Chinese film director faces $1.4m fine for having three kids

Chinese director Zhang Yimou. Photo / AP

Chinese film director Zhang Yimou could be fined seven million yuan ($1.4 million) after admitting to having three children.

The 62-year-old director of Raise the Red Lantern and House of Flying Daggers, who also masterminded the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, has been publicly hounded for nearly two years for flouting the country's one-child policy.

Zhang, who now admits to having three children with his second wife, the actress Chen Ting, became the focus of public anger over the disregard of China's rich for family planning rules.

For several months, Zhang appears to have been in a delicate dance with the authorities, who recently told the Chinese media, to widespread mirth, that they "could not find" the film director to punish him.

On Sunday, however, Zhang submitted to the modern equivalent of a public flagellation, expressing his remorse in an interview with Xinhua, the state news agency. "I now believe what I did is utterly wrong," he said. "My reputation is ruined. There has been a terrible impact both in China and abroad. As public figures, Chen Ting and I must co-operate with the investigation. We are ready to apologise to the people."

He said hiding his children had taken a toll. "We hid from one place to another like guerrillas. While the three kids were in school, their teachers never met their father," he said. "When we went out, we stayed at least 200m away from our children. These mistakes have had a serious effect on my kids' childhood."

Zhang is said to have met Chen Ting when she auditioned for a role in The Road Home, which featured another Chinese superstar, Zhang Ziyi, and was released in 1999. Chen, who is now 32, gave birth to their eldest child when just 19 years old.

Zhang also has a 30-year-old daughter, Zhang Mo, who lives in the United States. She has said her father's marriage to her mother, Xiao Hua, ended in divorce in 1988 because Zhang was romancing his leading lady at the time, Gong Li. However, he denied rumours that affairs with girlfriends had born other children.

Xinhua suggested that the fine for Zhang could be seven million yuan, a far smaller figure than some of the sums first publicised in the case.