Severe flooding caused by torrential rainfall in China’s Henan region has left dozens dead and hundreds of thousands displaced, and many celebrities have stepped up to offer donations to aid with relief efforts.

On Wednesday (Jul 21), Chinese actress Angelababy’s work studio shared an image of a receipt showing that she had donated 500,000 yuan (S$105,000) to the Zhengzhou Red Cross Society.

The 32-year-old also posted a list of helpful phone numbers and information on her personal Weibo account.

Instead of praising Angelababy for her generosity, some netizens decided to lambast her for “donating too little”, especially for an A-lister of her status.

“She makes 80mil yuan (S$16.9mil) per episode, and she only donates 500,000 yuan?” scoffed one, while another pointed out, “A top-tier celeb donating 500,000 yuan is really not considered a lot at all, especially if she can earn hundreds of millions from one drama.”

Someone also slammed Angelababy for “having the nerve” to contribute just half a million yuan when her ultra-lavish 2015 wedding to Huang Xiaoming allegedly cost a whopping 200mil yuan (S$42mil).

In addition, the mother-of-one was compared unfavourably to other stars like Nicky Wu and Liu Shishi, Rainie Yang and Li Ronghao, Sun Li and Deng Chao, Yang Mi, Lu Han, and Zhao Liying, all of whom announced that they would each be giving 1mil yuan (S$211,000).

On the other hand, fans came to Angelababy’s defense by saying that naysayers’ acts of ‘moral kidnapping’ (a Chinese term that basically means forcing someone to do something in the name of being a good person) is completely unnecessary, and that it’s her willingness to show compassion that matters.

Supportive comments include: “We shouldn’t use money to measure kindness. Donate what you can and do what you can. At this time, the common goal should be to overcome these difficulties together with Henan”, “What’s wrong with other people donating their own money?”, and “Please focus on the Henan disaster and don’t impose your morality on others”.

Angelababy isn’t the only one who was accused of being stingy — Chinese singers Victoria Song and Cheng Xiao also came under fire for their respective donations of 300,000 yuan (S$63,000) and 100,000 yuan (S$21,100).

“I know this is ‘moral kidnapping’, but this is quite disappointing. Even Z-listers know how to show more gratitude than her,” one said of Victoria, 34.

Some even speculated that Cheng Xiao probably owns handbags that are worth more than the amount she gave. However, the 23-year-old wasn’t going to take the criticism lying down and went on a now-deleted rant about people always having something to say no matter how much or how little you donate, or whether you donate anything at all.

“Since when did we start measuring a person by the donations they make? Donating is not a competition… Everyone will do their part. Pay more attention to the issue at hand, okay…” she wrote.

Photos: Angelababy’s work studio/Weibo, Cheng Xiao/Weibo, Victoria Song/Weibo