娱乐英语新闻:Stars donate money to drought-Hit areas

BEIJING, March 26 -- A few Chinese celebrities have initiated a donation drive for drought-hit southwestern China, while acknowledging the necessity of providing receipts in the wake of actress Zhang Ziyi's recent scandal over money she pledged to help victims of the earthquake in Sichuan Province.

Feng Xiaogang and Zhang Guoli together with Chen Daoming, Peter Lam and Mao Jianfeng, each donated 200,000 yuan (29,300 U.S. dollars) on Monday to the Red Cross Society of China, Sina.com.cn reports. They also petitioned via the Web site for more donations from their show business colleagues.

"Let's give a hand to people battling the drought," the petition reads. "Let's help them get through."

A severe drought has been plaguing southwestern China's Guizhou, Sichuan, Yunnan, Guangxi and Chongqing. The State Commission of Disaster Relief said Friday that 51 million residents had been affected, and more than 16 million people suffered from a lack of drinking water.

Along with the petition sent to Sina.com.cn were the celebrities' donation receipts.

"Receipts are proof of our donations in case people ask," Feng Xiaogang told the Web site, hinting at the recent controversy surrounding actress Zhang Ziyi.

Shortly after a major earthquake hit Sichuan Province on May 12, 2008, Zhang made what she said was a 1-million-yuan (146,500 dollars) donation via the Red Cross Society of China. But a report surfaced earlier this year that the Red Cross only received 840,000 yuan. As verbal attacks on Zhang began to run rampant on the Internet, both the actress and her publicist argued they had no idea about the shortfall in the first place. Zhang later made up for the shortfall.