Zhang Ziyi crying over award dropout or Sophie's Revenge?

Oriental Morning Post, March 18, 2010

Zhang Ziyi is on the front page of today's Oriental Morning Post, crying and holding a tissue up to her face; the earthquake donation gate and fraud charges against Zhang are obviously still being spotlighted. The caption of the photo reads:

Yesterday, the Top China Awards (华鼎奖), which are often referred to as the "People's Choice Awards" (老百姓口碑奖) announced the nomination list for their 20 awards. Zhang Ziyi was missing from the list, despite early rumors that she was nominated. It was also revealed that the judging panel are in the process of canceling her qualifications for "The Public's Favorite Performing Artist" and "China's Highest Achiever's Award," and they are at the final stages of their debate.

What's striking about this report, however, is that the image used is credited to "CFP, file photo" (CFP 资料) with no other details. It turns out that the image of Zhang crying comes from a promotional press conference for the film Sophie's Revenge (非常完美), and not as a reaction to yesterday's announcements. The film was produced and co-financed by Zhang, and released in August, 2009. It seems that Oriental Morning Post had simply lifted the photo and placed it on their front page.

According to many reports from the time of the photo, Zhang Ziyi arrived 15 minutes late to a press conference in Nanjing. The presenter stated that she had also been late at the Hangzhou press conference, and that she had lied about the reason for her late arrival. Upon hearing this, she suddenly burst into tears.

There was speculation about why she was crying, including work pressure and media stories, she is reputed to have said:

It's not once or twice that I've been treated this way. Many people do things with an attitude of wanting to attack me. Bad journalists make things up, if it's about just me, then I normally just take it and wait for it to pass. I think that people should treat others kindly. It's in the past, so I don't want to say too much. This film's intention is to make others happy. I really love Sophie as a character, and I have tried hard to play the character well.

The media has been covering Zhang Ziyi's fraud charges, culminating in a personal interview by China Daily's Raymond Zhou. ESWN also has a translation of an insightful Southern Metropolis Daily article, which interviewed Zhou about his interview with the international star.

In other news, actress Li Bingbing (李冰冰) has just been voted the most popular actress of Asia 2009 in a poll by the 4th Asian Film Awards. One of the stars of The Message (风声), will she take over the helm of China's favorite actress?