The story appears on

Page A6

March 27, 2012

GET this page in PDF

Free for subscribers

View shopping cart

Related News

Home » Opinion » Press Notes

Coal miner's daughter gets lavish nuptials

XING Libin, one of the new rich in Shanxi Province, spent 70 million yuan (US$11.1 million) on March 18 to celebrate his daughter's nuptials at a luxury hotel in Sanya, Hainan Province.

Yes, the man is a coal mine owner in that coal-rich province.

The star-studded list of entertainers at the wedding all enjoy international, national, or local repute.

They include Zhu Jun and Zhou Tao, who also hosted the CCTV Spring Festival gala.

There have been accusations that the Spring Festival gala has wasted too much money. Seventy million was also quite a fortune, but that is Xing's own money -that is, if he can call his the "black gold" that lay buried underground for millions of years.

Still, the news was a jolt to our sense of propriety and decency.

On March 23, when another star, Tang Wei, was attending a charity program aimed at supplying children with drinking water, she suddenly lost her composure and broke into sobs upon seeing pictures depicting the dire poverty of children in Luliang, in that same coal-rich Shanxi Province.

So while children in parts of Shanxi are parched for drinking water, the coal boss and his guests are spending money like water on that far-off seaside.

What is particularly jarring is that some of these entertainers, Song Zuying and Han Hong, are still active in military service, both holding rank of senior colonel as chiefs of military song and dance troupes, Song with the Navy and Han with the Air Force.

To see so many well-known entertainers prostitute their art in the service of a coal boss is unsettling.



 

Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.

沪公网安备 31010602000204号

Email this to your friend