zhang-ziyi-picture-3

China’s most famous actress, Zhang Ziyi, has been getting a lot of attention lately, but very little of it pleasant.

The star of “Memoirs of a Geisha” and “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon” has been the target of Internet-based allegations since late January, that she has failed to give donations raised to the victims of the devastating May 12, 2008 earthquake in Wenchuan, Sichuan province. Posted and repeated on Chinese online forums such as Tianya.cn, the main accusations are that Zhang raised $1 million at overseas fundraising events, but that she has not yet disbursed those funds to charities or victims.

Zhang held a single fundraising event at the Cannes Film Festival in 2008, shortly after the earthquake. Zhang said at the event her goal was to raise $1 million, she received about $500,000 in donations and pledges, documented by a reporter from China Central Television.

Although the allegations around her have been dubbed “Donation Gate” by the Chinese media, no official accusation has been made against Zhang.

China’s state-run news organization the Xinhua News Agency reported in English that Zhang had made a 160,000 yuan ($23,437) donation to the Chinese Red Cross Foundation, satisfying a pledge she made days after the earthquake of 1 million yuan. The Xinhua report makes no mention of the other rumored allegations. The CRCF confirmed the donation and the satisfaction of the pledge. Lucas said in statements to the Chinese media that the missing money had been an oversight and that it was rectified as soon as she and Zhang were made aware of the shortfall.

Also earlier this week, the Ziyi Zhang Foundation said that it would donate $400,000 to Beijing-based Care for Children, which has provided care and schooling for children orphaned by the May 2008 earthquake. Those funds would be transferred to the group “within three weeks after the ground-breaking” of an announced training and resource center in Deyang, Sichuan province.

Zhang got her start in Zhang Yimou’s film “Not One Less,” and firmly established herself in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon,” where she held her own with a cast that included some of the biggest names in Chinese cinema, including Chow Yun-fat and Michelle Yeoh, with whom she had several combat scenes. Zhang has since split her time, appearing equally in China-based and Hollywood film productions, including the lead role in “Memoirs of a Geisha,” directed by Steven Spielberg.

The actress is not new to controversy. She took serious heat from the Chinese press and Chinese blogosphere when photos of her sunbathing semi-nude with fiance Vivi Nevo surfaced. She has also been criticized for having a foreign fiance in the first place, and for concentrating on her Hollywood career, and entertaining English-language audiences, rather than focusing on making Chinese films.

All the negative publicity hasn’t slowed her down. Although she recently pulled out of the lead role in “Snow Flower and the Secret Fan,” which also features Hugh Jackman, and where Zhang has been replaced by Li Bingbing, she will now appear in Wong Kar-wai’s new production “The Grand Master,” starring opposite “Lust, Caution” actor Tony Leung Chiu-wai.