She was born as Jiang Yan in Shaoxing, Zhejiang province, China. When
she was 15, she enrolled in Beijing Dance Academy to study dance and
singing. Then she learned acting at Beijing Film Academy. While she was
at college, she started her first role in the film One Summer with You
as Li Mingxin. She began to show her acting talent in the film City of
Life and Death which depicted the massacre of Nanking by the Japanese
army.