News Links - 2/21/08

[dleedlee]

Hong Kong's Edison Chen quits after sex scandal
"I have failed as a role model"

http://www.theusdaily.com/articles/view ... ertainment
Pop Star Gives up Career after Nude Photos
http://english.cri.cn/3086/2008/02/21/1261@325483.htm
Chen to retire from HK entertainment industry
Sitting at a solo table with a single microphone, Chen cut a lonely figure. Grey and skinny, he spoke without notes, in English, and with only a couple of hesitations. But as his voice faded and his apologies became repeated it became clear that he was a man in a state of shock. http://www.varietyasiaonline.com/content/view/5545/1/
Edison Chen: I Took Photos, I'm Sorry, I Quit Showbiz
http://batgwa.com/story.php?id=635

Joyce Cheng Addresses Media
http://www.batgwa.com/story.php?id=634
Tears flow over spirit of Fei Fei
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... 80221&fc=7
At death, she finally wins some PEACE
http://newpaper.asia1.com.sg/show/story ... 78,00.html?

"Drifting Flowers" review
From the director of "Spider Lilies"
http://www.screendaily.com/ScreenDailyA ... ryID=37414

Yoji Yamada, Yuya Ishii to be honored at AFAs
http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/con ... 6a97190d50

2R Refuse To Comment On Sex Photos Scandal
http://www.batgwa.com/story.php?id=631
Obscene or Indecent ?
How Obscene Articles Tribunal Adjudicators Classify Sexy Photos Gate
http://www.zonaeuropa.com/200802b.brief.htm#024

“The Connection Has Been Reset”

China’s Great Firewall is crude, slapdash, and surprisingly easy to breach. Here’s why it’s so effective anyway.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall

Lover feud splits Kwok brothers
The Kwok brothers are the third wealthiest people in Hong Kong
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... _year=2008
My ex-wife fell for a Kwok
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... _year=2008
`HK's Camilla' keeps mum
Kidnapped by "Big Spender" Cheung in 1996
http://www.thestandard.com.hk/news_deta ... con_type=3

[cal42]

"I admit that most of the photos being circulated on the internet were taken by me," the 27-year-old said.

Takes some guts to say that I suppose, but I think it was fairly obviously the case. Can't help but think that this him "giving up his career" is a cynical step. He's basically unsaleable right now anyway. Odds for a "comeback" in twelve months' time when most of this has blown over and he begs to be given a second chance?

[Fan]

I wonder who will be on tomorrow front page of the major local newspapers - Edison or Ching Cheong.

What a coincidence, the disasters they had are both coming from of something stored in their computers.

Newspaper says Hong Kong film filmmaker Ringo Lam arrested over fight with neighbor
http://sg.news.yahoo.com/ap/20080221/ta ... b07b8.html

Court battle begins over Anita Mui's HK$100m estate
http://hk.news.yahoo.com/080220/187/2p7f1.html



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[Brian Thibodeau]

Edison's apology video #2 (sounds about as rehearsed as his previous one)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DI-VqR9Nwgs

I wonder if he'll take more flack for doing it in English again?

"Heal myself"? "Search my soul?" Community and charity work? Please. I'm with Cal about him angling for a comeback down the road. It's surely tough to give up a life of ease. How much you wanna bet that charity and community work will be as public as possible, micromanaged by PR people right down to the last detail. Edison's just too arrogant by nature, as witnessed by virtually every entry ever written in his blog and every interview he ever gave, to really want to give up his career. This is just the first step to getting it back.

[JohnR]

Edison Chen is only guilty of being careless and foolish; beyond that, he's also a victim, as has been pointed out in other posts here at HKMDB. And yet he stepped up, alone, took responsibility and humbly and sincerely apologized. He didn't claim "drugs made me do it" and commit himself to a weekend in a resort rehab clinic; instead, he said he would take on community service projects.

I find all that commendable and a refreshing change from the way so many celebrities, businessmen, and politicians react to being caught, sometimes for behavior that seriously injures many other people (e.g. Enron).

Maybe I'm a sucker, but he just changed my view of him from negative to positive.

[dleedlee]

If the reports on various blogs can be believed, Edison's retirement may be more due to pressure from various sources and/or fear for his life. Besides bedding famous starlets, rumor has him in assignations with various spouses of wealthy men, memorialized in photos, of course. I'm guessing he will have to relocate to Canada or the US as a base for few years before he has a hope of being rehabilitated.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Edison Chen is only guilty of being careless and foolish; beyond that, he's also a victim, as has been pointed out in other posts here at HKMDB. And yet he stepped up, alone, took responsibility and humbly and sincerely apologized. He didn't claim "drugs made me do it" and commit himself to a weekend in a resort rehab clinic; instead, he said he would take on community service projects.

