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    Trending in China: Actress Sun Li Reveals Online Friendship with Jack Ma

    From Jack Ma's friendship with actress Sun Li to Shanghai Disney's success, here are the topics Chinese consumers are buzzing about on social media today.
    Actress Sun Li. Photo: VCG.
    Angelina XuAuthor
      Published   in Finance

    Chinese actress Sun Li said she has been online friends with Jack Ma for four years#

    Movado brand ambassador and International Emmy nominee Sun Li revealed on Monday during a women and entrepreneurship conference that she and Jack Ma have been “online friends” for more than 4 years. The two met in person for the first time on the conference hosted by Alibaba Group.

    Sun Li.
    Sun Li.

    The actress told the public that their first online interaction started when she wanted to audit classes at Hupan College, the school for entrepreneurship established by Ma and other heavy-weights. “I left him a message on social media and he replied, 'Are you serious?’” she said. The Chinese business tycoon made her go through formal interviews and she eventually received the permission to audit.

    Wanda park in Nanchang, Jiang Xi. Photo: Humphery/Shutterstock.com
    Wanda park in Nanchang, Jiang Xi. Photo: Humphery/Shutterstock.com

    Shanghai Disney is a success in its first year despite China’s restricted film market#

    Wang Jianlin’s prediction about Shanghai Disneyland seems a far cry from how things actually turned out. Wang had announced last year that Disney won’t profit in the next 20 years with Wanda Group as its competitor. However, Shanghai Disneyland celebrates its one-year anniversary benchmarking 11 million park visitors. According to China Economic Net, it is the first theme park of similar size to break even within one year of operation. The success, according to Bloomberg, shows other U.S. entertainment companies that even with an upper limit of 34 Hollywood films per year, the Chinese market still has profit potential.

    photo: alleged leaked design renderings/macrumor
    photo: alleged leaked design renderings/macrumor

    Details about the new iPhone 8 spawn more kidney jokes#

    Rumors about the design and retail price of the new iPhone 8 broke out on Weibo today and netizens chimed in with another wave of kidney jokes harking back to a shocking past event when a Chinese high schooler sold his kidney to buy an iPhone. The iPhone 8 is said to be retailing at 1200, making headlines on Sina news like, “Is your kidney ready for the iPhone 8?” Other Weibo users criticized the rumored full-size screen as unnecessary and declared their allegiance to the domestic brand Xiaomi.

    Happy Camp Anniversary. Photo: Weibo
    Happy Camp Anniversary. Photo: Weibo

    Celebrities posted on Weibo for Hunan TV’s Happy Camp anniversary#

    More than a dozen A-list celebrities including Yang Mi, Fan Bingbing, Zhao Wei and Liu Yifei posted on Weibo, in celebration of Happy Camp (Kuai Le Da Ben Yin), one of China’s most popular TV variety shows, which is celebrating its 20th anniversary today. Celebrities wished the show happy birthday and shared their favorite memories of the show. Since its first air date in 1997, the program, which airs at 20:00 every Saturday, has gained high audience ratings, and is considered a pioneer of Chinese variety shows.

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