# Wu Jing (吴京) (actor)
**Wu Jing** (吴京; born 1974 in Beijing) is a Chinese martial artist, actor, film director, and producer who has been ranked by Variety as China's all-time top-grossing actor, known internationally for writing, directing, and starring in *Wolf Warrior 2* (2017), the highest-grossing Chinese film at the time, and for headlining *The Wandering Earth* science-fiction franchise[1](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2011093528.html) • [2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/) • [3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html). Library catalogs list him under the variant names Wu, Jason, 1974- and Wu, Jacky, 1974-, and he is sometimes credited as [Jason Wu](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-wu) or Jacky Wu[1](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2011093528.html) • [4](https://www.cctv.com/english/special/Chinesekungfu/20090120/109206.shtml). He should not be confused with other performers sharing the name; the birth date and the Beijing origin distinguish this Wu Jing in authority records[1](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2011093528.html).
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Born | 1974, Beijing; Manchu ethnicity[1](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2011093528.html) • [5](http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2015-07/21/content_36098375_12.htm) |
| Training | Beijing Shichahai Sports School from age six; Beijing Wushu Team from 1989 under coach Wu Bin; national gun-shu (spear) and duilian (paired routine) championships in 1991 and 1994[6](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698) |
| Discovery | Spotted by Yuen Woo-ping while scouting for the 1996 Hong Kong film *Tai Chi II*; cast as the lead at age 21[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/) |
| *Wolf Warrior 2* (2017) | RMB 5.68 billion (about $870 million), the highest-grossing Chinese film at the time; China's foreign-language Oscar submission that year[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html) • [2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/) • [7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/) |
| Franchise grosses | *The Wandering Earth* $670 million; *The Wandering Earth II* $604 million[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/) |
| Standing | Ranked by Variety as China's all-time top-grossing actor; Variety500 honoree in 2019, 2022, and 2023[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/) |
| Official titles | National first-class actor (一级演员); vice-chairman of the China Film Association[6](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698) |
## Early life and wushu training
Wu Jing was born in 1974 into a family of martial artists of Manchu ethnicity. Influenced by his elders, he began martial arts at age six at the Beijing Shichahai Sports School, joined a martial arts team at 15, and won the jousting and sparring championship at 17[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html) • [5](http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2015-07/21/content_36098375_12.htm). In his own account he enrolled at the Beijing martial arts school in 1980 and retired in 2000, giving about twenty years there[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html). He entered the Beijing Wushu Team for professional training in 1989 under the coach Wu Bin, and won national championships in gun-shu (spear) and duilian (paired routines) in 1991 and again in the 1994 national elite competition[6](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698). China.org.cn adds that both his father and grandfather were martial artists and that he had the same master as [Jet Li](https://www.edgepedia.org/jet-li)[5](http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2015-07/21/content_36098375_12.htm).
He later built his own training facility, a martial arts center with 30 rooms and a training hall of more than one thousand square meters called Yingwu Hall, where he trains his own martial arts team[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html).
## Television career, 1990s–2000s
Although an athlete on the renowned Beijing Wushu Team, whose alumni include Jet Li and [Donnie Yen](https://www.edgepedia.org/donnie-yen), Wu said that "movies seemed too distant" until the Hong Kong action director [Yuen Woo-ping](https://www.edgepedia.org/yuen-woo-ping) spotted him while scouting for the 1996 film *Tai Chi II*. [The 21](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-21)-year-old expected to work as a stunt double and found on arrival that he had been cast as the lead[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/).
Through the late 1990s and 2000s he appeared in numerous Mainland China-produced wuxia television series[4](https://www.cctv.com/english/special/Chinesekungfu/20090120/109206.shtml). In 1998 he starred in *Tai Chi Master* (太极宗师) as the internal-arts master Yang Yuqian, and in 1999 he appeared in Yuen Woo-ping's television series *Xiao Li Feidao* (小李飞刀)[6](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698). His early film roles include *[Tai Chi Boxer](https://www.edgepedia.org/tai-chi-boxer)* (1996), *Kill Zone* (2005), *Twins Mission* (2007), *[Invisible Target](https://www.edgepedia.org/invisible-target)* (2007), and *Shaolin* (2011)[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html).
## Film career and breakthrough
Wu moved behind the camera with *Legendary Assassin* (2008), co-directed with Li Zhongzhi, which he later described as a test of his directing skills[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html) • [7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/). He has explained the move plainly: no directors were giving him roles, and he did not have enough money to hire a director for his own films[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html).
**The military-action pivot.** Wu has said that every time he wanted to make a film he faced the pinnacle represented by [Jackie Chan](https://www.edgepedia.org/jackie-chan), Jet Li, and Donnie Yen, and judged it hard to surpass them, so he chose to chart a new path by making military action films[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html). The result was *[Wolf Warrior](https://www.edgepedia.org/wolf-warrior)* (2015), which he directed and starred in as a Chinese special-ops soldier fighting foreign mercenaries hired by a Chinese drug lord. He initially could not secure a distributor. [The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-hollywood-reporter) put the film's budget at about $12 million, while Wu's published interview put the cost at no more than 30 million yuan including going over budget.[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/) • [3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html) It earned $90 million in China[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/). Chinese-language records give its opening day at nearly 40 million yuan, a first-day record for a domestic military-themed film, with 137 million yuan in the first three days[6](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698).
