Bai had previously appeared in several Chinese movies when she was in China. In 1984, Bai appeared as a fishing village girl in the movie On the Beach (海滩). Later she filmed several other movies, including Suspended Sentence (缓期执行), Yueyue (月月), Tears in Suzhou (泪洒姑苏) without much attention. Her role as a girl with psychological disorder who had an affair with her doctor gained her fame, in the movie Arc Light (弧光) directed by director Zhang Junzhao (张军钊). She attended Moscow Movie Festival in 1989 due to this role. When she was in China, her photographs had been used in magazines and calendars frequently, mostly with her whole shoulder and upper breasts exposed, which was not common in China at that time. Since coming to the United States in 1991, she has appeared in a number of American movies.

She began in the cult movie The Crow (1994), playing the half-sister/lover of the main villain, Top Dollar. Hu guang was her most celebrated role in