Zhang Bin Two-Times His Wife

Last week a live ceremony was held to honor the achievements of CCTV 5, China’s central sports broadcasting channel, and to officially change its name to CCTV Olympics. The host of this very special occasion was no other than CCTV 5 director Zhang Bin. Zhang Bin became a celebrity in China during the last decade through his passionate broadcasting of Chinese football (soccer). His marriage to a Beijing Television (BTV) broadcaster also helped him reach notoriety among the Chinese people. However, in the middle of the event, his wife stormed the stage with a microphone to say this:

“Today it is a special day for the Olympic channel, and it is a special day for Zhang Bin, and also it is a special day for me, because two hours ago I found out that, in addition to with me, mister Zhang has been supporting an inappropriate relation with another woman”

If these were US celebrities, this story would be on the cover of every tabloid and talked about on Good Morning America – and then forgotten. Such incidents can actually propel a person into ultra-stardom as they did for Paris Hilton and Monica Lewinsky. But in China, the media is all hush hush, tabloids don’t exist, and the word on the street is that she is already in jail for smearing the name of a respectable CCTV official on live television, and for indecently exposing private matters that could cause to social degradation and more importantly make the Communist Party television station look bad.

In fact, the Wall Street Journal has already written up a story. As I suspected, the cheating and vigilante justice given was not the concern – today’s Americans couldn’t care less. But, the main concern that the Journal addressed was how unprofessional CCTV handled the events and how seemingly lax the security was in diffusing the situation. If the central government can’t host a live ceremony about a TV station effectively, how can they be expected to host the 2008 Summer Olympics? They do not have any experience hosting anything even close to that magnitude and have never had to deal with any significant terrorist threats. With the limelight on China for the whole month of August, it should be interesting (for the better or for the worse).

Here is the Youtube clip of the wife on the stage (but if you don’t know Chinese, you won’t understand a word) : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9LoRTJZw2w