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Forbes announces Chinese star rating by China Daily Updated: 2006-03-13 09:10 Basketball giant Yao Ming of the Houston Rockets
tops Forbes Chinese Celebrity List for the third time, according to the Chinese
Forbes Magazine.
The US-based magazine held "The Stars' Commercial Value
and Brand Communication" forum on Thursday in Beijing.
Income in 2005 was
the biggest single factor in compiling the list of 100 personalities. In
addition, the list attempts to track the transfer of fame into fortune, while
media coverage was also counted.
The 2.16 metre-tall super centre has an
all-round lead in both annual income and media coverage. A pre-tax income of 170
million yuan (US$20 million) has put him in the leading place. The money
combines his salary with the US NBA team Houston Rockets and endorsements with
world renowned brands such as Nike and Visa. He also had the most press coverage
and the second highest number of Web hits, according to the Chinese edition of
Forbes.
The poll is almost occupied exclusively at the top by actors,
actresses and athletes. The hot actress Zhou Xun, starring in Hong Kong
veteran director Peter Chan Ho-Sun's musical movie "Perhaps Love," ranked
second. The internationally-famous Zhang Ziyi and the television nymphet Vicki
Zhao Wei were the third and fourth. China's Olympic high hurdles champion Liu
Xiang ranked the fifth.
Last year's "Super Girls" are big winners in the
list with the champion Li Yuchun ranking sixth, the runner-up Zhou Bichang at 45
and the second runner-up Zhang Liangying at 55. Li also won the title "New Star
of the Year' while Zhang was chosen as the cover of the March issue of Chinese
Forbes magazine.
"The immaturity of China's entertainment and sports
industries has not prevented the country of 1.3 billion from having its own
celebrity stars," Zhou Peng, editor-in-chief of Chinese Forbes magazine, told
China Daily. "The stars are products of the entertainment industry and their
income and commercial value are directly influenced by the progress of the
industry."
Forbes, which began to publish in China last year, confined
its list to stars born in the Chinese mainland "in view of the fact that the
mainland's show business still lags behind Taiwan and Hong Kong. But Chinese
stars are doing better than before on the home front."
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