BEIJING • Chinese celebrity couple Fan Bingbing and Li Chen have announced their engagement. Actor Li, 38, proposed to the A-list actress at her 36th birthday party last Saturday and she was moved to tears, NetEase website said.

Later, he posted on Weibo a photo of that moment - when he got down on one knee in front of her - and other pictures of the party with the caption: "Us, forever..." She reposted his post, adding: "Forever and ever."

For the occasion, Li also convinced Canadian artist Marina Bychkova to create a princess bride doll in Fan's likeness, NetEase said. Bychkova does not usually customise her dolls, but Li e-mailed her for nearly four months, sending photos and videos of Fan and sharing the couple's love story, before the artist agreed to take on the project.

The actors made their social media debut as a couple in 2015 after filming 2014 drama The Empress Of China together.

When they appeared on the talk show Day Day Up in July, Fan disclosed that Li had not wooed her. Instead, she had to chase him and ask him out for their first date.