Ruby Lin's life & music career:

Ruby Lin (Chinese: 林心如; pinyin: Lín Xīnrú; born 27 January 1976 in Taipei, Taiwan) is a Taiwanese actress and pop singer.
Lin made her acting debut in a TV commercial in Taiwan. When she received her first experience in front of the camera in 1995 for a minor role, she started to develop a passion for acting. In 1997, after playing supporting roles in various Taiwanese TV dramas, she met her breakout role as a leading actress in the television series Princess Returning Pearl and its sequel, Princess Returning Pearl II. In 1999, after Princess Returning Pearl was broadcast, she also began a singing career with her first album, a five track EP.
Lin has acted in a variety of roles, such as the sassy Jian Ning princess in Duke of Mount Deer 2000, the cruel assassin Cai Yue in Flying Daggers, the gentle-natured Man Zhen in Half Life Fate, and the middle-aged woman in her latest series Ancestral Temple. In 2007, she has said she would like to get more involved in movies. Her English name is from her mother's love of the jewel.
Early life:
Lin was born and raised in Taipei, Taiwan, as the eldest of three children, having one brother a year younger and the other six years younger. Her father was a businessman, and her mother a housewife. After her parents' divorce when she was 7 years old, she lived with her mother, who took her to visit relatives in Japan every year since her childhood. She graduated from Ri Xin Primary School, and Zhong Dian High School. Lin originally planned on going to the UK to study after high school graduation, never considering the prospect of an acting career. However she began her acting career when she was seventeen, as a part-time advertisement model. Her first TV commercial was for Jasmine Tea.
Lin's parents did not like the idea of their daughter being involved in the entertainment industry., but she decided to pursue an acting career. After appearing in commercials for many products, her parents finally agreed to let her sign with an entertainment management company. Following high school graduation, Lin officially signed a contract with Jessie and Jones Entertainment Ltd on her twentieth birthday. She has also helped reconcile her parents.

Personal life
Love affair & friendship:
Although Lin has attempted to keep her relationships private, the media has made many speculations about her personal life such as scandals with her co-workers and friends. After the start of her acting career, she went out with Taiwan actor Jimmy Lin when they first filmed School Days movie in 1995 until when she was filming Princess Returning Pearl in 1997.
In 2006, they appear publicly together on a Taiwan show "Kang Yong's family" (traditional Chinese: 康永當家; pinyin: Kang Yong Dang Jia) years after the breakup, expressed that distance was the reason for the breakup. It was the first time appearing on the same stage after the breakup. At this show, they finally openly talked about their former relationship. For the 1st time in public Jimmy Lin said, it was because both were constantly shooting in China, in the end their relationship succumbed to distance for breaking things up. Both of them still remain good friends even after their break up. Whether there's a possibility of getting back together, both said "impossible.". Ruby Lin said " We didn't have a significant quarrel or dispute, therefore after the breakup we can still be friends"
Since the TV series Romance in the Rain, media made speculations between Lin and her co-star Alec Su, though they insisted they're just close friends. In 2006, when she joined Alec's management team and signed with Alec to HuaYi Media company, their rumored relationship erupted again. Currently, Lin claims to be single and said, "I am presently very satisfied with my life and very satisfied with everything that I have right now the word marriage is still too far away"
According to Lin,
"In this business sometimes it's really hard, even for yourself, to determine which kind of relationship is true love. Let's say you are shooting a movie abroad & just so happens there's someone you can talk to, to mutually look after one another. You would feel that you've found a person you can depend upon, couple that w/ the plot of the movie, it's very easy to be confused. It's impossible to clarify what kind of relationship it is. But in the end, it's definitely when the movies disperses, so do the people.(Miss Fashion magazine August 2004)”

