As an actress, Tao has received wide acclaim for films like Colors of the Blind (1997) and Forgetting to Know You (2013), though she is better known for hit TV dramas like Sunny Piggy (2000), Nothing in the Mirror (2002), Chuncao (2007) and The Red (2014).

In August 1993, Jiang Wen, who had been preparing for his directorial debut In the Heat of the Sun, went to the Beijing Synchronized Swimming Team looking for a good swimmer for his female lead.

[6] She was the class president and became the first student in school history (along with classmate Duan Yihong) to receive a perfect grade.

They have also collaborated in the 2002 TV series Sky Lovers (Segment 5, "Sun Tanning") and 2 films in which they did not appear in the same scene: No Lonely Angels (2002) and No Man's Land (2013).

First staged in Beijing, the play caused a sensation,[17] and the couple subsequently performed the play over 30 times in 10 major cities like Shanghai, Chengdu, Nanjing, Xi'an, Zhengzhou, Shenzhen, and Chongqing, receiving overwhelming support everywhere that they canceled their holiday travel plans for more performances.