TO the poor souls not familiar with the vibrant, magnificent, powerful, and ever-expanding world of Chinese cinema, there has recently been a salacious story that, though unfamiliar in its scope and content to artists in Guyana, still holds several important lessons that remind us of our roles as artists and the fact that we, as with the people in all other professions, need to be held accountable for our actions.

Fan Bingbing is the name of one of the biggest superstars in China. An immensely beautiful, talented, award-winning actress, Bingbing is one of a few select Asian actors to become known to the Western movie-going world. She made an appearance in “X-Men: Days of Futures Past” and was due to appear in “The King’s Daughter” with Pierce Brosnan and Kaya Scodelario, as well as the thriller, “355”, alongside Jessica Chastain, Lupita Nyong’o, Penelope Cruz, and Marion Cotillard. However, if one wants to get a true understanding of Bingbing’s skills as an actress, then one would have to turn to her Chinese-language films, such as “Buddha Mountain.”

Importantly, she has also established herself as a fashion icon, thanks, in part, to the costumes she wore at several Cannes Festivals – including the famous “swan dress,” “the four beauties dress,” and the “dragon dress,” with a version of the last of these being collected by the Victoria and Albert Museum, and the original being bought by Madame Tussaud’s.

So far, so good – and based on this summation of the career of the actress, it should become obvious that her life was seemingly perfect and justifiably enviable in every way. The biggest star in the most populated country in the world, several awards, status as a fashion icon, and a ripe Hollywood career ahead of her, and yet, as everyone in China and everyone else interested in international films now knows, Bingbing’s world has come crashing down all around her.

According to various media outlets, the actress has been accused of tax evasion, due to her allegedly signing dual contracts (commonly known as ‘yin-yang’ contracts in China), and reportedly later paying taxes on only the public contract, which contained the smaller fee being charged for work in a movie. When the news first broke, the actress disappeared from the public eye for several months, prompting much speculation into her disappearance, with some people even suggesting that the Chinese government may have had a hand in the vanishing of China’s most famous star.

But now, Bingbing has returned, emerging from a secret detention centre, releasing a statement from behind the mysterious veil of social media, acknowledging her crimes, apologising to the public, and seeking to make reparations for her mistakes. She also highlighted her devotion to the state and to her fans, writing, according to an article on “Vulture” by Anne Victoria Clark, that, “without the Party and the state’s good policies, without the love from the people, there would have been no Fan Bingbing.”

Steve Rose, writing for “The Guardian,” pointed out that Bingbing now owes an astronomical £112 million in fines and unpaid taxes, noting that Chinese authorities have begun to initiate a plan of action in the entertainment industry that seeks to put limits on actors’ pay in an effort to curb money worship and the idolisation of celebrities by the youth, among other things.

The tale of Fan Bingbing is a lurid and outlandish one, highlighting a megastar who flew too high to the sun, breaking the laws of China, out of all the possible countries in the world – and now as she falls back to earth, crashing-landing so hard that we are yet to see if she can resurrect her career from the aftermath of the fall, all the artists should look to her story and mine the lessons that can be unearthed from it.

Immediately, of course, and perhaps most obvious, is the warning about breaking the law. No one is above the law and as in Bingbing’s case, her beauty, her abilities as an actress, her fame and power are all not enough to save her from whatever penalties await her. One of the most beautiful women in the world, a constant presence at film festivals, and someone with adoring fans all around the globe, and yet, if she is unable to pay all of the money she owes, she may very well end up in prison.

Artists, of all people, should have a better understanding of how the law works in order to subvert it – not all laws, of course, but those that are oppressive or seek to devalue the human rights of the people whom our art can address. Manipulating or downright breaking the law for personal gain, on the other hand – as artists, as people who seek to highlight and fix the maladies of human nature, is an absurd concept to understand in my mind. Perhaps this is because I am biased and I tend to see artists as the kind of people who want to help, who are do-gooders, trying their best to eke out a living while also serving humanity by preserving and telling our stories, by entertaining, by creating. Perhaps it is because I know how difficult it is for artists to work and to make money and therefore it might be incomprehensible to me because I cannot understand someone, an artist, especially, making a comfortable living and still breaking the law for more. The artist as a criminal, is indeed something unique, something wrong, something still incomprehensible to my probably-idealistic mind.