“Fan chose Melaka as her travel destination due to the long historical ties between Melaka and China, fostering cultural connection and familiarity.”
Melaka, 18th June 2024, 12.05pm – Melaka Friendship Tourism Ambassador 2024, Fan Bingbing, expressed that her new role comes with significant responsibility and good fortune.
Fan highlighted Melaka’s distinctiveness as a tourist destination, setting it apart from other popular spots.
“It is a great honor to be appointed as the Melaka Friendship Tourism Ambassador for 2024. The Covid-19 pandemic left me feeling unsettled, and I hadn’t traveled abroad since,” she said.
“However, post-pandemic tourism is reviving, and people are likely to choose new destinations,” she conveyed through a Mandarin interpreter.
Fan, who was appointed to promote Visit Melaka Year 2024, has been in the state for the past three days.
When asked why she selected Melaka as her travel destination this year, Fan cited the long-standing historical ties between Melaka and China as one of the reasons.
“Chinese people can connect with Melaka’s culture because its history is well known in China, and many locals here speak Mandarin.”
“Chinese tourists visiting Malaysia can be confident that the locals are also fluent in Mandarin. Additionally, Melaka shares similarities with China’s Yunnan province, as both have a rich history,” she explained.
Fan mentioned that she learned about Malaysia from a colleague who frequently talked about the country. She also expressed her interest in future collaborations with other parties.
“Malaysia feels familiar to me because I have a Malaysian colleague with whom I’ve worked for several years.
“I’m also interested in experiencing life in Malaysia. If given the opportunity, I’d love to live in Kuala Lumpur and enjoy its impressive skyline.
“Malaysia has many talented film directors and individuals, and I hope to collaborate with them in the future,” she said.
Fan, who has 63 million followers on Weibo (China’s social media platform akin to X) and 4.1 million followers on Instagram, is frequently seen as a global representative of Chinese culture.
She has appeared in the Hollywood superhero film X-Men: Days of Future Past, as well as in French and South Korean movies.
In 2017, Fan was featured on the cover of Time magazine and was recognized as one of the 100 Most Influential People.
