Maggie Cheung was born 

on September 20, 1964. Her family 

come from Shanghai. She went 

to St Paul's Convent primary 

school in Hong Kong. Her  family 

emigrated  to the United Kingdom when 

she was eight.  She returned to 

Hong Kong in 1982 for a holiday, but 

stayed on to work as a model. Then she got 

a job as a sales girl at 

the Lane Crawford department store. In 1983, 

she entered the Miss Hong Kong 

beauty contest. She won first 

runner-up and the Miss Photogenic 

award. She was a semi-finalist in the Miss 

World contest the same year. She married 

French director Olivier Assayas 

in 1998 and they divorced in 2001. Their relationship 

remained friendly, and in 2004 she made 

her award-winning movie Clean with him. She has 

starred in over 70 films 

since 1983. She is the first Asian 

actress to win a prize at 

the Cannes Film Festival.