Harper’s Bazaar magazine (Chinese edition) held their sixth annual charity gala in Beijing last Friday (Aug 22) with the attendance of some 300 celebrities, including A-list stars like Michelle Yeoh, Zhang Ziyi and former UK’s Prime Minister Tony Blair etc.
The 2008 gala managed to raise 10.35 million Yuan (~USD1.5 million) which will be channelled to the relief work in quake-hit areas in Sichuan province.
Music video of “Smile Again”, a song from I L♥ve Asia project by Korean celebrities to raise funds for Sichuan earthquake victims in China.
The song is produced by Korean singer-producer JYP in collaboration with Chinese superstar Jackie Chan; participating celebs include Jo Sung-mo, Park Yong-ha, Gan Mi-yeon, Chae Yeon, Kim Yuna, Han Ji-hye, Wonder Girls, Lee Jung-hyun, Kim Dong-wan, Kim Ah-joong, Shin Hye-sung, Kim Tae-hee, Han Hye-jin, Jeon Hye-bin, Jang Nara, Battle, Brown Eyed Girls and J-Lim etc.
It has been more than three weeks since the Chinese earthquake. The Chinese government has been doing well with the rescue and relief effort, and the international community (including some of the readers here) have shown their love and support for the victims.
Sharing here a few pictures of the victims catching back to their normal life…
Over 500 Chinese artists joined hands in a fundraising concert on June 1 in Hong Kong and managed to collect close to HK$35 millions (~ USD4.5mil) for the Chinese quake victims.
The 8-hour-marathon-concert was initiated by Hong Kong pop star Andy Lau as part of the “Artistes 512″ fund raising campaign, and was participated by artists from China, Hong Kong and Taiwan, including big names like Jackie Chan, Stephen Chow, Leon Lai, Jacky Cheung, Tony Leung, Jay Chou, A-mei, Kelly Chen, Sammi Cheng, Lin Chi Ling, Sun Nan and Ritchie Ren etc.
Hundreds of artists took part in the concert (Image from Xinhuanet)
Chinese bloggers are fuming with debates on whether some natural phenomenons were showing signs that an earthquake was going to strike China on May 12.
One of the most talk-about phenomenons is the toad migrations which were spotted at a few places across China… I have shared one of the toad migration stories earlier before I knew about the quake.
While the story I shared happened in Jiangsu, a few thousand kilometres away from the quake zone… a similar mass migration also happened at a village in Mianzhu on May 10, one of the places that are affected by the earthquake.
Chinese video – thousands of toads were spotted at a village in Mianzhu
Did the toads sense something coming, or was it merely coincidence and common natural behaviour like some scientists claimed? I am not sure… there are plenty of rooms for speculations obviously.
The freaky thing is that some of the villagers actually expressed their concerns that the toad migration might be an omen that something disastrous might be coming… unfortunately their concerns came true.
The death toll of the quake has risen to 34,000 at the moment. Again, do help in whatever way you can… every bit counts.
An earthquake measuring 7.8 on Richter scale struck China’s Sichuan province on Monday (May 12) at 2.28pm Beijing time.
Chinese premier Wen Jiabao (with the megaphone) is at the disaster zone to coordinate the rescue and relief effort (Image by Xinhuanet)
The death toll is 11921 at the time of writing, and the number is expected to rise as rescue missions are being carried on. The worst hit area is the Beichuan county, about 160 kilometres northeast of the quake epicentre in Wenchuan.
This is the worst earthquake to hit China since the 1976 Tangshan earthquake which claimed around 250,000 lives.