Former NBA star Yao Ming may expand his business interests to the movie industry by putting together a film-financing fund with American indie film producer Jay Cohen, Reuters reports.
Cohen said one of the reasons for the fund is because China's film industry is different from Hollywood's where the focus is firmly fixed on the bottom line.
"They (the Chinese) make movies for specific reasons," Cohen said. "Sometimes, it's to introduce the culture of China to other markets; sometimes for cultural history. No one is going to lose money, but sometimes they do it out of a sense of cultural pride."
Yao's public relations team said whether the former basketball star waded into the film industry was still in the negotiation stage and no final decisions had been made.
After Yao retired from basketball last year, he got involved in various business interests, including catering, selling red wine and playing the stock market.