While reading China Daily’s newspaper recently, I came across a public service ad starring a rather familiar couple:
Sure enough, I recognized actor Liu Ye and his wife Anais Martane, one of the most beloved celebrity Chinese-foreign couples here in China — and now ambassadors for the nongovernmental organization WildAid:
WildAid released a new series of TV messages and billboards featuring popular actor Liu Ye and his wife Anais Martane to raise awareness about the threats while calling on the public to stop buying sea turtle products. Speaking at the launch event this week, Liu Ye said “we can all do something really simple to help protect sea turtles, and that is simply not buying sea turtle products. We should all also reduce our use of plastics, and keep plastic waste away from coastlines.”
Liu Ye, considered one of the top actors in the Chinese mainland, remains best known in the West for his breakout performance in the 2005 release of Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress, the 2006 Curse of the Golden Flower and the 2007 Hollywood film Dark Matter. He and Anais Martane, a French photographer, married in Beijing in 2009.
According to a China Daily interview with Liu Ye — Heartthrob Liu Ye Now Enjoying Work and Married Life, published March 11, 2010 — Liu said, “We decided to get married because we share traditional views of the family. I am over 30 and she is one year younger than me. I want to be responsible for her and marriage is a promise.” In response to a question about what he found most attractive about Martane, he said, “She is a very nice woman. She gives me lots of peaceful feelings. She likes reading and has read many classics. She likes Israeli and Russian music.”
And another China Daily article notes Anais Martane stands as “more than just a Chinese celebrity’s wife” as she has become involved in public service projects and cares very deeply about the environment. She told China Daily, “My relationship with environmental protection began with a connection to the sea, as my childhood was spent in a coastal town, and I am crazy about everything to do with the sea.”
You can learn more about the WildAid campaign for Sea Turtles involving Liu Ye and Anais Martane at the WildAid website.
Liu Ye should join or make a film/TV series about the Chinese PLA-Navy Coast Guard. They are very good at eliminating any kind of criminal or unlawful activity from China’s waterways. And it would be a fitting dedication to his beautiful wife, who is so passionate about the ocean. The recent Chinese PLA dramas all focus on land, special ops, or air forces. It is time there is a good one about PLAN maritime patrols and operations.
Thanks for the comment, Blue Sky Country — what a good suggestion!