Tong Yao

Tong Yao (; born 11 August 1985), also known as Tanya Tong, is a Chinese actress, best known in film for portraying Chen Shu in A Big Deal (2011), May in Snowfall in Taipei (2012) and Annie Yang in To Love Somebody (2014), and has received critical acclaim for her television work, particularly as Meng Xizi in Militia Ge Erdan (2012), Zhou Xiaobei in Three Bosom Girls (2014), Song Renping in Like a Flowing River (2018) and Gu Jia in Nothing But Thirty (2020). Early life On August 11, 1985, Tong was born in Kunming, Yunnan. Education In 1996, she attended the Chinese Song and Dance Art School in Beijing. She returned to Kunming in the following year, when she was accepted to Kunming Art School. She spent a year studying Hulusi, which is a free reed wind instrument from China and the Shan State. She entered the Central Academy of Drama in 2002, majoring in acting. Career In 2002, Tong made her television debut in Tracks In The Snowy Forest, playing a health worker in the Northeast Democratic United Army named Bai Ru.