I find all that commendable and a refreshing change from the way so many celebrities, businessmen, and politicians react to being caught, sometimes for behavior that seriously injures many other people (e.g. Enron).

Maybe I'm a sucker, but he just changed my view of him from negative to positive.

Chen's victim status is largely his own fault. If he hadn't felt the need to catalogue his conquests—and really, what else could women be to him?—he would never have set himself up for any of this. It might never have happened, obviously—and we might never have known his alpha male attitudes towards the (apparently too willing) fairer sex—but the chances were greatly increased by his own hand, not to mention with the assistance of women so "silly and naive" as to let him do it without wondering if it was habitual or how they really ranked in his eyes. Mind you, he did what lots of people no doubt do, famous or not—and he did it repeatedly from the evidence—but he got revealed, and he's famous, and he's got a lot on the line, so humbling himself before the people of Hong Kong was the only option he had left. I'm still not sure I'm on the positive side about the guy, though, because I just can't reconcile this "new, improved" Edison Chen with the old, materialistic, arrogant Edison Chen who loved rubbing people's noses in his easily-gotten wealth while ever reminding them to "dun hate me".

If the reports on various blogs can be believed, Edison's retirement may be more due to pressure from various sources and/or fear for his life. Besides bedding famous starlets, rumor has him in assignations with various spouses of wealthy men, memorialized in photos, of course. I'm guessing he will have to relocate to Canada or the US as a base for few years before he has a hope of being rehabilitated.

Oh sure, send him back here! One has to suspect that these rumours of potential violence—whether or not they're even true—have to play on the mind of someone in a situation like that. The fact that they're reported so widely in the Hong Kong media as well only makes the odds more likely of some faceless kook—let alone some triad muscle—taking matters into their own hands. Knowing that both elements exist in the culture (like any other, really), I'd think Canada would be the place to be for a good long while, just to err on the safe side.

His career might recover, but it will be a much different beasty than it is now. And I'm sure he'll still be raking in dough the entire time he's off the scene.

“The Connection Has Been Reset”

China’s Great Firewall is crude, slapdash, and surprisingly easy to breach. Here’s why it’s so effective anyway.
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200803/chinese-firewall

So, they do it with mirrors! This is an amazing piece, a bit frightening too, when you think that most developed countries probably have this technology and could use it the same way China does if they really wanted to. Interesting that it all boils down to this, really:

All the technology employed by the Golden Shield, all the marvelous mirrors that help build the Great Firewall—these and other modern achievements matter mainly for an old-fashioned and pre-technological reason. By making the search for external information a nuisance, they drive Chinese people back to an environment in which familiar tools of social control come into play.

[ewaffle]

"I admit that most of the photos being circulated on the internet were taken by me," the 27-year-old said.

Takes some guts to say that I suppose, but I think it was fairly obviously the case. Can't help but think that this him "giving up his career" is a cynical step. He's basically unsaleable right now anyway. Odds for a "comeback" in twelve months' time when most of this has blown over and he begs to be given a second chance?

Retiring for someone who isn't employed by anyone but who is a freelancer simply means not working for a while. An analogy in professional sports (not that different from other forms of entertainment) would be a boxer vs. a member of a team in an organized league.

When Puerto Rican boxer Felix Trinidad "retired" after being defeated by Winky Wright in 2005 he simply did what he always did after a fight--went home, spent time with his family and the people he grew up with and relaxed since he didn't have to train--this time he just did it for a couple of years longer until a zillion dollar fight with Roy Jones jr. was put together.

However if a player on a professional baseball or hockey or other team sport retires he does something official which changes his relationship to every part of that sport including how and even if other teams can sign or even approach him. I would imagine this is the case for professional sports around the world.

In Chen's case, while his retirement announcement may be heartfelt and sincere at this point it will have no effect on what he does in the future. Regarding his own state of mind he is an actor who may well be, possibly not even intentionally, playing the role of a guilty person who is truly penitent.

[Brian Thibodeau]

In Chen's case, while his retirement announcement may be heartfelt and sincere at this point it will have no effect on what he does in the future. Regarding his own state of mind he is an actor who may well be, possibly not even intentionally, playing the role of a guilty person who is truly penitent.

