Panda huggers Gou and Zeng find money conquers all

A few weeks ago I was told by a previously reliable source that Honhai merchant Terry Gou didn't stand a chance of making out with fragrant Delia Zeng, 34. The dance instructor wasn't interested in the 57-year-old's riches, the source opined. Well, it appears money conquers all. On Sunday, Gou was photographed with his paramour at the Chengdu Panda Breeding and Research Center, where he donated 6 million yuan ($860,000) to adopt three young "bear-cats". Like a panda, Gou has had problems tracking down a mate but pictures show the couple looking contented, even if they do look more like father and daughter.

She claims to be an ordinary "Beijing-born girl" but not everyone has millions of readers anxious to hear the minutiae of their mundane existence. For those of you who have not had a peek at movie star and director Xu Jinglei's daily musings on cats, shopping expeditions and the peculiarities of air conditioners, let me spare you the trouble. This is the blow-by-blow report of her feline's labors: "Finally the first kitten's been born!!! Just waiting for the second, in the middle of the third one now!!!!!!!! It's midnight, she gave birth to another one!!!!!! 12:40, the third one was born smoothly. Her owner's very happy!!!!!!!!!!!"

This kind of exclamatory stuff is so popular that Technorati once judged it to be the world's most widely read blog. Not surprisingly, therefore, Xu decided to publish an e-magazine, "Kai La", promising the same sort of breathless content. Models and actors recently celebrated its one-year anniversary, including supermodel Chun Xiao and director Gu Changwei. Xu was "very happy!!" to report 200 million downloads of the bimonthly e-magazine since launch.

Punctuation (I have decided) is the new literature!!

I baldly go where no hairless man dares to go and during the May break went to a hairdresser, for research purposes, to check whether the bob really is back in vogue again. Hong Kong crooner Daniel Chan had some hair extensions before a bowl was placed over his mop for a bob cut on the cover of his soon-to-be-released album, while singer Sun Li also sports a bob in her new photo book!!

To cut a long story short I ventured out and popped into the first establishment I could find sporting a traditional barber's pole. The young assistant was very helpful, took off my coat and asked me to lie down before asking me what kind of service I required. The capital city's barbers have changed since I lost all my locks. Oh dear!!!!

I previously mentioned that friends of the recently departed HK actress "Fat Sister" Lydia Shum were worried about her daughter Joyce Cheng's relationship with a xiao bai lian or "white faced" foreigner. She turns 21 in a month and is set to inherit 30 million yuan ($4.3 million). She got rid of the boyfriend as her record company thought the relationship would affect sales of her upcoming album. Over the weekend she dumped her agent too, claiming she was holding up the release of her record!

Hu Deman, legendary Beijing crosstalker and confidante to China's biggest celebrities, talks to Jules Quartly

                                                                           (China Daily 05/07/2008 page18)