--- description: Breaking news and analysis from time.com. Politics, world news, photos, video, tech reviews, health, science, and entertainment news. title: Yao Chen by Hannah Beech: TIME 100 image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt045a570d31104eb5/69868b47cd68488e18094350/chen-yao-time-100-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=2400&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 --- Apr 24, 2014 # Yao Chen by Hannah Beech  NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 11: Actress Yao Chen attends the Vera Wang Runway Show during the Spring 2013 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at The Stage at Lincoln Center on September 11, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week) Photo Credit: Jason Kempin—Getty Images NEW YORK, NY - SEPTEMBER 11: Actress Yao Chen attends the Vera Wang Runway Show during the Spring 2013 Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week at The Stage at Lincoln Center on September 11, 2012 in New York City. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week) Photo Credit: Jason Kempin—Getty ImagesJason Kempin—Getty Images Even movie stars have to breathe the same air we do. Yao Chen, one of China’s most beloved rom-com darlings, could have just kept quiet about the disturbing by-products of her homeland’s epic economic rise. But the 34-year-old took her thoughts online. Yao now outranks Twitter luminary Katy Perry with her more than 66 million followers on Weibo, the Chinese microblogging service. (Twitter is blocked by the Chinese government, which is spooked by social media it can’t control.) She has opined on everything from the effect on her young child of China’s poisoned environment — choking smog, foul water and a toxic food chain — to the brave stand of a Chinese newspaper battling state censors. Last year she even quoted Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: “One word of truth shall outweigh the whole world.” Or perhaps one gulp of China’s polluted air. _Beech is_ TIME_’s China bureau chief_ Yao Chen by Hannah Beech: TIME 100 ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"Article","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70808/yao-chen-2014-time-100/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70808/yao-chen-2014-time-100/"},"headline":"Yao Chen","datePublished":"2014-04-24T01:10:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-02T22:59:32.071Z","description":"A Chinese superstar with an activist streak","url":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70808/yao-chen-2014-time-100/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt045a570d31104eb5/69868b47cd68488e18094350/chen-yao-time-100-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"creator":"TIME Staff","articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt045a570d31104eb5/69868b47cd68488e18094350/chen-yao-time-100-feat.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/collections/2014-time-100/70808/yao-chen-2014-time-100/","name":"Yao Chen"}}]}] ```