Chinese authorities have been unable to locate Zhang Yimou to investigate allegations that he breached family planning regulations since May, Xinhua reports.
Earlier this year, online reports alleged that Zhang – director of House of Flying Daggers, Flowers of War, and the 2008 Summer Olympics opening ceremony – had at least seven children with as many as four different women and could be liable for a 160 million yuan ($26.3 million) fine. However, authorities in Wuxi, Jiangsu province – where Zhang's wife Chen Ting is from – say they have been unable to locate the director in order to carry out an investigation.
At the time of the initial reports, author Christopher Jing told the AP: "Four women and seven kids, if this was an ordinary person they would have killed you or fined you an unreasonable amount of money, but he is fine ... he is no better than ordinary people, such an unfair world will never gain respect."
Xinhua reports that the Wuxi Municipal Population and Family Planning Commission "has done everything possible to contact Zhang Yimou and Chen Ting and dispatched a work team that rushed to Beijing to look for Zhang Yimou, but there were no results, they could not find (him)".
Officials claimed they have sent over a dozen letters to the Beijing Film Group and the Guangxi Film Group in an attempt to contact Zhang.
"In fact, at this point, we have not received a satisfactory reply," a Wuxi family planning authority spokesperson told Xinhua.
"No matter who is involved, illegal births will have to be dealt with in accordance with the law."
Reforms to the one child policy, allowing some couples to have two children, were announced this month. Having seven children is still not cool, however.
[Image via Sony Pictures Classics]
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