Not only friends from inside the entertainment circle, Lin still keeps in contact with many of her old friends from younger days. According to Lin, "Friends play a very important role in my life. Fate is indeed a very marvelous thing. We had also known each other for 18 years. Transforming from naive little seeding to charming women, going through numerous difficulties/obstacles in the process. So as to have the unshakeable friendship today" (From Ruby Lin's personal blog)
When Lin released new album in end of 2008, media brings her love affair again because many of her songs are about lost love, with her breakup with rumored boyfriend HK director Stanley Tong. But Lin denied all question and said her new album doesn't mean any specific person. Interview in December 2008, She added looking to lose her single status as soon as possible.
Charity work:
Ruby Lin is very concered about charity activities. She has been actively involved in projects for various causes. From 2005, Ruby Lin is the spokeperson for fashion company XUEZHU, company and Ruby Lin set up a fund to help poor people who live various small cities in China. And she was participated many of charity events and concert included the "Jackie Chan and Friends" concert in 2005. According to the recently news, she adopted a Vietnam boy through "World Vision Taiwan". In 2007, Ruby Lin Elected As Anti-depression Ambassadors of China, and doing many public anti-depression campaign include public concert. For prominent contributions to charity, Ruby Lin awarded the "Outstanding Contribution to Charity Award" at the China Fashion Award (CFA) in 2007. In January 2008, Ruby Lin funds school for rural children. She handed over a ¥200,000 (US$27,627) check to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, through which the money will be used to build an elementary school. Red Cross Society of China presented Ruby with a "donation commemorative plague" and also invited her to be its philanthropic ambassador for its elementary school building project. They run a project assisting Chinese children in rural areas in obtaining an education. In October 2008, Ruby Lin become Ambassador of China Foundation for Poverty Alleviation, Yum! Brands Inc. China Division, and United Nations World Food Programme (WFP)'s "Donate $1, Offer Compassion, Deliver Nutrition” joint campaign. This campaign will provide daily nutrition to the children for at least one year. As this activity's ambassador, Ruby Lin also made an appearance a KFC restaurant in Beijing, to interact with patrons, to summon more people to participate in this fundraiser, to care about the children's health and development.

Music career:
Starting in 1999, Lin has also entered the music industry and released her albums. In 1999, Lin entered the music industry with her first EP, Hearings. Although it had only five songs, the EP sold well in Hong Kong and Taiwan, earning Lin several awards in Hong Kong, including "Best Newcomer of the Year." The following year, TVB Solid Gold awarded her "The Most Popular New Singer Award", and Radio Television HK presented Lin with "The Most Prosperous New Singer Bronze award." However, due to conflicts between her label and her management company, Lin began searching for a new label to produce her next album.
In 2001, after a three-year hiatus, Lin signed a contract with BMG Taiwan, and subsequently released her 2nd album face 2 face (雙面林心如). A few days after, the Para Para Special Edition was also released. Both albums earned several awards from the Hong Kong music industry. After those two albums, she began focusing more on her acting career. Lin is contracted for 4 albums with BMG, but has little time to continue her singing career. As a result, in 2004, BMG decided to release the soundtrack for the television series, Half Life Fate, in favor of having Lin record a third studio album. In the soundtrack, Lin sang five songs; the opening theme, "Half of Fate", earned her the Best Film and Television Song award. At the end of 2004, Lin's contract with BMG expired. After being approached by several labels, she did not sign a record contract till the May, 2008. According to Lin's news, she signed new music company in June, 2008 to explore her musical career on the Chinese mainland.
End of November 2008, Lin returning to music with her new album called New Rubyology(新如主義) after over four years and continues to add to her portfolio a richer singing career. This time she took an active role in the production process - be it song selection, recording, and music video planning - to create an album that truly brings out her character and style. Also, behind the album is a production team including top Chinese musicians such as Chen Bao Guo and Chen Sun Hua, who previously worked with Jolin Tsai, Elva Hsiao, and Stefanie Sun.. Fans and critics commented Lin's new album shows a more mature and expressive singing technique, and these comments bring the people's positive responses. Her album hits "Onion Soup" (洋蔥濃湯) ranked on Top in China Music Song Chart(中国歌曲联) during 3 weeks.. At the 12th M-Zone music award, Lin won the Golden melody award and entertainer of the year award.

Ruby Lin's acting career & in the media:

Journey as an actress
Early work (1994–1996):
After shooting her 1st TV commercial, she got the attention of various TV and film directors and many companies started soliciting her for jobs. In 1995, after shooting some commercials, Lin finally received her first role in a film, School Days, with Jimmy Lin and Takeshi Kaneshiro. That same year, she was also cast in some Taiwanese TV dramas in some supporting roles. From 1995-1997, Lin had roles in a few Taiwanese TV series and people started to take notice of this new face. In 1996, Lin went to China for the first time to do filming. Lin thinks that this was a period of valuable experience and a time that she just started to learn about acting.
"I was in my second year of high school when I first got involved in film & TV industry. When I first got the script of the film "School Days", I couldn't sleep for days. I thought there would be other opportunities for me to study abroad, but one does not bump into the opportunity to be in a film every day. So, I just went and had a try. I told myself that if my filming career didn't work out, then I could still go back to school. But things are not always as they may have appeared to be. Only when the actual filming started, did I realize that it wasn't as easy as I had thought. At that time, it was a film taking place in a school. I played a class monitor role. In a scene, I needed to sort of give a command to my classmates, stand up, stand at attention (with the rest of the class) and salute to the teacher. It took about 10-20 tries ! I was so scared and worried that the director might scold and shout at me. The feeling of frustration was quite big."

