Guo Degang, China's most famous crosstalk performer, is to face legal action for making allegedly false claims in an advertisement for a "diet" tea.
  
The Xuanwu District People's Court in Beijing on Tuesday accepted a suit from a plaintiff surnamed Zhang, claiming she was cheated by Guo Degang who advertised Zang Mi Pai You, or Tibetan Secret Fat-Elimination Tea.
  
Zhang is seeking an apology and damages of 172 yuan (US$21.5) from Guo, the tea producer, a sales agency and the advertising company with a claim that they are guilty of commercial fraud.
  
In the advertisement, Guo said he had lost three kilograms since drinking the "miraculous Tibetan tea". His slogan "No big belly after three boxes of tea" soon became a popular catch phrase.
  
Zhang said she saw the advertisement in the second half of last year on the sides of many buses, together with the large picture of its "image ambassador" Guo.
  
Guo claimed that he found the tea was "pretty good", because he became much slimmer after drinking it.
  
Zhang said she bought three boxes of tea because she was a fan of Guo, but found she lost no weight at all and suffered nausea and vomiting.
  
She later learned from a China Central Television program on World Consumer Rights Day on March 15 that the tea had nothing to do with Tibet.
  
Meanwhile, the so-called research institute that served to promote the product was just a one-man company registered by the product's advertising company.
  
Guo was reportedly paid two million yuan (US$260,000)for the promotion. The Beijing Administration for Industry and Commerce demanded the tea be removed from sale in pharmacies in Beijing last month.
  
Guo has maintained on his website that he found the tea good.

(Xinhua News Agency April 11, 2007)