Compiled by FAZLEENA AZIZ, C.ARUNO and R. ARAVINTHAN
MALAYSIAN singer Jess Lee, who released a new single Strangers in August, has refuted an allegation of plagiarising a song, stating that she was merely the song’s performer and had not been involved in its composition.
Chinese singer Zhou Rui claimed the melody of Strangers resembles his 2021 track Stranded Whale.
Responding to the claims, Lee, 38, said her reputation was being tarnished despite having done nothing wrong.
“I am afraid it will affect public perception of me,” she said, adding that the matter has been handed over to her legal team.
Lee gained recognition in 2010 by winning the seventh iteration of the talent show One Million Star in Taiwan, making her the first Malaysian to achieve this milestone.
> A university student in Hubei, China, has been dubbed “certificate brother” after earning over 100 professional qualifications in three years, as reported by Sin Chew Daily.
Dong Shuaifan, 21, a fourth-year broadcast and television directing student at Hubei University of Arts and Science, barely made it into university after scoring just 452 in the 2023 Gaokao entrance exam.
Plagued by anxiety over his weak academic foundation, Dong worried about his prospects of finding a job after graduation.
To ease his anxiety, Dong began collecting certificates, starting with a Level 2B Mandarin proficiency certificate obtained in just 10 days. That initial success sparked an obsession with acquiring further qualifications.
Over three years, his collection grew to cover a wide range of fields, including teaching, driving, mental health counselling, artificial intelligence training and family education instruction.
After his story went viral online, Internet users criticised him for “blindly collecting” qualifications.
Dong responded to detractors by pointing out that the purpose was to broaden his knowledge at a low cost and help develop his ability to solve problems across different fields.
(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.)
