Dilraba Dilmurat: A Chinese Actress Who Doesn't Look Chinese. Find Out Her Uyghur Ethnicity

Reba's foreign-sound name and western looks often get people confused with her nationality. Though she is identified as Chinese, she does not seem to look like someone from the oriental stock.

She is also known with quite a lot of names in the media: Dilraba Dilmurat (Uyghur), Dilireba (Chinese romanized name), Reba, Baba, and so on. 

One of her nicknames, Baba, has a Chinese homophone of 8 (ba), thus, fans often addressed her as 88.

Actually, she is a Chinese national. 

Her real name is Dilraba Dilmurat and went by the name Dilireba Dilmurati in Chinese, Reba or Baba as her nickname. However, her solo fans sometimes called her Xiao Di.

Dilraba or Dilireba means "lovely beauty" or "beauty of my heart" in Uyghur language.

Personal Profile

Dilireba is one of the most popular and prettiest celebrities in Mainland China, owing her stunning looks to her Eurasian ancestry.

She was born on June 3, 1992, in Urumqi (formerly known as Dihua), the capital of Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in the far northwest region of the People's Republic of China.

Her father is an actor/soloist in Xinjiang Song and Dance Troupe, which explains Dilraba's early passion for performing arts. She can also play the piano and guitar.

She wanted to become a dancer so her father enrolled her at Xinjiang Art Institute to study dance and ballet. 

Reba as part of the Xinjiang Dance Troupe

She then joined Xinjiang Dance Troupe and participated in the first Ethnic Minority Contest in Jilian province in 2009. Her group won third prize.

Urumqi City, capital of Xinjiang province

Later she realized she wanted to become an actress, so she was sent by her parents to Shanghai, China's most modern city, to study at the prestigious Shanghai Theatre Academy where she obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree in performing arts.

Her acting debut in television was in 2013"Anarhan" playing the lead role. The following year, she signed with Jaywalk Studio, which is partly owned by actress, Yang Mi.

Dilraba's rise to stardom began in 2014 when she was introduced in the highly popular wuxia drama, Swords of Legends, as Fuqu.

Fun Facts about Reba:

Fandom name: A Li Si or Alice
Fandom color: Red
Favorite snacks: Yoghurt candies, ice cream, potato chips, Strawberry shortcake 
Favorite cartoon character: Chibi Maruko, a character in a Japanese manga
Favorite food: Bread, Dumplings, Lamb concoction - a kind of Uyghur recipe traditionally served during New Year in Xinjiang homes.

Power Star Status

Dilireba debuted in the film via "Fall in Love Like a Star" in 2015, the same year she won her first acting award as Best New Actress at the 7th China TV Drama Awards for her portrayal as Gao Wen in Diamond Lover.

As Gao Wen in Diamond Lover

She is also a singer, performing some of the original soundtrack of the TV series she starred in: Pretty Li Huizhen, Mr. Pride vs Miss Prejudice, The Flame's Daughter and Eternal Love of Dream.

She is considered one of the most-in-demand brand ambassadors in China today due to her numerous endorsement deals ranging from basic commodities to luxury and technology products.

As the mischievous nine-tailed Red fox princess, Feng Jiu, in Eternal Love

Forbes China Celebrity 100 ranked her as the 11th most influential figure in 2020 and 2021. Currently, she is considered a powerhouse name in the Chinese entertainment industry. 

She has more than 70 million followers in Weibo, the most popular social media platform in China, which functioned like Twitter.

Attending Youku Young Choice awards in 2018

She consistently topped the ranking of Powerstar list, and the Powerstar Award Ceremony's Most Popular Actress recipient annually since 2017.

Since 2015, she had reaped numerous acting awards and citations, including the 2018 Golden Eagle Goddess at the 12th China Golden Eagle Award where she also won the Best Actress award for her role in Pretty Li Hui Zhen, a Chinese adaptation of the hit K-Drama, She Was Pretty.

Winning the 2018 Golden Eagle Goddess award

Her most popular drama with the highest rating (8+) in which she played in the main role so far are Pretty Li Huizhen (2017), The King's Woman (2017), Sweet Dreams (2018), Eternal Love of Dream (2020), The Long Ballad (2021), and You Are My Glory (2021).

As Li Changge in the highly popular drama, The Long Ballad

Dilraba is currently doing two costume drama, The Blue Whisper (done filming in June) and Legend of Anle. Both will be streamed in Youku next year, 2022.

Where did she get her Western looks?

Even myself was confused when I first saw her in The Flame's Daughter, I thought she was an Indian because of her name, or Turkish because her facial profile is so Central Asian.

I delved on her profile and found out she is of Uyghur descent, which explains her western looks. 

She has a cute face, a long-pointed nose, big eyes, long-black hair, full lips, and porcelain skin, physical attributes closely associated to people of Eurasian stock.

Uyghur Ethnic Group in China

I prefer to call her Dilireba because it's the easiest and shorter compared to her full name, Dilraba Dilmurat 😃 

The pinyin (official romanization of standard Mandarin Chinese words/names) version of her name is Dilireba Dilimurati, which sounds more complicated to pronounce lol!

Dilireba

Uyghurs are Turkic ethnic group originating from the Central and East Asia, they are considered natives to the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in Northwest China.

Uyghurs are officially recognized as one of China's ethnic minorities and titular people (single dominant ethnic group) of Xinjiang province. 

Young Reba growing up in Urumqi

The religion composition of Uyghurs in Xinjiang is 80% Islam, however, there are Christian Uyghurs living in Xinjiang estimated to be just below 5%, and the rest are Buddhists.

It is not known however, what is the religion affiliation of Dilireba because she does not disclose it. And we need to respect her privacy.

Significant numbers of Uyghurs can be found today in Turkey, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan. 

The Uyghurs in Xinjiang mostly speak in their Uighur tongue, which is in Old Turkic language. They also speak other languages like English and Russians.

Dilireba can speak Chinese, English, Russian and Turkish, and a bit of Thai and Korean. 

At 29, Dilraba is still single, whether she is with someone, nobody knows. She did not disclose any romantic relationships in the media and no public information about her dating status. 

If ever there are videos uploaded in the social media claiming she is dating this or that person, it's purely fans' speculation because she has not confirmed any dating relationship in public.

If there are any dating speculations, all of it are just rumors. In her recent interview, she only commented she is contented with her life, and happy with her personal growth and lessons she got along the way.

Reba's recent nature trip

And if ever she will announce having a relationship someday, and whether that guy is 10 years younger than her, that remains her discretion, a statement that reduced her to fits of laughter (set the flag interview in 2020 during or after the filming of The Long Ballad).

Well, that made her fans continue to speculate 😊 

Her Most Notable TV/Web series:

  • Swords of Legends (2014)
  • V Love (2014)
  • Sound of the Dessert (2015)
  • Diamond Lover (2015)
  • Hot Girl (2016)
  • Eternal Love: Ten Miles of Peach Blossoms (2017)
  • Pretty Li Huizhen (2017)
  • The King's Woman (2017)
  • The Flame's Daughter (2018)
  • Sweet Dreams (2018)
  • Eternal Love of Dream (2020)
  • Love Designer (2020)
  • The Long Ballad (2021)
  • You Are My Glory (2021)
Drama to be aired in 2022
  • The Blue Whisper
  • Legend of Anle
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