Melaka trends on WeChat following Fan Bingbing's ambassador role

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Malaysian state Melaka was seen trending on Chinese social media WeChat after Chinese actress Fan Bingbing's appointment as the "Visit Melaka 2024" ambassador.

The term 'Melaka' saw over 320 million searches over two days, according to Fan's PR manager Jersey Chong.

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On 14 June, 'Fan Bingbing' garnered 334,883,965 searches. The word 'Melaka' followed with 165,082,653 searches on the Chinese app.

On 15 June, 'Fan Bingbing' had 461,138,243 searches, and 'Melaka' had 161,972,679 searches.

In comparison, searches for the 'Shanghai International Film Festival' were 2,280,795 while the 'Weibo Movie Awards Ceremony 2024' only garnered 3,472,115 searches during the same period, said Chong in a statement on Facebook.

"Despite the back-to-back and exhausting activities, she has demonstrated cooperation and professionalism. Thank you Fan for bringing so much publicity to a small state of my beloved country unconditionally. Thank you for your trust and love," said Chong in a statement.

"From June 13th to 16th, we barely slept—perhaps less than eight hours in total. Our 13 years together are invaluable and truly irreplaceable. Thank you, Tourism Malaysia for being such an amazing host. Thank you, Datasonic Group, for being the financial backbone," she added.

Fan made her visit to Melaka from 14 to 16 June to kickstart her "Visit Melaka 2024" campaign. The campaign aimed to reposition the state as an ideal tourism destination.

During her trip, it was reported that hundreds of people gathered at Bandar Hilir, a key Melaka heritage site, to catch a glimpse of the actress. Some gathered as early as 10am to wait for her arrival.

Fan visited key tourist destinations of Melaka, such as the Baba House Melaka, Melaka River Cruise and local Peranakan restaurants too.

In addition, she was seen donning the Nonya Kebaya at these sites, as well as eating local delights such as durian cendol.

News of Fan's appointment was first revealed in May by Melaka chief minister Rauf Yusoh. In a Facebook statement, Rauf said that he believes that the presence of Fan will attract more tourists from China and Asia to visit Melaka.

Photo courtesy Jersey Chong, Facebook

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