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Feet of clay beneath a golden idol

The background of entertainer Jacky Wu (吳宗憲) has been recently exposed : his wife, his children, his upbringing, his life before he struck it big.

The tiniest minutia was not overlooked -- and the audience just couldn't get enough. Even the high school graduation photo of Chang Wei-wei (張葳葳), or Mrs Wu, made the papers.

Probably within no time at all, a soap opera will portray Chang as a Taiwanese variation of the heroines of the famous Japanese soap-opera "Oshin" (阿信) or the ancient Chinese tale "Chin Hsiang-lien" (秦香蓮), whose two female protagonists are heartlessly betrayed by their men. Who knows whether some producer is already hot on the trail of four child stars to play Wu's kids?

In the current atmosphere of "de-politicizing" Taiwan, we have way too much untapped social energy at hand. And if we examine the roots of celebrity-worshipping, we will see that at its core is a collective hysteria.

The secret of Wu's stardom, of his rise to the status of "local king" (本土天王) was his ability fully to grasp this collective psychological disorder, a condition that is self-abusive as well as abusive to others.

On TV, Wu shows no mercy in for the flaws and mistakes of others, be it guests on his shows, other entertainers, or members of the audience. He lifts up women's skirts as a way of mocking them and he relentlessly picks on those who are weaker -- those whose tongues are less sharp, who are meeker. Wu's wit reveals a cruelty on the part of the general public that is generally hidden and restrained by society. His audiences love him, for he satisfies their voyeuristic desires. Jacky's rapid rise symbolizes the blood-thirsty nature of TV audiences.

Wu's predicament derives from the feeling of infinite invincibility that a celebrity often experiences at the peak of success. They often forget that when the audience's appetite has been endlessly provoked, its sense of cruelty also expands boundlessly.

Those who rise by making media waves will inevitably witness the power the media has to destroy idols.

Ping Lu is a social critic and columnist.
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