After raising the ire of some Singaporeans when Chinese actress Gong Li did not show up to collect her identity card in early Sep, her presence at last Saturday's citizenship ceremony has caused furore among Chinese netizens, in which a large handful unabashedly called her names and condemned her for foresaking her homeland.

The east Shandong actress, who propelled to international fame in her Oscar-nominated performance in "Raise the Red Lantern", has been the subject of personal attack in Chinese commmunity forums, all because she chose to renounce her Chinese citizenship.

Sohu, a popular Chinese portal, published poll results showing close to a thousand Chinese netizens who objected to her new citizenship status.

"What's so great about a foreign citizenship? Boycott Gong Li! What kind of role model is she?", wrote one netizen.

Another netizen's comment read: "How do you think you managed to rise to fame if it wasn't because of your local fans and audience? Once you qualify as a citizen of another country, you abandon us. Are you trying to say that China is not as good as other countries? You claim that you love your country and that your roots are in China - it's all a load of rubbish!"

Snide remarks such as "fake Chinese", "traitor" and "celebrity brat" were just a few of the unkind comments left by netizens. Other remarks were not only harsh, but crude as well.

Although majority of the netizens left negative remarks, less than five netizens had left positive comments, respecting her decision and explaining that it is a matter of personal preference.

Bloggers have also picked up on the news of Gong Li's new citizenship status and their perceptions were mostly neutral.

One of the bloggers even went to the extent of listing three reasons as to why the actress chose to be a Singapore citizen - first, because of marriage and love (her husband, Ooi Hoe Seng, is a Singaporean); second, to look after her grandparents who are situated in Singapore; and last of all, because of career advancement in a country that has "international" appeal and is one of the four Asian tigers.

It is not certain as to whether these three reasons are true.

Such news of Chinese celebrities renouncing their citizenship is not new and Gong Li is definitely not the first to do so. As early as mid-2006, a list of more than 10 Chinese celebrities who had renounced their citizenship appeared on the Internet and caused a storm that has been brewing ever since.

Media reports confirmed that actor Jet Li, acclaimed director Chen Kaige and his actress wife Chen Hong, actress Jiang Liwen and her director husband Gu Changwei, and award-winning actress Joan Chen had become US citizens. Other celebrities are known to have opted for citizenships of other countries such as Canada, UK, Germany and Switzerland.

Zhang Ziyi, another Chinese actress who was involved in a few Hollywood films, has not renounced her citizenship although she is based in Hollywood and engaged to American tycoon Vivi Nevo.

In fact, she holds a Hong Kong passport and told Harper's Bazaar that she has never thought of becoming an American.