Although Yao has been retired for about 6 months, he is not forgotten as seen by this video that is getting some play around the Interwebs…

Click here for more about the artist and the project.

It’s been busy for Yao over the past week, as seen in previous posts on this blog. Other things have happened this week worth mentioning that are recapped in this post (thanks to Raymond for posting these updates in the forum).

First, you may have heard that Yao participated in the National People Congress and Chinese People’s Political Consultation Conference in Shanghai last weekend. Below is a photo of the “exciting” meetings they must have had. Look at all the sleeping attendees!

As always, Yao is such a hard worker, when other people may be resting, he has the discipline to be a professional. Can you imagine what would happen if city council members or state representatives in the U.S. were caught sleeping on the job like this?

Earlier in the week, Aaron Brooks‘ Guangdong Tigers played Yao’s Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks. Unfortunately for the Sharks, one of their star players, former Houston Rocket Mike Harris, wasn’t able to play because he had to fly back to the U.S. to attend the funeral of his brother. Brooks and his teammates took advantage by handing the Sharks their third loss in a row.

A couple of days ago, Yao took part in a Shanghai Oriental TV taping for the Spring Festival (a.k.a. Chinese Lunar New Year) where he played a chef in a short film and sang some Chinese New Year songs together with a group of children.

Click here for more photos of Yao at the taping of the Chinese Lunar New Year television special.

Since all TV stations in China are competing for viewership for the primetime variety shows airing on Chinese Lunar New Year Eve, Hunan Satelitte TV signed Shaquille O’Neal to a six-figure (U.S. dollars) appearance fee for their own show after they learned Shanghai Oriental TV had invited Yao Ming to be one of its stars for their show.

Shaq flew to Changsha of Hunan on a chartered flight last Saturday and spent Sunday in the studio taping his antics doing a Chinese shadow puppet show, kungfu fighting, street dancing, and making Chinese dumplings.

Note: The story below has been updated to better reflect new information from China.org.cn in comparison to an earlier Associated Press story.

In addition, on January 17th Yao Ming was also selected as the Vice President of the Shanghai Sports Federation, which is the overall controlling federation of many sports federations in Shanghai city.

Yao has become a member of an advisory body to Shanghai’s legislature. Below the photo is more on the story from the China.org.cn:

Click here for more photos of Yao from the closing ceremony for the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference Shanghai Committee.

On Sunday, January 15th, Yao took his seat as a new member of the standing committee of Shanghai’s political advisory body during its annual session.

“There are about 142 members in the group, and Yao is the youngest,” said Kong Rong, who works in the service office of Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC) Shanghai Committee.

Yao is not the first Chinese sports star to become a Shanghai political adviser. Former Chinese female football star striker Sun Wen took up this job five years ago.

“Yao said the new title shows trust coming from the people in the city. He had said before that once he decides to do something, he will try his best to accomplish it. So we can trust him that he can balance all aspects of his work and study, and do well in this job,” said Yao’s spokesman Zhang Chi.

But Zhang denied that Yao has any ambitions to have a “political career”.

“The responsibilities for a CPPCC member include offering political consultation, and supervision. What Yao wants is to use his influence to do good deeds for society but not to seek a political position,” Zhang said.

Under the new title, Yao is supposed to attend regular meetings, make suggestions or raise written proposals for the advisory body and government departments.

Yao has remained very low-key during the organization’s ongoing annual plenary session. The information office of the CPPCC Shanghai Committee said they have not received any proposals from Yao yet.

Yao explained earlier that he prefers to “listen and learn because he is new to the organization”.

“Raising proposals is very serious business, and I do not want to be hasty,” Yao said, adding that he is paying more attention to sports education, a field he is familiar with.

Zhang also said Yao is very interested in issues regarding sports and charity. “He will make proposals in future, of course,” said Zhang.

A pretty cool story here…Yao’s former high school team from Shanghai is touring the U.S. playing against American high school basketball teams, a first for a Chinese high school team. Check out the story and video here of them playing in Williamsport, PA on Wednesday.

It’s also interesting the team they played are called the “Millionaires.” Both teams exchanged gifts before the game. I wonder if there was some cash in those gift bags the Millionaires gave the Chinese team? (although given the current global economic situation, it might have been the other way around). 😉

Checkout this video from Yao’s new wine venture, Yao Family Wines. It features their President of Winemaking Tom Hinde showing the vine on which some of their grapes are grown.

As China’s “Panda Ambassador,” Yao Ming and his wife Ye Li attended Wednesday a ceremony to release 6 “teenager” pandas into the wild. Yao himself opened their cages and let them free into the Chengdu Panda Valley.

Click here for more photos and details from the release of the pandas, and about the panda breeding program at the Dujiangyan Research Center where the ceremony was held.

Here’s an interesting article from the Sydney Morning Herald a few days ago about China tennis player Li Na. If you don’t know much about French open champion Li Na, you should read it:

Photo: Getty Images

One of many refreshing parts of the article is the following:

It’s said that her profile in China has overtaken that of the former NBA superstar Yao Ming.

”Yeah, because Yao Ming was retired,” she laughed, playing down the significance.

Not that she’s keeping tabs. ”I never think about who is the famous sports guy or sportsman in China because I mean, you know, China’s an amazing country, so I just try my best at tennis. I just think I’m nothing too much.”

Yao Ming’s new wine business continues to get lots of attention. This time the esteemed Wine Spectator magazine interviews Yao. Check it out here.

Former Rocket Aaron Brooks faced-off against Stephon Marbury the other night in a matchup between Guangdong and Beijing. Both players had monster games: Marbury scored 35 points and dished 9 assists; Brooks scored 32 and had 8 assists. Brook’s Guangdong team won, handing Marbury’s Beijing team their 5th loss in 6 games. Before then, Beijing had won 13 in a row.

For more details about the game and additional photos posted by Raymond in the forum, click here.

Yao Ming’s Shanghai MAXXIS Sharks won their 6th game in a row a couple of days ago in Shanghai, beating the Foshan Draglions 95-88. As usual, Yao and his wife were in attendance.

The Sharks’ winning streak has pushed their record to 11-8 and has them tied with three other teams for the 8th seed in the playoffs if they were played today.

Unfortunately, one of the Sharks’ two allowed ex-pat players, Ryan Forehan Kelly, ruptured his Achilles tendon last week. But former Rocket Mike Harris picked up the slack, scoring 25 points and grabbing 14 boards.

The Sharks have signed Carl Landry’s brother, Marcus Landry, to replace Kelly. Landry arrived in Shanghai on Friday (see below).

For more information about Marcus Landry’s career, click here.