Actress Zhang Ziyi gave a cryptic response to media reports of rumors that she had received upwards of $105 million for sex with various prominent Chinese, including Bo Xilai and his billionaire crony Xu Ming.
In apparent oblique attempt at discrediting the reports of high-level prostitution, Zhang used a metaphor that referred to the fake rain on the set of The Grandmasters, a film in which she is starring. On her microblog Zhang posted a photo of a worker standing on a ladder with a hose spraying “rain” on the scene with the mandarin caption, “It’s a challenge to defraud heaven but it’s nothing to think there is rain after hearing the wind as that only requires a little imagination.”
Zhang, 33, is reportedly under investigation by the Chinese government for her acts of untaxed prostitution and is barred from leaving the country, according to rumors being widely reported across Chinese-language media on both sides of the Pacific.
Zhang was first introduced to Bo Xilai by Xu Ming, founder and chairman of Dalian Shide Group, according to Hong Kong’s Apple Daily. Xu is said to have confessed to paying Zhang 6 million yuan ($950,000) in 2007 to have sex with her for the first time. He is said to have later negotiated sex between Zhang and Bo for 10 million yuan ($1.6 mil.). She is said to have slept with Bo in Beijing at least ten times between 2007 and 2011.
Zhang’s various paid sexual liaisons with rich and powerful figures have netted her 700 million yuan ($105 mil.) over the last 10 years, including 180 million yuan ($28 mil.) in cash from Xu, according to estimates by various Chinese-language media. She is said to have avoided tax on earnings from prostitution due to the intervention of Xu and other government officials. Xu is reported to have pimped Zhang out to two other high-level officials as well.
The government’s probe into these allegations may explain Zhang’s mysterious absence from the Cannes film festival which ended Sunday despite the premiere of her film Dangerous Liaisons in which Zhang co-stars with Cecilia Cheung, media have speculated.
Zhang has explained her absence by saying she was busy shooting The Grandmasters.
This isn’t the first time Zhang has been the subject of high-profile scandals.
In 2010 she was accused of exaggerating amounts raised for the Sichuan earthquake after it came out that she raised$400,000 instead of the $1 million she had announced in 2008.
In 2009 Zhang was accused of cheating a married businessman — with whom she was involved in a sexual relationship while still engaged to Israeli billionaire Vivi Nevo — of about $28 million. Zhang and Nevo reportedly ended their engagement in 2010.
Zhang first attained fame after starring in the Ang Lee kung fu fantasy Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, which won an Oscar in 2000 for Best Foreign Film.
