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Zhang Ziyi's mixed relationship |
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China
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Saturday, 10 March 2007 |
For many Chinese men, it’s an honour to have a blonde girlfriend, but it’s a crime for non-Chinese guys to steal their Chinese girls. Not long ago, it was sometimes considered a disgrace for Chinese girl to date a foreign boyfriend. Maybe it is still taboo for some, but there are certainly more and more free-spirits joining this mixed relationship club, such as Zhang Ziyi.
Those who don’t know anything about mixed relationships are always sceptical about them: they will inevitably result in divorce, as Western men are always unfaithful, or due to the culture clash; or that they are a betrayal of your country’s men...
Therefore, it was a big splash when the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi was spotted watching the NBA intimately with a mysterious Western man! They kissed in front of the cameras, in the front row of the VIP seats. This caused a huge wave of speculation. There were some early speculations of “who is the man?” Some said he is a C-list French actor, some said he is a young entrepreneur and neighbour of US president George Bush… but the latest reports indicate that he is actually the New York investment mogul Aviv Vivi Nevo - an Israeli, aged 41, and one of the richest man in New York.
He is a venture capitalist, one of the largest shareholders of Time Warner; he was reported to have dated Kate Moss openly and rumoured to be seeing Jeisa Chiminazzo (a Brazilian supermodel).
Men in China have started an online campaign about her betrayal of Chinese men. It is such a phenomenon that the whole page of www.sina.com.cn has a special collection of responses from the society, with more than a dozen of articles and debates of whether the relationship is genuine, or what the reason is that she has to throw herself to a foreign rich man – is it just for the fame in Hollywood? See http://ent.sina.com.cn/f/zzyxh/index.shtml.
I would like to send her my best wises, if Zhang is genuinely in love with Nevo. As seen from the pictures, she looks happy, with the least trace of showing off. Aged 28, she is now much calmer than before, and with the sort of implicit confidence within herself and sometimes the typical Chinese modesty in her. She now looks much more natural and blossoms with true beauty.
Forgetting about the complication about the fact that he has money and power, or that he is the driving force behind her next three film contracts, it would seem like a beautiful fairytale – a tale that most of the Chinese contemporary romances paint - just without the inter-racial element, even though there is nothing wrong with that. The conservative Chinese just couldn’t comprehend the concept or the necessity of mixed relationship. For some, this again shows a bad example for young girls in the contemporary China, where the man to woman ratio is 1.17:1.
In recent years, we have seen many famous Chinese celebrities dating western guys, including Maggie Cheung, who appeared in Beijing with her new French boyfriend recently (see http://album.sina.com.cn/pic/47674ab302000i5f), and Gong Li, courageously kissing with her western boyfriend in the centre of Tiananmen Square (see http://album.sina.com.cn/pic/47674ab302000i5g), and the lovely Liu Ye (made famous by the brilliantly moving homosexual film: LanYu see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lan_Yu_%28film%29) has now admitted to be in a serious relationship with his French diplomat girlfriend.
All good news. It simply shows that China is now a more and more open society; people are more brave in choosing who they love.
Welcome to this mixed-relationship club! |