The wife of a top sports anchor on Chinese state television has created a buzz in the blogosphere by crashing an Olympic media event — to publicly accuse her husband of adultery.
A video clip of Zhang Bin’s wife, Hu Ziwei, commandeering a microphone at a China Central Television (CCTV) presentation of its coverage plans was easily one of the most viewed items on Chinese video site www.tudou.com on Monday.
Friday’s event in Beijing was in order to rebrand CCTV’s sports channel as “the Olympic Channel” for the August 2008 Olympic Games hosted by the Chinese capital, but it quickly turned embarrassing for the state broadcaster.
“Today [Friday] is a special day for the Olympic Channel, and a special day for Mr Zhang Bin, and for me too,” said Hu, herself a presenter on another network.
“Because just two hours ago, I found out that besides me, Mr Zhang Bin has been maintaining an improper relationship with another woman.”
Zhang could only stand by stone-faced as Hu went into details, fending off attempts to remove her from the podium.
Gossip about the private lives of television personalities is a hot topic among Chinese, and the incident touched off a flurry of blog entries.
China has been keen to project a flawless image for the Olympics, and the embarrassing clip was quickly removed from top internet portal Sina.com.
However, it could still be viewed Monday on other sites, including overseas video-sharing website YouTube. — AFP