In a ceremony yesterday, Korean popstar Rain was formally appointed as an environmental ambassador for the prevention of desertification in China. To kick off the campaign, he has released a new single, Treasure (珍爱)… in Mandarin! Listen to it after the jump.

This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Korean stars cross over into the Chinese market, but it’s certainly the first environmentally-themed example. And Rain isn’t your average K-pop idol—he topped the TIME 100 user poll of most influential people in 2007 (locking horns with arch-nemesis Stephen Colbert), and won the 2009 MTV Movie Award for “Biggest Badass Star” for his role in Ninja Assassin.

Nay, Rain is perhaps the king of Asian pop, and his star power will certainly come in handy as he works to raise awareness of Chinese environmental issues in the coming months as part of the “Korea-China Youth Environment Protection” program. Much of the promotional material that has been released for Rain’s upcoming Asia tour features a distinct “green” visual theme. In his own words:

I’ll do my best to prevent desertification in China. I worked especially hard on my Chinese pronunciations while recording this song. I hope to sing it to my fans at one of my concerts.

On the newly appointed ambassador’s agenda is the upcoming Environmental Protection Concert, slated to take place in Beijing on March 26 as the first leg of his tour. Rain’s legions of Chinese fans are already getting into the spirit of the event—they’ll be bringing their own plastic bags to the concert. If only getting people to clean up after themselves was always this easy…

(via allkpop, photos courtesy of Sina and TV Daily)

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