MUMBAI: China has selected Forever Enthralled, a Peking opera biopic, to represent it in the annual run for the best foreign language Academy Award.

Director Chen Kaige‘s ‘s biopic of China‘s most famous Peking opera performer stars Beijing-born pop star Leon Lai in the title role as Mei Lanfang and also Zhang Ziyi.

This will be Chen‘s third-time representing China at the Oscars, having previously been nominated for Farewell My Concubine and The Promise.

In 2001, Ang Lee‘s Mandarin-language film Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon entered the Oscars on behalf of Taiwan.

Forever faces two other Mandarin-language competing entries this year, the first being Hong Kong‘s film Prince of Tears and the second the Taiwanese official selection No puedo vivir sin ti.