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BEIJING: Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi has donated 160,000 yuan (S$33,000) to make up the shortfall between the one million yuan (S$208,000) she had pledged to aid victims of the deadly 2008 earthquake in Szechuan, China, and the actual amount she had donated, her manager said in a written apology on Monday.
Zhang's manager Ji Ling Ling had earlier insisted that the "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" star had already contributed the full one million yuan in cash and denied allegations that the actress did not donate as much as she promised.
Ji said that both she and Zhang were unaware only 840,000 yuan (S$174,000) had been donated until the Chinese Red Cross Foundation sent them a receipt for the sum.
Ji assumed full responsibility for the oversight and said Zhang immediately made up the shortfall once she found out.
"It is a serious error on my part as a member of the management," Ji said in her Monday message. "This error exposed Zhang Ziyi to unreasonable speculation and criticism and affected her negatively, I am truly sorry."
The Chinese Red Cross Foundation has confirmed on Monday via its website that it had received the 160,000 yuan from Zhang and said "the donations from Zhang Ziyi to help the earthquake victims now total one million yuan".
Ji also told reporters on Monday that allegations that Zhang had not donated the almost US$2 million (S$2.8 million) from her fundraising activities for Szechuan earthquake victims at the 2008 Cannes film festival, are completely untrue.
Ji explained that they only managed to raise US$500,000 (S$710,000), of which only US$50,000 (S$71,000) was in cash with the rest in verbal pledges.
She said the pledged amounts will only be contributed when detailed plans on how to utilise the money are drawn up. She added that this was a time consuming, multi-step process but promised to release detailed records of the Foundation's activities and expenditure "once everything is complete".
Zhang's donation debacle, dubbed "Fraudulent Donation Gate" by Chinese media, had also affected Chinese actresses Zhou Xun and Vicki Zhao as well as Chinese singer Na Ying. Some have questioned if they donated as much as they claimed to have. However, all three have since stepped forward to disprove these allegations.
- CNA/ha
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