"Zhang Yimou is one of the best directors on mainland China"
About this Quote
The phrasing is strategic. “One of the best” signals admiration without picking a fight. “Mainland China” is the loaded part: a geographic tag that’s also political shorthand, separating Zhang’s institutional stature from Hong Kong’s action-industrial tradition and Taiwan’s art-house legacy. Jet Li, long associated with Hong Kong cinema and then Hollywood, is effectively validating Zhang’s mainland authorship from an outsider-with-insider-access position. That matters because Zhang’s reputation has always toggled between visionary stylist and state-facing cultural ambassador, especially as he moved from intimate dramas to spectacle and eventually to directing the Beijing Olympics ceremonies.
There’s also a craft subtext. Jet Li’s stardom is built on kinetic clarity; Zhang’s best work turns choreography into emotion and color into ideology. The compliment implies a shared belief that action can be poetry, not just impact. In a global media landscape that often flattens Chinese filmmakers into a single category, Li’s line functions as a spotlight: not “China,” but Zhang, specifically, as a standard-bearer worth singling out.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Li, Jet. (2026, January 17). Zhang Yimou is one of the best directors on mainland China. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/zhang-yimou-is-one-of-the-best-directors-on-67131/
Chicago Style
Li, Jet. "Zhang Yimou is one of the best directors on mainland China." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/zhang-yimou-is-one-of-the-best-directors-on-67131/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Zhang Yimou is one of the best directors on mainland China." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/zhang-yimou-is-one-of-the-best-directors-on-67131/. Accessed 4 Feb. 2026.


