The Most Famous People from China
Top 100 of 247 ranked · August 2026 · See today's live standing →
First issue under methodology v5.62. Movement begins with the next issue frozen under the same version.
Jackie Chan edges Bruce Lee as China's list splits between film and the Party
iFAMOUS Editorial Desk · 1 min read
The China origin table for August 2026 alternates action stars and paramount leaders, with Sun Tzu and a Japanese actor born in Qingdao among the dead names near the top.
Jackie Chan is the most famous person from China in the world for August 2026, with a fame score of 24.8, and the man a point behind him has been dead since 1973. Bruce Lee, at 23.7, is second. Xi Jinping, born in Beijing in 1953 and the country's paramount leader, is third at 20.3, and Mao Zedong, founder of the People's Republic, fourth at 19.6. Two martial artists, two general secretaries, alternating, which is a fair summary of how the world's attention to China is divided.
The pattern continues down the table. Jet Li is fifth at 18.1, Jack Ma sixth, Deng Xiaoping seventh at 13.5, and Sun Tzu, whose Art of War is still read as a manual of strategy, eighth at 13.4. Jiang Zemin, who died in 2022, is fourteenth. Politics supplies four of the top fifteen and cinema seven, once Wong Kar-wai at ninth, Donnie Yen at eleventh, Zhang Ziyi at twelfth and Faye Wong at fifteenth are counted.
An origin list gathers people by where they came from, which explains the one name that looks out of place: Toshirō Mifune, the Japanese actor of Kurosawa's films, was born in Qingdao and sits thirteenth at 11.
The scope measured 247 names, and 74 of the 100 published are living, so a quarter of the world's attention to Chinese people goes to the dead, several of them very long dead. Notably, Hong Kong supplies much of the living cinema: Chan, Wong Kar-wai and Yen are all Hong Kong figures, and Lee's career ran through Hong Kong and the United States. Lang Lang, the pianist, at tenth, is the only classical musician in a top fifteen that otherwise belongs to fists, film and the Party.
| Rank | Name | Score | Live |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Jackie Chan celebrityAlive | 24.8 | iFANN → |
| 2 |  Bruce Lee celebrity | 23.7 | iFANN → |
| 3 |  Xi Jinping politicianAlive | 20.3 | iFANN → |
| 4 |  Mao Zedong politician | 19.6 | iFANN → |
| 5 |  Jet Li celebrityAlive | 18.1 | iFANN → |
| 6 |  Jack Ma celebrityAlive | 13.9 | iFANN → |
| 7 |  Deng Xiaoping politician | 13.5 | iFANN → |
| 8 |  Sun Tzu celebrity | 13.4 | iFANN → |
| 9 |  Wong Kar-wai celebrityAlive | 12.4 | iFANN → |
| 10 |  Lang Lang celebrityAlive | 11.8 | iFANN → |
| 11 |  Donnie Yen celebrityAlive | 11.6 | iFANN → |
| 12 |  Zhang Ziyi celebrityAlive | 11.4 | iFANN → |
| 13 |  Toshirō Mifune celebrity | 11.0 | iFANN → |
| 14 |  Jiang Zemin politician | 11.0 | iFANN → |
| 15 |  Faye Wong celebrityAlive | 10.9 | iFANN → |
| 16 |  Wu Zetian celebrity | 10.7 | iFANN → |
| 17 |  Zhou Enlai politician | 10.5 | iFANN → |
| 18 |  Puyi celebrity | 10.3 | iFANN → |
| 19 |  Mo Yan celebrityAlive | 10.3 | iFANN → |
| 20 |  Simu Liu celebrityAlive | 10.0 | iFANN → |
| 21 |  Zhang Yimou celebrityAlive | 9.9 | iFANN → |
| 22 |  John Woo celebrityAlive | 9.8 | iFANN → |
| 23 |  Li Qiang politicianAlive | 9.8 | iFANN → |
| 24 |  Liu Yifei celebrityAlive | 9.7 | iFANN → |
