Guo Meimei Responds to Red Cross Controversy – Part 1

chinaSMACK first reported about a young girl named Guo Meimei two months ago in “Guo Meimei Red Cross Controversy Pissing Off Chinese Netizens” and recently translated news reports that she may have caused donations to the Chinese Red Cross to decline in “Donations to Red Cross Drop Following Guo Meimei Controversy“.

Last week, in her first television interview since the Red Cross Society scandal, Guo Meimei appeared with her mother, Guo Dengfeng, on Ningxia television’s “Decoding Finance,” hosted by “Larry” Lang Xianping, an economics professor at the Chinese University of Hong Kong.

Note from Fauna:The above 21 minute video on Youku has been viewed over 2.8 million times with 165 pages of comments. A shorter 5 minute video titled “Guo Meimei responds: Nothing Wang Jun gave her came from the Red Cross Society” has nearly 2.4 million views and 230 pages of comments by Chinese netizens.

A copy on YouTube:

Can’t see the above video?

“Business General Manager of the Red Cross”

This claim by Guo Meimei, namely that she was the “business general manager” of the Red Cross Society of China, was what initially drew suspicion from netizens. How could a 20-year-old girl working for a charity organization afford a Maserati? In the interview, Guo explains that this was all a misunderstanding:

(Note: The following transcription and translation of the dialogue has been edited for clarity and omits certain phrases and interjections.)

Lang Xianping: Why did you say that you were the business general manager of the Red Cross? Tell us the truth.

Guo Meimei: Actually, I was having dinner with my godfather and them… then, during dinner, they were chatting and I overheard them talking about establishing a company called Zhong Hong Bo Ai.

Lang: Zhong Hong Bo Ai is a subordinate of the Red Cross, right? A subsidiary?

Guo: I think it cooperates with a Chamber of Commerce under the Red Cross—

Lang: Right, Red Cross established the Commercial Red Cross, below that there’s a company called Wang Ding Corporation. Wang Ding Corporation made the Zhong Hong Bo Ai you’re talking about.

Guo: I think you’re right.

Lang: I’m just explaining it for you.

Guo: Because my godfather and them always dote on me, after they finished talking about their business, they told me to come work for the company after it’s established. I said, “Okay, but if it’s anything below general manager level”—I was joking—”I won’t do it.” They said, “Then we’ll let you be general manager.” Actually they were just placating me like a child, and I didn’t really believe them. After a few days, I was on Weibo… because all the friends I follow, they’ve all written [on their profile] something like “President” or “CEO,” and I guess it was vanity or competitiveness that made me change my Sina-verified job from singer and actress to China Red Cross Business General Manager. Actually at that time I didn’t even know the name of the company was Zhong Hong Bo Ai. I only knew that it was China-something Red-something, I only remembered those two words, so I just changed it to China Red Cross.

Lang: But this thing alone wouldn’t have evoked such a big reaction. What did you do to shock the netizens like this? Other than writing this, did you do or say anything else?

Guo: Because I don’t have a job right now, everyday I just sit at home or go shopping with my friends or go out, so that day I wrote on my Weibo, “Everyday I have to go to English class, swim, and study how to be general manager of the Red Cross.” Because that night at dinner we joked, I said, “How can I be a general manager? I’m so young I don’t know anything.”

…

Guo: Then [my godfather] said, “If you don’t know then learn.” So that day I was at home on the Internet, I was bored, and I suddenly remembered what my godfather said that day, so I changed it, I said that I was going to study how to be general manager of the Red Cross. I didn’t think it would become such a big thing.

Who is Wang Jun?

Okay, so Guo Meimei doesn’t work for the Red Cross, it was just a joke that got out of hand. But who is this Wang Jun guy who resigned from the board of directors of a company affiliated with the Red Cross Society as a result of this scandal? Surely he’s not her godfather.

Lang: So this godfather of yours, is he Wang Jun?

Guo: Yes, he’s not the Wang Jun of the Red Cross as they say online. I saw some reports that said there maybe was a vice-chairman in the Red Cross also named Wang Jun. [My godfather] is from Shenzhen, he’s a businessman.

Lang: Is he a private entrepreneur?

Guo: All I know is he’s a businessman.

Lang: Do you know what he does?

Guo: I think he’s a real estate investor or something.

Lang: Well, Mrs. Guo, the relationship between you and Meimei’s godfather is husband-wife or are you unrelated?

Mother: There is no relationship.

Lang: Your surname is Guo, your daughter’s surname is Guo, so she took your last name?

Mother: Yes, she took my last name.

Lang: So does that mean you and her father have already…

Mother: We separated a long time ago.

Lang: You mean divorced?

Mother: We separated before she was even born.

So Wang Jun a.k.a. the godfather a.k.a. the boyfriend is the one who was talking over dinner about establishing Zhong Hong Bo Ai, otherwise known as the China Red Cross Bo’ai Asset Management Ltd. Corp. Lang comes back to Wang Jun and his role in this scandal later in the interview.

Fun, Fun, Fun, ’til Her Sugar Daddy Takes the Maserati Away

One of the original pictures on Guo Meimei’s blog that started this firestorm was her posing in front of a Masterati. How did she get that car?

Lang: It says online that you have two cars: one is a Lamborghini, right? The other is a Maserati.

Guo: No, no, one is a Masterati, the other is a Mini Cooper.

Lang: The Mini Cooper was…

Guo: Bought by my mother.

Lang: (to Guo Dengfeng) You gave it to her?

Guo: It was my 18th birthday present.

Comments from ifeng:

雪诃:

This mother and daughter are even more shameless than Gan Lulu and her mother!

飞上月亮:

Just how many godfathers does Guo Meimei really have?

zhujy:

This girl probably isn’t even sure who her own “father” is.

zhuhuatao:

The media needs more Guo Meimei’s, then they’d have something to do!

lockdream:

China has already entered the age where the average people are wantonly molested.

Comments from Tianya:

凡人更累:

The stupidest mistress. [Literally: The most “second” little third. 二 er can mean “stupid”.]

涡水寒:

Another thing is for sure: Guo Meimei is really ugly. If word gets out where she had her plastic surgery, that hospital will go bankrupt.

扒拉一边去:

Thank you Guo Meimei! It is she who has pulled off the “Black” Cross Society’s last pair of shame-concealing underwear.

shikil:

Why doesn’t the Red Cross hire an assassin to kill her?

南天飘:

Using one lie to cover up another lie!

What do you think so far?

Note from Fauna: The host, Larry Lang, was widely criticized in many online comments by Chinese netizens accusing him of helping defend Guo Meimei.

Continue onto Part 2 »