IS Li Bingbing becoming too safe, serious and as a result, too boring for her own good?

Going by the outfit the 33-year-old wore to the opening of fashion label Burberry’s new store at Ion Orchard on Tuesday, it seemed to be the case.

The Chinese actress – best known for her role as the white-haired witch in the movie The Forbidden Kingdom starring Jackie Chan and Jet Li – was in town as a special guest for the invite-only event.

Also adding to the star power of the affair was handsome South Korean actor Won Bin.

Decked out in a delicate and simple white flapper dress, Bingbing looked elegant and sophisticated as she made her entrance.

However, if one had followed her wardrobe choices over the past few years, her dress that evening was definitely tame in comparison.

“When I’m in the public, I don’t like wearing clothes that are too revealing,” she told The New Paper.

You’d probably never catch her in a situation where she accidentally exposes some skin.

“I always take all the necessary precautions to avoid wardrobe malfunctions,” she said. “Just before I came here, I checked every part of my dress, making sure it’s totally secure.”

She revealed she hasn’t selected an outfit to walk down this year’s Golden Horse Awards red carpet, which will be held at the end of the month in Taipei.

She is nominated for a Best Actress award for her lead role in espionage thriller The Message,where she plays an intelligence officer suspected of double-cross.

With her new found conservative attitude, we’re wondering what she will wear.

Past appearances Strangely, sexiness didn’t seem to have bothered her in the past.

In 2007, she made jaws drop when she attended the Golden Horse Awards – she had received a Best Actress nomination for her role in the romantic drama The Knot – in a shimmering, cleavage-baring silver blouse.

Last March, at a Hong Kong press conference to promote The Forbidden Kingdom, she turned up in a low-cut black top, complete with hot pants and a ridiculously long blanket-like cloth dangling from her waist. But her sexiest turn was for a 2005 photoshoot.

Together with fellow actresses Vivian Wu and Christy Chung, she posed nude as part of acampaign for breast cancer awareness.

Her intense, emotional performance in TheMessagehad several mainland China critics raving that she “has finally proven her mettle as a serious actress”.

In an earlier interview with Guangzhou Daily, she admitted that The Message could well be the “turning point” in her career.

But apparently, her new found seriousness meant giving bland, politically correct answers too.

Asked how she would rate her chances at the Golden Horse Awards, Bingbing said: “It’s really up to fate, whether I win or not. Even if I don’t, it’s not a bad thing, as it means there is still much room for improvement.”

When asked how she felt about being named by the mainland Chinese media as one of the country’s “top four actresses”, she smiled and said: “That’s just the media trying to create news, it doesn’t matter who is named.”

The other three actresses are Zhou Xun, Vicki Zhao and Fan Bingbing Li Bingbing also dismissed the rumours of bad blood between her and Zhou Xun, her co-star in The Message.

“When you put two female stars in the same film, the paparazzi will inevitably try to whip up some gossip of feuding between the actresses,” Bingbing said.

This article was first published in The New Paper.