Wang Baoqiang was born in a rural area of Hebei province in China. At the age of six, he started practising martial arts and was a secular disciple in Henan Songshan Shaolin Temple between the ages of eight and fourteen. At the age of only 16 he was selected by director Li Yang for his breakout film role in the multi-award winning feature Blind Shaft (2003), for which he won the Best New Performer prize at the 2003 Golden Horse Awards, shared with Megan Tzengwon. The same role also won him the 2004 Bangkok International Film Festival Golden Kinnaree Award for Best Actor, shared with Li Yixiang and Wang Shungbao. Alongside his work in television, his next two feature film roles were A World Without Thieves (2004) and The Assembly (2007), both directed by Feng Xiaogang (Aftershock). He also appeared in The Equation of Love and Death (2008), Fire of Conscience (2010), Love for Life (2011) starring Zhang Ziyi, and Romancing in Thin Air (2011) by the prolific and renowned Hong Kong director Johnnie To.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
