face to make it as accurate as possible,” Madame Tussauds spokesperson Jesse Russell told NBC News.
It’s a dramatic transformation for fans of the 33-year-old Chinese film star who looks nothing like she did in her Hollywood star-turn in the 2014 blockbuster, “X-Men: Days of Future Past,” as the character, Blink. Unlike that movie character’s jet black hair with purple streaks, Fan’s wax figure has reddish brown hair worn in the style of a young noblewoman from the Tang Dynasty.
Her “X-Men” jumpsuit is also gone. This Fan is draped in a hand embroidered Christopher Bu gown inspired by a Chinese porcelain vase from the Qing dynasty; the garment actually depicts stories of the Four Beauties of Ancient China, and was donated to Madame Tussauds by the star.
Fan currently is producing and starring in her own TV show, “The Empress of China,” reported to be the most expensive series ever produced in China.
The wax Fan is one of just two likenesses. The other is in Shanghai. Russell said the figure will also be making appearances outside the exhibit at the gates of Chinatown and other places in San Francisco before returning to her permanent home at the Madame Tussauds facility in Wuhan, China.
