In the International Herald Tribune, Howard French writes about the incident in which the wife of a popular sportscaster used a CCTV news conference about the Olympics to denounce her husband for his infidelity (Watch a YouTube clip of the press conference below):
The matter in question arose last month when Hu Ziwei, a well-known Chinese television personality, burst onto the stage during a lavish ceremony where the state broadcaster, CCTV, was inaugurating its new Olympics sports channel.
There stood Hu’s husband, Zhang Bin, who is also a well-known sports anchor, and suddenly, the neatly dressed woman began speaking in a calm voice about her supposed discovery of his love affair with another woman.
…On the surface, claims like hers that her conjugal betrayal had anything to do with the celebration of China’s upcoming Games may seem farfetched, even if Hu’s husband was the deputy of state television’s sports news department and she had recently hosted an Olympics-related program on Beijing TV.
But many Chinese received Hu’s words as far more than the hysterical ranting of woman wronged, unleashing a torrent of caustic commentary about a subject that Chinese have been endlessly told they are unanimously delighted about: the hosting of the Olympics. [Full text]
