HONG KONG – Chow Yun-Fat (search), star of "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" (search) and "Anna and the King," is helping raise funds for tsunami (search) survivors in South Asia by auctioning off a photograph he took.
The minimum price for the signed black-and-white picture of a branch laden with what appears to be tomatoes was set at $3,600, the Apple Daily newspaper, the auction organizer, reported Thursday.
Other Hong Kong celebrities donating items to the online auction included "Kung Fu Hustle" star Stephen Chow, Leon Lai, Aaron Kwok, Tony Leung and Cecilia Cheung.
It also was reported Thursday that New York Yankees star Hideki Matsui had given almost $500,000 through the Japanese Red Cross Society.
Matsui handed the donation to Fumio Hirata, head of the local Red Cross chapter and mayor of Neagari, Matsui's hometown in northwestern Japan.
"Watching the news every day, I thought that this must be the worst disaster in history. I'd like to do what little I can to help," Hirata quoted the popular baseball star as saying.
The concept of charity is not deeply ingrained in Japanese society, where family networks take precedence over social philanthropy. Public donations by celebrities are a recent phenomenon.
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