MELAKA: Popular Chinese actress Fan Bingbing officially started her first day as the Visit Melaka 2024 (TMM2024) ambassador by wooing hundreds of her fans who made a beeline to get a glimpse of her at the iconic Stadthuys building in Bandar Hilir here.
The crowd, who gathered as early as 10am on Friday (June 14), waited for her arrival and some also attempted to take a wefie with the "X-Men: Days of Future Past" star.
Fan, who was clad in Nyonya kebaya, is on a meet-and-greet session at various locations and also scheduled to visit tourism and heritage sites from today to Sunday (June16).
Earlier, she made a courtesy call to Melaka Chief Minister Datuk Seri Ab Rauf Yusoh at his office in Seri Negeri, Ayer Keroh here.
Ab Rauf said Fan, who has 63 million followers on Weibo (a social media platform in China), would be able to create an impact for Melaka tourism in view of her popularity.
"Fan Bingbing is influential and her fans will follow her, placing Melaka at advantage," he said.
Ab Rauf said the state government was lucky as Fan's Asian manager is a Malaysian and she suggested that the Chinese film star could offer her services to promote the state.
He said the 42-year-old's influential role will see to the success of TMM2024 and that the state government hoped Fan would be able to woo tourists from China and other parts of Asia to Melaka.
From 2013 to 2017, Fan was named the highest-paid celebrity in the Forbes China Celebrity 100 list.
In 2014, she joined the Barbie global celebrity Hall of Fame and became China’s First Barbie Doll while she also appeared on Vanity Fair's "Best Dressed" list in 2015 and 2016.
In 2017, Fan was listed by Time Magazine as the 100 most influential individuals.
