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.

Source: The Daily Caller.

*Taken from SLC Dunk.

Yao Ming, of the Houston Rockets, has retired from the NBA, according to a number of sources. Obviously, not directly Jazz related news, but we see the continuing death of true, back to the basket big men in the passing of Yao Ming from being an “active” player to retiring from the NBA. He will be missed. Love him or hate him, he was a very nice man who advanced basketball in his nation (China), his continent (Asia), and across the globe. Yes, he got a lot of All-Star votes every year – but you can’t hate a guy for being popular. (The under-reported issue is that the majority of Yao Ming votes came from the US, not China…) He finishes his NBA years with career averages of 19.0 ppg (52.4 fg%, 83.3 ft%), 9.2 rpg, and 1.9 bpg. Hall of Famer? He’ll get in for sure. Even if he only got out of the 1st round once in his career.

He will be missed.

My Two Cents: The bosses are going to be more hands on. This is your new training video. End Two Cents.

*Taken from Xinhua.

With China’s traditional red as the theme color, the 60-second video was shown on six screens simultaneously at Times Square with a billboard written “Experience China” on top of the screens. The show highlights Chinese ordinary people and some important figures recognized by the international community, including Chinese pianist Lang Lang, basketball player Yao Ming and Chinese astronaut Yang Liwei, etc.NEW YORK, Jan. 17 (Xinhua) — A video show about Chinese people made its debut on screens at Times Square on Monday, presenting Americans a multi-dimensional and vivid image of Chinese people.

“The layout of the video is quite smart. I like it,” Charlotte Mcguckin, 18, a high school student in New York, told Xinhua, adding that “everyone (in the video) looks happy.”

“Look, that’s Yao Ming. I can recognize him, and also the female table tennis player standing beside him. She is very famous, ” she said, pointing to the giant screen. “I learned in class that U.S. and China started diplomatic ties from playing the table tennis,” she smiled.

For Si Yaqin, who came to New York with her son for vacation, watching the debut of the video is a once-in-a-lifetime experience. “It’s my first time to New York, first time to Times Square,” she told Xinhua. “How lucky I am here to witness this moment. I feel so proud as a Chinese.”

The video is part of the public diplomacy campaign by the Chinese government ahead of Chinese President Hu Jintao’s U.S. state visit. The video will be shown at Times Square 15 times every hour from 6 am to 2 am next day, totaling 20 hours and 300 times a day. It will last till Feb. 14 with a total of 8,400 times of show time.

Meanwhile, CNN also plans to run the video from Jan. 17 to Feb. 13.