Shanghai Daily news

Local and expatriate singers perform at a charity show in Shanghai last night to raise funds for tsunami survivors in South and Southeast Asia.

A Shanghai charity show was held last night to raise donations for survivors of the Indian Ocean earthquake and subsequent tidal waves. More than 600 performers participated in the show which lasted about 90 minutes.
Actors, television personalities, singers and dancers, as well as athletes, friends from foreign communities and overseas artists from America, Europe, India, Indonesia and the Philippines appeared.
They sang, danced and recited poetry to express their care and the condolences of the city's residents for those faraway tsunami victims.
During the show, four rounds of donations were held. Fundraising through a hot line and a cell phone short message service were also carried out at the same time around town.
Many local companies and people from all walks of life, foreigners and locals alike, donated funds.
Zhang Jun, a Shanghai Daily reporter who experienced the tsunami while on his honeymoon in southern Thailand, said he was deeply touched by the efforts of the survivors as soon as he and his wife were transferred to a safe place last week.
"They set up a center asking for donations immediately," he recalled. "We donated our T-shirts and coats."
Zhang also gave money in donations initiated by the Shanghai Daily and the Wenxin United Press Group.
Also last night, the parents of Liu Xiang, China's gold medal hurdler at last year's Athens Olympics, and friends of Houston Rockets basketball star Yao Ming, attended the show. They made donations in the names of the two famous athletes.
Phil Neamen, an Australian teacher at the Yew Chung International School (Shanghai), was among those confirmed dead in the tsunami that hit Thailand where he was on vacation on December 26.
His wife, also a Yew Chung teacher, was injured in the disaster. She has since returned to Australia for treatment.
Several other YCIS staff and their families who were in the tsunami-affected areas have returned home safely.
The Yew Chung Education Foundation is providing the Neamens with assistance to cope with their tragedy.
The school will hold a memorial service for the family and other tsunami victims, the school said.
Meanwhile, locals continued to dig deep into their pockets to help survivors of the Southeast Asia earthquake and resulting tsunamis that killed about 150,000 people in 12 countries ranging from Southeast and South Asia to Africa.
Within a 30 minute period yesterday, a total of 226,600 yuan (US$27,300) had been collected at Shanghai Red Cross donation boxes at the site of city's Public Security Bureau on Wuning Road S., Jing'an District.
Police said more donation boxes would be set up at local police departments at all levels in the coming days when the figure was expected to rise.
Shanghai United Family Hospital announced it would provide free sessions on "critical incident stress debriefing" today to interested parties.
The sessions involve techniques intended to mitigate the impact of trauma on individuals and communities.
It can be helpful in reducing the impact of symptoms, assess the need for a more in-depth follow-up, and help to provide a sense of closure following a crisis, hospital officials said.
Charitable events will be held tomorrow morning at the Moon River Diner on Hongmei Rd, Kabb in Xintiandi and the Blue Frog in Pudong's Jinqiao. Each of the businesses are calling for people in the local foreign communities to donate to the tsunami survivors.
The events are being co-organized by the three venues and the Party People, a local association of caterers.
Hotel chain Accor said a memorial will be held on Thursday in Shanghai to pay homage to the life of Reggie Shiu.
The head of Accor SA's China unit is presumed to have perished, along with his wife and two sons, in the tsunami that hit Thailand.
The company said the event will raise money for Shiu's daughter, Zoe, who survived and is currently in Singapore.
Shiu, a 49-year-old Chinese-American, who was educated both in Hong Kong and New York City,  joined Accor in 1980 at the Roosevelt Hotel in New York City.
He was put in charge of Accor's Shanghai-based China operations in 2000.