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Super Girl holds up half the sky, has feet on ground

By Hu Deman (China Daily)
Updated: 2009-06-25 09:33

Super Girl Li Yuchun has become an unwitting spokesperson for family planning in Chongqing. The boyish winner of the 2005 popularity contest is shown on super-sized billboards smiling beatifically under the slogan: "Boys and girls are equally good. Girls can pass down the family line too."

According to a daqi.com report, government officers in Longsha town, Shizhu county, commissioned an advertising agency to produce the ads and convince locals who prefer giving birth to boys that "women hold up half the sky".

No one asked Li about the campaign and the photograph used was downloaded from the Internet in the belief that because this was a non-profit promotion she wouldn't mind. Not surprisingly, it turned out that Li's company representatives did mind and are promising retribution for blatant infringement of image rights.

Cash is king but the moneyed have their problems too. For example, 43-year-old Richard Li is finding it difficult to reconcile his family to girlfriend Isabella Leung, 21, who gave birth to a son in late April.

Li's father, Li Ka-shing, is the 16th richest man in the world and worth an estimated $16.2 billion. He's reportedly against the union of his son and Leung because she's an actress and this led to such a wide rift that, reportedly, he didn't even know he was a granddad until two weeks after the birth.

According to a recent Yahoo article, Leung has dropped her acting career in a bid to gain acceptance from her father-in-law and has been busy knitting him a sweater so that he won't get cold playing golf in the winter.

Zhou Jie came out of hiding earlier this week when he attended a promotional event in Shanghai, but wore shades and refused press interviews. The actor has been keeping a low profile after his Mercedes Benz hit a taxi earlier this month and injured three people. He then fled the scene. Witnesses claim he was drunk and police investigations are ongoing.

He has been dubbed "Runaway Zhou" ("Zhou Taotao") by netizens, but has been fighting back in the public relations battle by posting a defense of his actions on his blog. He claimed that he was also a victim and added he waited 10 minutes before leaving the accident scene. "I felt pain all over my body. Don't I have the right to go to the hospital or home?" he asked, rhetorically. The answer is a court date with destiny.

Also in Shanghai, the website ifeng.com has posted photos of Vicky Zhao enjoying dinner and an "intimate" conversation with Jaycee Chan, son of Jackie. One of the "Four Young Dan Actresses", who at 33 is tiptoeing into middle age, Zhao is famed for her flirtations but claims to be concentrating on her career at the moment.