Chinese actress Zhang ziyi (Memoir of a Geisha, Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon) is being questioned by Chinese
public about the whereabouts of a large amount of money that
Zhang claimed had been donated to her charity in 2008 at
the Sichuan China earthquake relief event hosted by her
at the Cannes Movie Festivals in France.
Zhang arrived in Cannes without an invitation from the
festival to host a charity event to raise money to help
victims of the 5.12 earthquake in Sichuan, China. Some
famous names attended the event provided by Zhang's
publicity included: Roberta Armani, Tamara Mellon, Moddona's
manager Guy, Eric Mika, Thierry Fremaux, Christian Jeune, Chopard
CEO Caroline Gruosi-Scheufele and Actor Christian Slater.
(Names provided by Zhang's news release). Apparently several Chinese
media were invited to the event but only one was appointed
as the "official reports" -- sohu.com. It was reported by
this web site that at least 1 million dollars in cash or checks
were raised because "people were moved by Zhang's deep care
and love to her country and her suffering people". All
money was to be put into Zhang's Ziyi Foundation founded in the
USA. But it's not until recently that the Chinese
public found out that not a penny of this money can be
proved to have been used in helping the earthquake area. In
fact, the information about the Ziyi Foundation googled by
the internet users in China shows that this foundation was
founded in November, 2008 and had expired in May, 2009. And
during the 6 months of its existence, no money could been
found transfering in or out of it. Several charity or
earthquake relieve orgnizations that Zhang claimed that had
been working together with her foundation or had recieved
funds from her foundation have stated that no money from the
so called Ziyi Foundation has been received. A friend of
Zhang's then boyfriend, American Vivi Nevo, told
reporters that according to Nevo, this money and some more
later raised by Zhang at a New York event had all been put
in one of her personal bank accounts.
Zhang's team has been promising to provide the public the
financial reports of the Ziyi Foundation. But the promised
date has been pushed back again and again. To this day,
Zhang still hasn't provided any proof of this money ever
being used in charity.
In a statement issued by Zhang about a week ago, Zhang
said "it's a well known fact that at this kind of event,
people only promise to donate a certain amount of money.
The real money has to be collected later. I am still in the
progress of collecting the money promised". This claim
enraged the Chinese online community. The public felt
they'd been made a fool of the first time she said she'd
raised all those money to help the earthquake victims. Now
they are lied to shamelessly again. Zhang's credit is in
serious crisis now.
Chinese public really wants to know what happened at Zhang's
Charity event. Did the people who attended the event, including
those named above, really just "promised to donate a certain
amount of money" but didn't follow through? If they really
donated money and trusted Zhang to deliver their good will, they
have a right to know that they had been lied to and
their money has never reached the people they intended to help.