BEIJING - CHINESE actress Zhang Ziyi may have won countless fans for her performances on the big screen, but her singing effort at one of China's biggest televised events of the year has been widely panned.

The star of hit movies such as 'Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon", 'Memoirs of a Geisha' and 'Hero' was one of the celebrities to line up at Wednesday's Lunar New Year gala show on national broadcaster CCTV.

Despite looking beautiful in a pink dress amid a stunning floral backdrop, her attempt to sing a specially composed song, 'Fairy Scattering Flowers", was wide criticised for what appeared to be second-rate lip synching.

The state-run Xinhua news agency carried an 850-word article focusing on the the bitter reviews on Internet blogs and in newspapers for her seemingly out-of-time performance.

'Zhang came in for public criticism because she was an amateur singer who was not well-prepared and even forgot words,' Xinhua said, citing an article in the Modern Express newspaper in eastern China's Jiangsu province.

'The article attributed her poor performance to 'a lack of experience'.'

A copy of her gala appearance on Chinese Internet video-sharing website Tudou.com indeed appeared to indicate she was lip synching.

However the general director of the gala event, Chen Linchun, remained firm that Zhang's performance was genuine, according to Xinhua.

'(Her singing) was not broadcast from video,' Xinhua quoted Chen as saying. -- AFP