Headlines from China: Fan Bingbing Apologizes After Being Fined $130 M for Tax Evasion

Fan Bingbing Apologizes After Being Fined $130 M for Tax Evasion

After Chinese actress Fan Bingbing disappeared from the public eye for over three months, Chinese authorities finally issued an official statement on her tax evasion case. According to the statement issued on October 3, Fan Bingbing and her company are found guilty of tax evasion and have received a massive tax bill of 884 million yuan ($130 million) in fines and back taxes. A few hours after the statement was issued, Fan Bingbing posted a statement on Chinese social media Weibo, apologizing for her actions and expressing her shame towards the situation. While Fan Bingbing Read more on Mtime

How Bona Film Group Dominates China’s “Golden Weeks” Again

Released on September 30, Bona Film Group’s Project Gutenberg has made 321 million yuan ($46.7 million) after 3 days in release, overtaking Hello Mrs. Money to lead this year’s National-day box office race. This is not the first time a Bona film dominates China’s “golden weeks.” Along with the Lunar New Year, China’s National Day holiday is one of the two so-called “golden weeks” in which citizens are given a full seven-day reprieve from work. Looking at Bona’s previous releases, we found that Bona scheduled most of its releases for one of the two “golden weeks.” These films were not given heavy promotion prior to the opening day. However, thanks to Chinese people’s enthusiasm for moviegoing during “golden weeks,” a good and relatable film usually is able to trigger wide word-of-month marketing, which will encourage a large number of audiences to check out the film during the last a few days of the “golden week.” In addition to Project Gutenberg, other successful Bona films that follow this patten include Operation Mekong, Operation Red Sea and Chasing The Dragon. Read more on San Sheng

Tencent Music Filed For US IPO

On October 2, Tencent Music, the music division of Chinese tech giant Tencent, officially filed prospectus to SEC to go public in the United States under the ticker symbol TME. According the the prospectus, Tencent Music is the largest online music firm in China with four music streaming services, including Q Music, Kugou Music, Kuwo Music and WeSing. In Q2, the four platforms had over 800 million monthly active users in total. In addition, the company is profitable. In the first half of 2018, the company reported a $1.25 billion in total revenues with a $263 million profit. Read more on TMT Post