Breakthrough (1997–2001):
After playing minor roles in various series and films, Lin was selected by the Taiwanese famous writer Chiung Yao and had an audition for a main role for the new TV drama Princess Returning Pearl. In 1997, Lin surged to the top as an emanating star through her well-loved "Princess Ziwei" role in the TV series Princess Returning Pearl, appealing to massive audience throughout mainland China, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Southeast Asia. Originally, Chiung Yao arranged for Ruby Lin to play the role of "Sai Ya", but as the actress who was originally arranged to play the main role could not participate, the production team re-shuffled all the actresses again. After some deliberations by the company, they thought that Lin's makings were more suitable for "Zi Wei", and immediately made the final decision. After this series Princess Returning Pearl was broadcast; it enjoyed the highest ratings in China, and Lin quickly rose to prominence.
""After it was decided that I played the role of Zi wei, I got the script only three days before I had to leave for filming. I was reading and crying at the same time, Why are there so many lines? In my previous roles, I never had that many lines, probably like about one or two lines or so in each response, as those were perhaps only small roles! And that was also the first time I was leaving my native place for such a long time for filming and I had to overcome the challenges of being in an unfamiliar environment. (Taiwan Cover story Interview in 2001)"
After rising to prominence, she continued to star in a number of successful television series. In 2000, She worked in Hong Kong TVB's big production Duke of Mount Deer 2000 with Dicky Cheung, Shu Qi and many other big names artists. In this series, Ruby Lin acted as 'Princess Jian Ning', a sassy and funny girl, showing that she has what it takes to portray a cute and cheerful princess successfully, turning away from the nice and sweet image she had earned from her role in Princess Returning Pearl. Consequently, after starring in another Chinese blockbuster series Romance in the Rain which was written by Chiung Yao, Lin was voted as the Top Ten Most Famous Asian Superstars for two consecutive years (2000 and 2001). The same year, she also selected fourth place "Malaysia 2001 Heavenly Kings & Queens".
As Lin felt she had achieved all she could in television, she went on to star in a few movies in Hong Kong. In 2000, Lin filmed three movies in Hong Kong. In 2001, she worked on the action movie China Strike Force with Aaron Kwok and Taiwanese singer and actor Leehom Wang. Although Lin was only in a supporting role, she said it was a learning experience for her. With those Hong Kong movies, she counter-attacked the Hong Kong market.
Mainstream success (2002–2005):
From 2002 onwards, Lin has focused on her career in mainland China. In 2002, she starred in 3 series - Half Life Fate (or in PinYin, Ban Sheng Yuan), Boy and Girl and Flying Daggers. Lin was selected as the main actress in the TV version of Half Life Fate (adapted from Zhang Ailing’s novel Eighteen Springs) The film version of Half Life Fate (film) was directed by Ann Hui, a well-known director in Asia. For Lin, it was a challenging role; therefore the pressure was especially huge.
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"From all the characters that I have played in, there's a series that gave me the biggest pressure -- "Ban Sheng Yuan", because the entire story's ups & downs [fluctuations] were extremely big and I had experienced a great deal of tribulations. Even compared to my prior acting experiences, I had put in more heart & effort in interpreting this character [role]. At that time, the pressure was just overwhelming (Interview on June 25, 2003)
”
Lin's hard work yielded even better results than expected. Her performance escalated her fame and earned her many accolades for capturing her screen character Man Zhen’s 14 years of arduous life. This series was broadcast in China, Hong Kong, Taiwan and South Korea That same year, Lin participated in a modern romantic TV series Boy and Girl. This series was broadcast to the whole of China by CCTV and got the highest view rating among all series aired in 2003. Her fame was further enhanced through this TV series. With this series, Lin was selected Top 10 actress of the year and among those 10 actresses, she was the only actress from Taiwan. Also in the same year, she participated in an ancient martial arts TV series Flying Daggers which was based on Gu Long's novel. In it, Lin not only acted in a martial arts series for the first time, but also greatly changed the type of character she usually portrayed, changing from a gentle damsel to a cold assassin. Those 3 TV series above were released in 2003 in various countries, proving to be a successful year for her. Though Ruby Lin focus on filming TV series, she also keep starred some movies. Lin participated on adventure drama movie Life Express with Richie Ren. In 2003, Ruby Lin worked with Francis Ng and Anita Yuen in romantic comedy filmLove Trilogy.It was relatively successful in China.
2004 productions, such as Amor de Tarapaca, co-starring Korean actor Han Jae Suk, began trend of successful China-Korea collaborations. Lin has been involved in another original Korean screenplay, Magic Touch of Fate, co-starring Taiwanese actor Alec Su and Korean idol KangTa. This series is the highest budgeted mini series ever made in Asian modern television industry to date. At this point, Lin had been in the business for almost a decade with nearly non-stop filmings. She had always wanted to go back to school to live the life of a student. Especially since the time during high school, studying abroad had always been her dream. In the 2004 winter after finishing filming Magic Touch of Fate, Lin fixated on self-improvement and decided to go to New York City to study language and acting for three months. While she was there, Lin studied English at Embassy CES and performance at the New York Film Academy.
In February 2005, coming back home (Taiwan) with a new passion for acting, Lin starred in four mega-produced Chinese Series, Paris Sonata, Sound of Colors, Star Boulevard, and Da Li Princess almost back to back. For her role in Paris Sonata, she had to learn how to play piano more than 2 months before filming. Following her performance in Paris Sonata, she selected TV drama Sound of Colors in a remake of Jimmy Liao's illustration as her next work and portrayed a blind radio DJ. Lin's performance as a blind girl got many favorable comments from audiences. Some news reports and reviews even say that this is one of her best acting among all her previous works. This drama has already been broadcast in many countries/regions including Hong Kong, Taiwan, Philippines, Vietnam and United States. Other 2 television series Star Boulevard and Da Li Princess are expected to be released in 2008 by CCTV