## Wolf Warrior 2 and the blockbuster era
*Wolf Warrior 2* (2017) grossed RMB 5.68 billion, about $870 million, making it the highest-grossing Chinese film at the time and China's foreign-language Oscar submission that year[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html) • [2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/) • [7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/). The Hollywood Reporter's figure at the time was "more than $850 million"; Variety's later $870 million is the figure used here[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/) • [2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/). It became only the second movie in history to pass $800 million in a single territory, and Wu directed, co-wrote, and produced it while an Executive MBA student at the Cheung Kong Graduate School of Business in Beijing[8](https://english.ckgsb.edu.cn/story/wu-jing/).
The production was large by any standard: 1,700 people on set, nine languages, and 26 countries, with [Frank Grillo](https://www.edgepedia.org/frank-grillo) as the primary antagonist and Sam Hargrave, of *Captain America: Civil War*, as action director and fight coordinator[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/). At the time it was the only non-Hollywood movie among the world's 100 highest-grossing films, at No. 55[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/).
## The Wandering Earth and franchise work
Wu headlined *The Wandering Earth* and *The Wandering Earth II*, the science-fiction films that Variety lists among his leading credits. *The Wandering Earth* grossed $670 million and *The Wandering Earth II* $604 million[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/). Variety also lists the war films *The Battle at Lake Changjin*, its sequel *Water Gate Bridge*, and 2023's *[The Volunteers: To the War](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-volunteers-to-the-war)* among his leading credits[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/).
## By the numbers
Variety's tally of *Wolf Warrior 2* ($870 million), the Changjin war films, *The Wandering Earth* ($670 million), *The Wandering Earth II* ($604 million), and *The Volunteers: To the War* led Variety to rank Wu as the country's all-time top-grossing actor[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/). His first major international co-starring role came opposite [Jason Statham](https://www.edgepedia.org/jason-statham) in *[Meg 2: The Trench](https://www.edgepedia.org/meg-2-the-trench)*, which grossed $350 million[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/).
## How it compares with other Chinese action stars
Wu shares the Beijing Wushu Team lineage with Jet Li and Donnie Yen and studied under the same master as Li[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/) • [5](http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2015-07/21/content_36098375_12.htm). His own account of his career strategy is explicit: rather than compete directly with the established stars of Hong Kong-style action cinema, he moved into military action films, a genre in which he could define the field rather than chase it[3](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html).
## Reception, honors, and public image
Chinese-language biographical records list Wu as a national first-class actor (一级演员), a state-conferred professional title, and vice-chairman of the China Film Association, and note his graduation from Beijing Sport University[6](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698). He was a Variety500 honoree in 2019, 2022, and 2023[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/).
Variety characterizes him as closely allied with the shift in Chinese commercial cinema toward nationalist-themed big-budget movies, and calls the 2015 *Wolf Warrior* a template for a Chinese revision of the "Expendables" genre[2](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/). The Hollywood Reporter notes the film's overt patriotism in positioning a Chinese hero as protector of the world, and quotes Frank Grillo acknowledging that the film is in a sense nationalistic propaganda while adding that the pride in China it expresses is real[7](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/).
## References
1. [Library of Congress Name Authority Record: Wu, Jing, 1974-](https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/no2011093528.html)
2. [Wu Jing – Variety500, Variety](https://variety.com/exec/wu-jing/)
3. [The Chivalry of a Martial Artist – Interview with Wu Jing, Journal of Chinese Film Studies](https://www.degruyterbrill.com/document/doi/10.1515/jcfs-2021-0026/html)
4. [CCTV International – Chinese kung fu feature](https://www.cctv.com/english/special/Chinesekungfu/20090120/109206.shtml)
5. [Top 20 kung fu stars in China – China.org.cn](http://www.china.org.cn/arts/2015-07/21/content_36098375_12.htm)
6. [吴京 – 百度百科](https://baike.baidu.com/item/%E5%90%B4%E4%BA%AC/8698)
7. [Meet the Director Behind China's Highest-Grossing Film of All Time, The Hollywood Reporter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/meet-director-behind-chinas-highest-grossing-film-all-time-1064322/)
8. [Wu Jing: Why this Chinese Martial Arts Icon chose CKGSB EMBA, CKGSB](https://english.ckgsb.edu.cn/story/wu-jing/)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Screen people and creators › Screen actors of East and Southeast Asia › Chinese actors, 2000s onward › Surnames M to Z*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Sep 17, 2026; Sep 18, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Sep 18, 2026; Oct 12, 2026; Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
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