CHINA: Film Star Responds to Accusations on Quake Charity

Published: March 16, 2010

By EDWARD WONG

Zhang Ziyi, a star of “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” and the best-known Chinese actress internationally, has denied accusations that she committed fraud while trying to raise money for victims of the devastating earthquake that hit Sichuan Province and surrounding areas in 2008. Ms. Zhang’s statements, published Tuesday in The China Daily, were the first by her on a scandal that has riveted many Chinese in the last few months. Chinese Internet users, after scouring public records, have accused Ms. Zhang, who also starred in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” of failing to fully donate $146,000 of her own money that she had pledged to the Chinese Red Cross. They also say she has never handed over $1 million that she said she hoped to raise from foreign donors. Ms. Zhang, above, said in the interview that a “communication glitch” led to her donating only $123,000 of her own money, and she asserted that she had donated the rest since the shortfall came to light.

A version of this brief appeared in print on March 17, 2010, on page A5 of the New York edition.

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CHINA: US charity aims to end cleft palates by 2014

Created: 2010-1-23 2:12:35, Updated: 2010-1-23 2:13:34

The Smile Train, a United States-based charity, said yesterday that it would repair all cleft lips and palates in China by 2014.

"We'll continue to finance free surgery for children from low-income Chinese families, and hope China will become the first developing country with no cleft lip and palate disease within five years," said Charles Wang, co-founder of The Smile Train, in Lanzhou, capital of northwest China's Gansu Province.

The Smile Train has offered free surgery to 3,745 children in Gansu since its program was launched in the province in April 2008.
At least 10,000 children in Gansu are still waiting for surgery.

China has 2.4 million children with cleft palates and about 25,000 babies are born with the ailment each year, according to the Ministry of Health.

The surgery costs several thousand yuan, hardly affordable for rural families struggling on a meager annual income of 3,000 yuan (US$441).

By the end of last year, The Smile Train had worked with 397 Chinese hospitals and offered free surgery to almost 190,000 patients in China.

Initiated in 1997, The Smile Train aims to fund surgery for people aged up to 40 who are from poor families and suffer from cleft lips and palates in developing countries.

View Article in the Shanghai Daily