| 25 |  Hu Jintao politicianAlive | 9.7 | iFANN → |
| 26 |  Liu Cixin celebrityAlive | 9.6 | iFANN → |
| 27 |  Dilraba Dilmurat celebrityAlive | 9.6 | iFANN → |
| 28 |  Chow Yun-fat celebrityAlive | 9.5 | iFANN → |
| 29 |  Andy Lau public figureAlive | 9.4 | iFANN → |
| 30 |  Fan Bingbing celebrityAlive | 9.3 | iFANN → |
| 31 |  Xiao Zhan celebrityAlive | 9.0 | iFANN → |
| 32 |  Liu Shaoqi politician | 8.8 | iFANN → |
| 33 |  Emperor Taizong of Tang celebrity | 8.8 | iFANN → |
| 34 |  Gemma Chan celebrityAlive | 8.7 | iFANN → |
| 35 |  Zhao Lusi celebrityAlive | 8.6 | iFANN → |
| 36 |  Chloé Zhao celebrityAlive | 8.4 | iFANN → |
| 37 |  Peng Liyuan politicianAlive | 8.4 | iFANN → |
| 38 |  Zhao Wei celebrityAlive | 8.4 | iFANN → |
| 39 |  Ding Liren celebrityAlive | 8.3 | iFANN → |
| 40 |  Tu Youyou celebrityAlive | 8.3 | iFANN → |
| 41 |  Eileen Gu celebrityAlive | 8.2 | iFANN → |
| 42 |  Ai Weiwei public figureAlive | 8.1 | iFANN → |
| 43 |  Bolo Yeung celebrityAlive | 8.1 | iFANN → |
| 44 |  Gong Li celebrityAlive | 8.1 | iFANN → |
| 45 |  Tank Man public figureAlive | 8.0 | iFANN → |
| 46 |  Changpeng Zhao celebrityAlive | 7.9 | iFANN → |
| 47 |  Joan Chen celebrityAlive | 7.8 | iFANN → |
| 48 |  Zhao Ziyang politician | 7.8 | iFANN → |
| 49 |  Aaron Kwok celebrityAlive | 7.7 | iFANN → |
| 50 |  Wang Yi politicianAlive | 7.6 | iFANN → |
| 51 |  Sammo Hung celebrityAlive | 7.6 | iFANN → |
| 52 |  Ningning celebrityAlive | 7.6 | iFANN → |
| 53 |  Jiang Qing politician | 7.5 | iFANN → |
| 54 |  Kris Wu celebrityAlive | 7.5 | iFANN → |
| 55 |  Leslie Cheung celebrity | 7.4 | iFANN → |
| 56 |  Liu Xiaobo celebrity | 7.4 | iFANN → |
| 57 |  Dylan Wang celebrityAlive | 7.4 | iFANN → |
| 58 |  Ma Long celebrityAlive | 7.4 | iFANN → |
| 59 |  Lei Jun politicianAlive | 7.4 | iFANN → |
| 60 |  Hua Guofeng politician | 7.3 | iFANN → |
| 61 |  Tang Wei celebrityAlive | 7.3 | iFANN → |
| 62 |  Zhu Rongji politicianAlive | 7.3 | iFANN → |
| 63 |  Zhang Shuai celebrityAlive | 7.2 | iFANN → |
| 64 |  Bai Lu celebrityAlive | 7.1 | iFANN → |
| 65 |  Li Keqiang politician | 7.1 | iFANN → |
| 66 |  Hu Yaobang politician | 7.0 | iFANN → |
| 67 |  Victoria Song celebrityAlive | 6.9 | iFANN → |
| 68 |  Yuqi celebrityAlive | 6.9 | iFANN → |
| 69 |  Jacky Cheung celebrityAlive | 6.9 | iFANN → |
| 70 |  Coco Lee celebrity | 6.9 | iFANN → |
| 71 |  Nicholas Tse celebrityAlive | 6.8 | iFANN → |
| 72 |  Soong Ching-ling politician | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 73 |  Zhao Leji politicianAlive | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 74 |  Zhou Guanyu celebrityAlive | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 75 |  Wang Huning politicianAlive | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 76 |  Lin Biao politician | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 77 |  G.E.M. celebrityAlive | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 78 |  Li Bingbing celebrityAlive | 6.7 | iFANN → |
| 79 |  Han Zheng politicianAlive | 6.6 | iFANN → |
| 80 |  Liang Wenfeng celebrityAlive | 6.6 | iFANN → |
| 81 |  Lin Dan celebrityAlive | 6.5 | iFANN → |
| 82 |  Cai Lun public figure | 6.5 | iFANN → |
| 83 |  Cecilia Cheung celebrityAlive | 6.5 | iFANN → |
| 84 |  Lu Han celebrityAlive | 6.4 | iFANN → |
