So what was really on the menu at Yao Ming's wedding?

The Chinese internet is currently abuzz with all sorts of reports and rumours of what went on at Yao Ming's wedding at Shanghai's Shangri-La Hotel on Monday. Earlier in the day, we called up our friend Sebastien Lathuile, who is floral meister at the hotel, thinking we could get some inside scoop or even pictures of the event. Unfortunately, all he could tell us was that he was not personally involved in the event and he knew absolutely nothing about the wedding. Apparently the management of the entire event had been farmed out to a local Shanghai company, and everything was kept under a very tight lid (with a generous budget dedicated to security), so there was nothing more that he could tell us.

As early as Sunday though, reports started to appear on the Internet, revealing what was on the menu of the lavish 12-course dinner purported to cost RMB12,399 (USD1,642) per table. The opening dish of the dinner, according to those reports, was "Braised bamboo fungus and fish maw in sharks fin" (红烧竹笙鱼肚烩鱼翅).

Readers may remember how the 7-foot-6 NBA star made headlines in China and around the world this time last year when he announced at a press conference in Beijing that he would never eat sharks fin soup ever again with the following words:

I pledge to stop eating sharks fin soup and will not do so under any circumstances. For the sake of our future, please join us in protecting endangered wildlife.

Naturally, news that Yao Ming was treating his guests to sharks fin spread like wildfire on the Chinese internet, and netizens and journalists started asking how Yao could remain a spokesperson in the anti-sharks fin campaign if he chose to have sharks fin at his wedding. From the Sichuan Gourmet Web(四川饮食网):

当然婚宴上有鱼翅也不是大问题，只要大姚不对这道菜动筷子就算遵守了自己的诺言。文化传统与个人表态，倒也并不冲突。
Naturally, it is not a major problem to have sharks fin on the table, and as long as Yao Ming does not touch that particular dish with his chopsticks, he could be said to have kept his promise. In this way, there is no major clash between cultural traditions and individual beliefs.

A Yao Ming spokesperson by the name of Zhang Chi (张弛) spent a few minutes with the 100-over Chinese and foreign papparazzi gathered at the Shangri-La and gave the following tidbits, as captured in the attached video:

“感谢各位对姚明和叶莉婚礼的关注，我在这里表达一下二位新闻对各位远道而来表示感谢，因此在这里我替二位向各位表示感谢。我们还为大家准备了喜糖，等下大家可以去领取，另外还有一些新闻资料，大家也可以去领取。”
Thank you all for your interest in Yao Ming and Ye Li's wedding. On behalf of the two of them, I'd like to express our thanks and gratitude to all our media friends that have come from near and far. We have prepared some matrimonial sweets for everyone that you can collect later. There is also a set of press information that you can collect.

“今天的宾客大概有70多位，除了姚之队的一些工作人员之外都是姚叶的一些亲人。其他的人员姚明将用独特的方式来表示。”此位发言人还表示此次婚礼的宴请中没有姚叶二人之前的队友。
There are over 70 guests today. Apart from some colleagues from Yao's team, all other guests are relatives of the bride and groom. Yao Ming will acknowledge other important people individually. [The spokesperson also made it clear that none of the Yao and Ye's former team mates were present at the wedding.]

姚明叶莉将在今晚婚宴后乘游艇游黄浦江，发言人表示这一消息也不属实：“姚明今晚就是陪伴亲友，婚宴后不会有任何活动。”
The spokesperson also dismissed rumours that the couple would go an a Huangpu river cruise after the wedding, saying, "Yao will only accompany his relatives tonight. After the wedding there will be no other activities."

同时此位发言人还就姚明婚宴上出现鱼翅的事件进行了声明：“这一段时间无论是在网络上还是在报纸上都出现了一些相关的报道，在这里我代表二位新人表示感谢，但是必须指出的是这中间存在的一些相对失实的报道，比如说说姚明在婚宴中摆出一道名为‘红烧竹笙鱼肚烩鱼翅’的菜，但是大家都知道姚明是‘护鲨行动、从我做起’公益活动的代言人，在出席世界野生救援协会主办的‘全球野生动物保护宣言’活动中，姚明曾经郑重承诺在任何时间、任何情况下他本人都拒绝食用鱼翅，因此这次婚宴上将没有鱼翅这道菜。”
[And with regards to the sharks fin rumours] On behalf of the wedded couple, I'd like to thank you all for the stories that have appeared on the internet and in print, but I'd like to point out that there were some untruths in those stories, for instance, that there was a dish by the name of "Braised bamboo fungus and fish maw in sharks fin" on the menu. As we all know, Yao Ming is the frontman of the "Protecting sharks begins with me" campaign and he has promised at the WildAid event that he would not eat sharks fin at any time or under any circumstance. Hence, there was no sharks fin at the wedding tonight.

Somehow, we doubt this is the last we'll hear of this, so stay tuned!

Related links
Shanghaiist: Newsflash - Yao Ming to do lots of exercises while getting married
Sports.163.com: 每桌喜宴只花费12399元 姚明婚礼菜单大曝光
CBS News: Bloggers Cheer Yao Ming Shark Attack
Sichuan Gourmet Portal: 姚明婚宴请吃鱼翅，如何做榜样？
NetEase: 姚明答谢记者 婚宴来宾无队友只有亲属
Zhejiang Online: 姚明低调婚礼 婚礼开支安保占大头