Zhang Ziyi has a busy schedule, not only with her films, but also with her commercial activities such as a promotional shoot for the Shangri-La hotel chain in the Oman desert
Zhang Ziyi sits on a couch with two giant pillows sandwiching her slender body. She has kicked off her shoes and curled up under one of the pillows, on top of which she balances a cup of tea. She holds it so nimbly as if her fingers are barely touching it.
In a black T-shirt that matches her long black hair, the actress looks casual and relaxed, beaming her signature smile. She is making herself comfortable in a suite of Shangri-La Hotel Singapore.
A few minutes earlier, the Chinese movie star was sharing her thoughts about food with the hotel's executives and staff. Standing around a table filled with fruits and finger food, they chatted about what they liked about Asian cuisines. She laughed, and her laughter was infectious. Nervousness on the part of the hotel staff gave way to cordiality.
Zhang Ziyi knows how to make people around her comfortable. For all her movie-star glamour, she has the uncanny ability to put people at ease, attracting the spotlight yet spreading enough halo around that nobody is engulfed in darkness.
The star of Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (Wohu Canglong) is a "brand ambassador" for Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts. A television channel in the hotel has programmed non-stop a show called Five Elements with Zhang Ziyi, in which she offers her personal insight into Chinese philosophy while basking in such luxury treatments as jade massage in the hotel chain's Beijing property.
It was not a regular television commercial, but more like a cross between an educational documentary and a lifestyle demonstration through a gauze-like lens.
"That was last year's project," explains Sari Yong, Shangri-La's corporate public relations manager. "Our relationship with Zhang has been going on for three years now, and both sides have enjoyed it very much."
