07/02/2011

Bai Ling reveals dark memories of Chinese army

  • FILE - In this file photo taken Nov. 7, 2007, Chinese actress Bai Ling arrives to the premiere of "Southland Tales" in Los Angeles. Bai is part of the fifth season cast of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello, File)

    FILE - In this file photo taken Nov. 7, 2007, Chinese actress Bai Ling arrives to …

  • FILE - In this file photo taken March 12, 2009, Bai Ling arrives at the premiere of "Fast & Furious" in Los Angeles. Bai is part of the fifth season cast of VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew." (AP Photo/Matt Sayles, File)

    FILE - In this file photo taken March 12, 2009, Bai Ling arrives at the premiere …

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Bai Ling said she is confronting a dark chapter from her past: sexual abuse she suffered as a teenager at the hands of Chinese army officers.

Bai, 44, who was a soldier in a People's Liberation Army performance troupe from age 14 to 17, told The Associated Press in a recent interview that she was "opening a wound that was very secret to myself, that even my parents don't know."

Therapy she received during a U.S. reality TV series helped her understand what she endured in the 1980s and the psychological marks it left on her, Bai said.

She was pressed to have sex with her superiors, with one encounter leading to pregnancy and an abortion under an assumed name, Bai said, adding that other women serving with her in Tibet were also forced into sex and regularly plied with alcohol.

Bai stressed that she blames individual officers and not the Chinese government for events that have haunted her life and work.

The actress ("The Crow," ''Red Corner," TV's "Entourage") said she worries about how her revelations on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab With Dr. Drew" will be received. The show, which airs Sunday, is in its fifth season.

"The only comfort is that I'm using this platform to help others. I know that my story is so powerful and honest and so simple," Bai said. "Even if I can help one child and make them feel they haven't been forgotten, that's the only comfort I have."

Bai "did go through something terrible and was able to access it and deal with it," said Dr. John Sharp, part of the "Celebrity Rehab" treatment team this season. He is a faculty member at Harvard Medical School and a practicing psychiatrist.

She had deflected memories of "these men who were sexually abusing her" so she wouldn't fall apart psychologically, Sharp said. "But when she got in to a safe place ... she was able to admit to herself what she'd been dealing with."

Until now, Bai said, she didn't even perceive her treatment by her army superiors as abuse: "Because of the Chinese culture of obedience, you don't ask questions. ... You follow and obey."

               Read more at Yahoo
Jul 2, 2011 12:08:51 PM | Current Affairs, Entertainment, Film

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