Yao Ming, the former basketball superstar (right) who, at seven feet, six inches, was the tallest active player in the NBA when he played with the Houston Rockets, between 2002 and 2011, has for years spoken out on environmental issues. With the message “When the buying stops, the killing can too” Yao’s most recent cause is the fight against the trade in illegal ivory, for which there are huge markets in China and Vietnam, where a single horn can sell for US$200,000. Poaching for ivory kills more than 25,000 elephants annually and Shanghai-born Yao witnessed first hand the horrors of the trade on a visit to Kenya and South Africa last year. Another Chinese celebrity lending their support to the world’s largest wildlife awareness campaign is mainland actress Li Bingbing …
Born in AD664 into a prominent family, Shangguan was the granddaughter of executed courtier and poet Shangguan Yi. She went on to become one of the most powerful female figures in Chinese history, filling the roles of poet and politician (she was made private secretary to China’s first and only empress, Wu Zetian, after impressing the latter with her poetry). She was also a concubine of Emperor Zhongzong. In the 2011 television series Wu Zetian Mishi, the role of Shangguan was played by Hong Kong’s Gillian Chung Yan-tung …