Preparing a new start (2006–present):
Lin's first 2006 television series is titled Ancestral Temple. In this series, she has not only unchained the shackles of idol seriess but has also successfully played this brand-new role with depth and opened a new page for her acting career. After three months of filming in Huang Shan, China, the series was completed at the end of October 2006. Its release is unscheduled, but it has been said that it will be broadcast CCTV 1 in 2008. On June 6, 2006, Lin won the Honorable Award of Taiwan's Most Popular Actress in the Chinese TV Drama Award ceremony in Beijing, China. And she has also been listed TOP 10 China artists many times in audiences and expert's research polls. Those award results showed Ruby Lin as one of the most successful actresses in the contemporary Chinese acting industry.
At the end of 2006, Lin bid farewell to her agent company Zhong Jie after a 10 year relationship and quietly signed with Hua Yi Brothers Film and Television group (華誼兄弟影視集團). Hua Yi Bros is currently the largest management and domestic movie-making company in China. On 30 November 2006, in an extravagant ceremony, she officially signed with Hua Yi as her management company. News has reported that the fee for signing her was said to be over $10 million. After signing with the new company, she went to USA (Los Angeles & San Francisco) with her family for a vacation. Lin came back to China in the middle of January 2007. At the end of 2006, there were lots of rumors about her next work including Jackie Chan's new movie, but nothing has materialized even up to August. Finally, in September 2007, she participated in filming CCTV's new historical TV drama Su DongPo as a guest starring. In this TV series, she plays the first wife of Su Dongpo (A writer, poet, artist, calligrapher, pharmacologist, and statesman of the Song Dynasty, and one of the major poets of the Song era) who is played Lu Yi. This is their 3rd cooperation. After filming that, Ruby Lin starred in digital film Evening of Roses. It is scheduled to be screening possibly by the end of 2008.
After Evening of Roses, Lin become give more a challenge to herself in different roles. End of 2007, she co-starred with Ray Lui as Daji in The Legend and the Hero 2, also known as Feng Shen Bang (Chinese: 封神榜), is one of the major vernacular Chinese novels written in the Ming Dynasty. After much speculation over who would receive leading role Daji who is known for her beauty and cruelty that brought ruin to a dynasty, the role was finally offered to Lin. After Lin confirmed to play Daji role, she can't escape herself in comparison to Fan Bingbing who played the same role in first part of this series. Lin's new look received generally positive comments from media. NetandTV media commented: "In comparison to the previous version, the bright spot in this new version's Daji gets a new makeover. Ruby Lin's look gave Daji a brand-new definition" And on numerous occasions, Lin said "comparing with other people is meaningless, I just wants a breakthrough from past looks, to surpass myself."
In 2008, after develop a career in China, has become a movement in the entertainment circle in recent years, Lin returning to Taiwan to do a series Love At Sun Moon Lake. Lin plays an aborigine lady, and this is the first TV series has gotten Taiwan government's permits for mainland China actors to begin filming in Taiwan. Besides this, it was also announced that Lin had been cast as Sun Shangxiang in the new Romance of the Three Kingdoms TV adaptation directed by Gao Xixi.
Endorsements:
In Asia, acquiring endorsement contracts with major brands are positive testaments of star-status. Ruby Lin has been a spokesperson for brands such as Mentholatum (2000-2003), Coca Cola (2000), Christian Dior Watch (2006-2007), ESPRIT (2001), Liuhengsei(casual wear, since 2001), VOV Cosmetics (since 2006), China Mobile (since 2007), Pantene (2003-2006), Sofie Pantiliners (2002-2005), Anchao (sports shoe, since 2003), D&D (Jewelry, 2001-2005) and so on. Ruby Lin also acted as ACAP Wild Aid's Rhino Ambassador(2004-2005) and Winnie the Pooh Friendship Ambassador in 2001. It reported Ruby Lin starred in more than 10 national and international Endorsements this year, which has brought in the majority of her income in 2007. In 2009, Lin become New Face of Estee Lauder. She is getting one million yuan to be the spokesperson, according to media reports.