Well said, Ed. I strongly suspect you might be right. Chen's not a very good actor, though, neither in his films nor in these apology videos, and this latest one feels, at least to me, like so much butt-covering. It feels more like the words of someone who really, down deep, believes he did nothing particularly wrong (except be careless, objectify willing women, etc.), but has to grudgingly face the flashbulbs when his private image is proven to be at very much at odds with his carefully-crafted public one—the shock! Mind you, the cameras were probably overwhelming, so a prepared speech with only small digressions was inevitable. If he seemed too distraught, or like he was "performing", he'd probably be accused of being too good an actor, a judgment yet to be levelled at any of his on-scsreen performances. For a 27-year-old, though, he sure as hell speaks like someone a lot younger . . .

Sometimes I think many Hong Kong celebrities would be far better off—and probably survive scandals a lot easier—if they'd ditch the PR people who concoct these "sunshine, lollipops and rainbows" images that get peddled to a public that probably doesn't fully buy into them in the first place.

[JohnR]

Brian wrote:

It feels more like the words of someone who really, down deep, believes he did nothing particularly wrong (except be careless, objectify willing women, etc.)

Well "except be careless, objectify willing women, etc." what did he do wrong? Nothing. He didn't publish the photos; he didn't try to extort money to not publish them; he didn't trick the women into allowing him to take them; he didn't take advantage of under age girls; he didn't etc., etc., etc. So why would he feel he did something more that was wrong?

I know next to nothing about Edison Chen. I never paid much attention to him, though I admit there's something about him that rubs me the wrong way. I've never read his blogs and am tempted to accept you all's view of him as being an arrogant prick. But having said that, I don't believe there was anything he could have said or any way he could have said it that you guys would accept.

If he didn't sound sincere in his apology you'd have blasted him for being phony; he did sound sincere and you accuse him of acting. I think the difference between you all and me is that I'm unaware of his past sins and am just looking at this incident by itself. Whereas I think you guys may be mixing past sins in with this one.

I may have gone too far in saying his apology moved my opinion of him from negative to positive. I'll re-state that as negative to neutral. But still, I think if you were to separate out past offences and just look at what happened in this incident and what his response to it was, especially compared to the celebrities, politicians, and businessmen who've gone before him for far more grievous offenses, you might agree with me.

Or not.

[Brian Thibodeau]

I may not agree with you when it comes to your "negative to positive" reaction to Chen's handling of the situation, but I agree wholeheartedly that neither he nor the girls in the videos with him did anything wrong, and have said that repeatedly through many of the "Daily News" threads of recent weeks related to this topic.

I just wish Hong Kong had a culture where a public apology such as this one wasn't necessary at all. Rarely do you see Hollywood celebs going out of their way to make public, televised apologies for their behaviour (politicians, maybe . . .) . They can do the phony rehab stints, community service, whatever, usually with some paps in tow, but it rarely becomes the kind of media event that something like this does in Hong Kong.

You're right about this: I don't like him and that's flavouring my opinion of him as it relates to the scandal. I should know better, really. Whenever a celebrity scandal erupts, be it in Hollywood or Hong Kong or anywhere in between, we do tend to see these people for what they really are: flawed human beings, as flawed as the rest of us and generally moreso (the "industry" seems to attract a certain personality). Even if someone is an arrogant prick, they're still entitled to their privacy. When they're public figures like Chen, they've got to work a lot harder to protect it because a lot of people are wondering when they'll fall. Chen clearly didn't have the brains (we certainly know he doesn't have the education) to protect himself and his private affairs. Sure, any celebrity could have screwed up like that, but Chen's in a minority here. Celebrities with scandals—and particularly ones like this—are far outnumbered by celebrities without them, and yet it's easy to imagine many of them doing the same kind of stuff he did, and then some. So much money. So much free time. He could have kept feasting at the buffet for a good long time, but his hubris and ignorance dealt him a severe blow (no pun intended, but then again . . .). I'm sure his career won't suffer for long. His bank account certainly won't, thanks to Clot.

I just wish the public persona of some of these people was a little closer to their private one. Act the way we know you are, within reason of course. Don't plasticize it. The "bubblegum" marketing aura that surrounds a lot of HK celebs in particular should be laid to rest. So a guy likes filming his conquests. And some gals don't mind being the next in line, or being filmed right along with him. Big deal. I just wish they'd stop trying to convince me they're something else entirely. Especially role models to impressionable young people. Chen admitted he was, albeit secretly, a bad one, so that's a step in the right direction. Most of them probably aren't and would prefer not to be, but the marketing machine is a mighty beast.