Since Brad Pitt’s January foray into China was foiled — virtual foray, we mean — we haven’t heard much from him. (But World War Z trailers — those we’ve seen aplenty.) And Angelina Jolee Jolie, what’s she up to?

Learning Chinese, it turns out. Via Marie Claire:

A source is quoted saying: ‘Brad and Angelina want their children to be international and reckon China will soon be the most powerful country in the world and it’s also the world’s largest culture and one of the oldest.’

Maybe they’ll adopt a Chinese kid, goes the speculation.

The source added: ‘Angie is broody and friends reckon the next child will be Chinese as they have become so obsessed with the country.’

Did you hear that? Even if Brangelina’s next child isn’t from here — we thought one has to be allowed into a country before adopting one of its children — they’re obsessed with China. We hope this means they’re interested in China’s fast-changing landscape, social movements, political future, etc., and not, say, chopsticks and jade.

Learning Mandarin is a good start. We should all prepare for the day when it’s mandatory, because Firefly is right.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie learning Mandarin (Marie Claire, h/t That’s Mandarin)

Brad Pitt, who is technically still banned from China thanks to his role in the 1997 movie Seven Years in Tibet, opened a verified Sina Weibo account yesterday, @Brad_Pitt. His first message, published at exactly noon, was simple and to the point*: “It is the truth. Yup, I’m coming…” In two hours, according to Tech in Asia, that post had amassed more than 8,000 comments and 20,000 forwards.

And now it’s been deleted. Welcome to China indeed, Mr. Pitt.

As you can see in the above screenshot, Brad Pitt, he of 175,399 followers, doesn’t technically have any messages as of this moment. Hmm.

Let’s take a closer look:

Maybe he isn’t coming to China after all?

At the moment, we can’t be sure whether he deleted the message himself (by which we mean his PR people) or if it was the work of Sina Weibo’s censors, who, in light of all that has been happening in the past few days, may want to play it safe instead of giving one of the world’s most popular actors — and certainly the most high-profile actor banned from the mainland — his own soapbox. We’ll keep an eye on it for you, paparazzi-style.

*UPDATE, 11:51 pm: I might have mischaracterized Pitt’s message when I called it “simple and to the point.” It’s actually cryptic and confusing as all hell.

(H/T Eric Fish)

UPDATE, 2/15, 9:06 am: Brad Pitt’s Sina Weibo account is gone.