(GONG LEI)

Gao Xiaosong, China's famous songwriter and music producer, was sentenced to six months in prison and fined 4,000 yuan ($606) for drunken driving on May 17. Gao was also banned from driving for five years. He has become the first celebrity to be punished under newly amended Road Traffic Safety Law that came into effect on May 1.

On May 9, Gao crashed his Infiniti SUV into a car stopped at a red light in Beijing. Later, a blood test showed that Gao had 243.04 mg of alcohol for 100 ml of blood, three times over the legal alcohol limit of 80 mg within 100 ml of blood.

Gao, 42, won fame because of his campus ballad music in the 1990s. His representative works include the song My Deskmate and the song collection Youth of No Regrets.