Zhang Ziyi - who hates ya, baby?

This is gossip, but what do you think I am, a journalist or something? Anyways, in the Very Strange Things Department, the weird relationship between Chinese actress, Zhang Ziyi, and the company that hosts her official website, Sina, is worth noting. Zhang Ziyi is the best thing in Wong Kar-wai's upcoming 2046, and she's an amazingly good actor who recently appeared on the cover of Vanity Fair's Hollywood issue. But so what? Sina wants to know if she's appeared nekked anywhere.

Sina is China's largest internet portal, and is a gargantuan, Yahoo-like company and they host and design Zhang's official website. Back in November, 2004 a cobbled together fake nude photo of Zhang Ziyi circulated on the internet. Not only did Sina post it on their entertainment page, but they also linked the phony nudie back to Zhang's official website, which they run.

This prompted the following statement from Ling Lucas, Zhang Ziyi's manager that you can read here, just scroll down towards the bottom of the page. The statement seems more confused at Sina's actions than angry.

Now, things get stranger, according to the unofficial Zhang Ziyi fansite, HelloZiyi.US, Sina has posted a loaded poll in their entertainment pages that ostensibly celebrates Time Magazine's selection of her as one of the 100 most influential people in the world. According to HelloZiyi.US the poll is slanted towards Chinese criticisms of the actress, questioning whether she panders to Western critics, can't speak very good English, and is only famous because Westerners don't know any other Chinese actresses.

I don't read Chinese, but you can read a translation (plus commentary) of the poll here about halfway down the page.

This is hardly the kind of thing that determines the fate of nations, but it's still kind of fun.