Zhang Zi Yi is helping raise awareness for the recent China Earthquake at the Carlton Beach during the 2008 Cannes Film Festival on Wednesday. The chinese character she's holding is "zhu" which means "wish." She has personally donated one million yuan ($140,000 USD) for relief efforts.
As you know, the May 12th earthquake in China has left at least 41,353 people dead, destroyed 5.4 million homes and damaged another 21.4 million. I have a lot of friends who have travelled down to Bei Chuan (where the epicenter was) to help with anything they can. One comment a friend made was that the smell of death is prevalent with each passing day. A week after the earthquake, China had a nationwide three minute of silence in memory of the earthquake. I was homeschooling my girls when the siren sounded in my neighborhood and EVERYBODY stopped what they were doing to say a prayer for the victims of the earthquake. My girls and I stood in our balcony overlooking the crowd and prayed along them.
I'm glad to see Chinese celebrities raising awareness for the earthquake as well.
