SHANGHAI — Retired NBA star Yao Ming has added another line to his post-basketball resume — politician — becoming a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature.
Since the 31-year-old Yao announced last July that injuries had ended his career with the Houston Rockets, he has become a university student and set up a wine business to go with owning a professional basketball team in China.
Photos in official media on Monday showed Yao at the weekend closing ceremony for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee.
“There are about 142 members in the group, and Yao is the youngest,” Kong Rong, who works in the service office of committee, was quoted as saying by the China Daily.
The advisory committee does not have any real power, but the newspaper said Yao is supposed to attend regular meetings, and can make suggestions for the advisory body and government departments.
Yao was quoted as saying “raising proposals is very serious business, and I do not want to be hasty.”
It is common for sports figures to move into politics in China. Olympic gold medal hurdler Liu Xiang is a member of both the Shanghai and national political advisory bodies.
Yao, one of the most popular celebrities in China from his eight seasons in the NBA, is a student at Jiaotong University, one of the top universities in his hometown Shanghai.
In November, he released the first-ever bottles of his new Yao Ming-branded wine, a 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon currently available only in mainland China, where the market for imported wines has boomed over the past decade.
上海——退役球星姚明给自己的简历上新增加了一个名头—政客—他成为上海立法机构顾问团的一名成员。
自从去年三月,姚明因伤病结束了他与休斯顿火箭队的“姻缘”,他重返校园,学习大学课程,并且开展了自己的红酒业务,还会成立一支职业球队。中国的官方媒体周一公布了周末姚明在上海参加中国人民政治协商会议的照片。
“这个团体有142名成员,而姚明是其中最年轻的一个,”孔容(音译),在政协办公室工作,引用《中国日报》的话说。
顾问委员会没有实权,但是报纸指出姚明要参加一些常规会议,并且会为顾问团和政府提供一些建议。
姚明表示:“提出某项建议是件非常严肃的事,我不希望自己过于草率。”
在中国,运动界名人加入政坛是件十分普遍的事。奥林匹克跨栏冠军刘翔不仅是上海政协委员,也是国家政协委员的一员。
姚明,因为他在NBA的8个赛季,在中国众人皆知,现在他是上海交大的一名学生,这个学校是他故乡上海最好的学校之一。
在十一月份,他第一次发布了姚明牌红酒,2009纳帕谷赤霞珠干红葡萄酒,仅仅在中国大陆有售,这个在过去十年进口葡萄酒如火如荼发展的市场。