In the media
Commercial work:
After rising to prominence, Ruby Lin became actively involved in commercial work. In 2001, she was selected as Taiwan's Most Popular Advertisement Star. At that time, she was spokeperson for Coca Cola and ESPRIT. After she selected as spokeperson for renowned brands such as Mentholatum, Pantene and so on, Ruby Lin was ranked second on "China Top Ten Most Popular Commercial Model" list in 2005. On several occasions, Ruby Lin has also been praised by the media for her sense of style. In 2006, MTV China selected her as "Most Stylish actress of the year". The same year, Ruby was also chosen as the "Most Stylish actress in China" at QQ 2006 China Entertainment Star award. In 2009, International brand Estee Lauder Choose her as their "My Cover Girl" in 2009" for China and Taiwan market. Lin getting one million yuan to be the spokesperson, according to media reports.
Response to the rumors and paparazzi:
As with other stars, Ruby Lin is one of them whose private life is frequently in the public eye. Ruby Lin never expressed a strong dislike of the paparazzi, however she openly expressed feel discomfort and frustration about rumors and the paparazzi during recently interviews. When reporters asked to her about the paparazzi, she answered "I'm already frequently exposed under the sun, this is my work, but what I cannot accept is they do things under the claim of reporting the truth, desperately digging for things that they perceive as inside information, they completely ignore other people's feelings, whether or not they've already destroyed a harmonious and happy family."
From early years of her career, Ruby Lin unwanted expressed her feeling and opinions when rumors about her work or private life spread . However constant stalking by the media and paparazzi, she does acknowledge that "ignore" is not good way to deal with them. In 2006, Ruby Lin starts to manage her own personal blog in one of the biggest site 'sina' in China. In her blog, she express her moods and make clear when she became the subject of controversy or media made incorrect article. About the reason she changed her way to response rumors and paparazzi, she said "Before, I thought there's no need to respond to baseless remarks, However sometimes 'avoidance' isn't the best way to solve problems. Therefore I made the resolution to start writing in my blog, to write down my feelings. I can objectively express my views through my blog". In 2007, Ruby Lin was speculated to be battling for the role of the White Demon with Li Bingbing and Fann Wong. From her blog, She trying to cleared up these rumors by stating she would not be acting in Forbidden Kingdom. Ruby Lin indicated in her blog "Finally dust has settled ~ I've left the eye of the storm"

Harassing calls:
In 2007, News reports that Ruby Lin was being harassed by an unknown caller for half a year, not only on her 3 handsets in turn, but the person also called her home making it extremely unbearable to her. It is said the prank calls started about six months ago when there was an incident where a group of stars' phone numbers were made public. Ruby Lin's manager said "Generally the harassing phone calls start at 9:00pm, calling every half hour, it goes on until 2:00am, this went on daily. Moreover the person takes turns calling her three handsets. He never says a word. If Ruby answers the phone, the other end would remain quiet and listens to Ruby talk. Every day at a fixed time, from 9 o'clock to 2 o'clock in the morning, calling more than 10 times a day" Due to even Phone company couldn't trace it since it's a Skype number, Ruby Lin can only give up all her current phone numbers(2 are mainland handsets, 1 Taiwan handset), and get new ones. When reporters confronted Ruby Lin when she filming in beijing, she has expressed :
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"I am both angry and afraid. At first I was especially scared, it was putting a mental strain on me, sometimes whenever the phone rings I would get nervous, afterwards I just didn't dare to answer the telephone anymore. Actually, I originally didn't want to change numbers, because a lot of friends have my number. There was no other way, I had change the numbers In regards to the overly excited fans, I want to appeals to everybody that they must be rational when star chasing.”