| 85 |  Li Na celebrityAlive | 6.4 | iFANN → |
| 86 |  Bai Ling celebrityAlive | 6.4 | iFANN → |
| 87 |  Jin Yong public figure | 6.4 | iFANN → |
| 88 |  Chen Kaige celebrityAlive | 6.4 | iFANN → |
| 89 |  Jimmy Lai celebrityAlive | 6.3 | iFANN → |
| 90 |  Jiang Xueqin celebrityAlive | 6.3 | iFANN → |
| 91 |  Israel Epstein politician | 6.3 | iFANN → |
| 92 |  Zhang Zhilei celebrityAlive | 6.2 | iFANN → |
| 93 |  Hong Xiuquan politician | 6.1 | iFANN → |
| 94 |  Wen Jiabao politicianAlive | 6.1 | iFANN → |
| 95 |  Carina Lau celebrityAlive | 6.1 | iFANN → |
| 96 |  Zhang Weili celebrityAlive | 6.1 | iFANN → |
| 97 |  Lao She celebrity | 6.0 | iFANN → |
| 98 |  Zhao Xintong celebrityAlive | 5.9 | iFANN → |
| 99 |  Sun Yang celebrityAlive | 5.9 | iFANN → |
| 100 |  Leon Lai celebrityAlive | 5.9 | iFANN → |
About this list
This list ranks people from China by their overall worldwide fame rather than local attention, as assessed for August 2026: the top 100 of 247 names, frozen as the permanent record of that edition. This is the standard reading: everyone, living or dead, on one scale. 74 of the 100 listed are living; the Alive reading restricts the same ranking to living people.
Jackie Chan is No. 1 on this list for August 2026. Behind Jackie Chan come Bruce Lee and Xi Jinping.
What famous means here
Fame, in iFAMOUS, is how widely the world knows a name: how recognisable a person's name, face or work is, and how well people know who they are. It is assessed from extensive historical and current public data, some of it reaching back more than twenty years, and it is not merit, talent, importance or popularity on iFANN. The rankings model real-world global fame, not internet fame; the data is the instrument, not the subject. Activity on iFANN itself is excluded.
The month in the title is the date of this edition, not the period measured. The list is a snapshot of overall fame as it stood when the issue was frozen: a name does not lose its place because one month was quiet, and a trending moment alone does not put a name here. Trending attention is published separately on ifann.net.
How the list was ranked
The iFANN Global Fame Rankings combine worldwide Wikipedia readership across languages, worldwide news coverage and search interest anchored against stable reference names, with search history reaching back to 2004. A twelve-month baseline sits behind the current reading and short-lived surges are capped, so the list reflects durable recognition rather than one week of headlines. Rankings are computed daily on ifann.net and frozen on the second day of the following month as that month's issue; a published issue never changes.
About China
China is one of the countries and regions the journal ranks every month. Country lists use the same rankings and the same scale as The 100, so a name can be compared with its neighbours and against the world.
Powered by iFANN
iFAMOUS is published by iFANN and powered by the iFANN Global Fame Rankings v5.62. Today's live standing for this list is on ifann.net; the journal freezes it once a month so it can be cited permanently.
Related searches: most famous people in China 2026, top celebrities in China August 2026, China fame ranking, most famous person in China.
"Jackie Chan, No. 1 on The Most Famous People from China", iFAMOUS No. 1 (August 2026), ifamous.org