Statue of late model finally unveiled on his birthday

Compiled by C. ARUNO, PAVITHRA RAMAN and R. ARAVINTHAN

A BRONZE statue of the late model Godfrey Gao (pic) was unveiled in Taiwan on Wednesday to commemorate what would have been his 38th birthday, Sin Chew Daily reported.

The model, who died while filming a reality TV series in 2019, was memorialised by a life-sized bronze figure of him dribbling a basketball.

Due to the pandemic, the statue took two years to design and build and was completed just this month.

Among those present at the unveiling ceremony at the Chin Pao San cemetery were Gao’s parents, his business partner James Lu, and TV host Charles Chen.

Attendees were seen placing white roses at the feet of the statue.

Gao, a Taiwanese-born Canadian, died of a heart attack while filming Chase Me in Ningbo, China.

The 35-year-old had reportedly endured a gruelling 17 days on the set before collapsing.

He was rushed to hospital, but doctors failed to save him.

> Speculation is rife that Chinese studios are now banning actors and actresses who have undergone cosmetic surgery after authorities labelled them as “dangerous figures”, Sin Chew Daily reported.

Celebrities including Angelababy, Wang Yibo, Zhang Yuqi and Ju Jingyi, all of whom were rumoured to have had cosmetic surgery, are said to be on the list.

What appears to support the speculation was an interview with martial arts superstar Donnie Yen, who said the female lead of his latest movie, Sakra, should not go to an actress who has had cosmetic surgery.

Many people were of the view that Yen wanted to comply with new rules in the Chinese film industry.

The role eventually went to Yukee Chen, 30, who rose to fame after starring in the 2019 wuxia drama Heavenly Sword and Dragon Slaying Sabre.

> Collecting and selling urine from pregnant women have become a thriving business in China, with each litre going for as much as 12 yuan (RM7.80), Sin Chew Daily reported.

“It is mainly used for the testing of pregnancy kits and the extraction of substances in the urine to produce anti-abortifacients and medicine to stimulate ovulation,” said an unidentified seller.

He said the urine would be stored and processed before being sold.

The business made news recently when a woman riding a rickshaw in Shandong province was photographed going on her collection rounds.

The woman, who was wearing a mask, was seen with what was thought to be urine in plastic bags.

She poured the liquid into several large transparent containers.

Apparently, some of these “collectors” would try to coax women into selling their urine by offering them gifts such as laundry detergent.

The news became one of the most trending topics on Chinese social media over the weekend, with many Internet users commenting that they did not know such a practice existed.

The above articles are compiled from the vernacular newspapers (Bahasa Malaysia, Chinese and Tamil dailies). As such, stories are grouped according to the respective language/medium. Where a paragraph begins with a >, it denotes a separate news item.