Edison Chen (陳冠希) broke cover yesterday to make his first public appearance since hundreds of sexually explicit photos surfaced on the Internet featuring the Canto-pop crooner and at least half a dozen female celebrities.
"I admit that most of the photos being circulated on the Internet were taken by me, but these photos were very private and have not been shown to people and were never intended to be shown to anyone," the 27-year-old said in a calm voice amid a flood of camera flashes from the hundreds of reporters gathered. "I have failed as a role model. However, I wish that this matter will teach everyone a lesson."
He said in a statement he would fulfill existing commitments before leaving the entertainment industry "indefinitely" and added that he would dedicate himself to charity and community work.
PHOTO: AFP
"I would like now to apologize to all the people for all the suffering that has been caused and the problems that have arisen from this," Chen said, reading out a statement in English to a packed press conference. "I've decided to do this to give myself an opportunity to heal myself and to search my soul."
Speculation on the reasons for Chen's nearly month long absence center on the alleged bounty placed on his life by triad figures. The Apple Daily Hong Kong, reports that an underworld figure has offered a US$91,000 for one of the fallen pop idol's hands, which Pop Stop can't help pointing out would still leave him one hand free to operate a camera whilst in flagrante delicto.
Other rumors include the possible filing of lawsuits as several of the photos in question show female stars, some observers say, under the influence of illicit drugs.
Worse still, for Chen and his former fellators, several tabloids claim that the mysterious arch-criminal behind the scandal, the self-dubbed Kira, promised to release more snaps on Chen's return to Hong Kong.
The traumatized star is said to have attempted suicide after his rich girlfriend Vincy Yeung (楊永晴) rejected his marriage proposal in light of the moral witchhunt.
While countless netizens wait with baited breath for the next celebrity to be caught with her pants down in the sex-photo scandal, cops in Shenzhen have arrested 10 people in connection with distributing obscene images, the BBC reports.
Possibly a disappointment to many, the Liberty Times (the Taipei Times' sister paper) cited an online rumor that claims the biggest storm in the Hong Kong showbiz history has already reached an, errr, climax as Kira has agreed a financial settlement with Chen's agent EEG (英皇娛樂) to stop the release of the remaining uncirculated pictures among the 1,300 steamy images. If the rumor proves to be true, many people's dreams of viewing pornographic images of Hong Kong model and actress Maggie Q (李美琪) and Taiwan's Jolin Tsai (蔡依林), also rumored to be Chen's lovers, could be dashed. Hong Kong belle and sometime-actress Rachel Ngan (顏穎思), however, isn't that lucky as photos of her and Chen recently began doing the rounds on the Net.
In other sex-photo news, new mom Cecilia Cheung (張柏芝) continues to face uncertainty in her marriage to pop star and bad boy Nicholas Tse (謝霆鋒) as the snaps featuring her with Chen appear to be the wildest of the bunch and, according to gossip mongers, were shot after Cheung and Tse had reunited after a split. According to Next (壹周刊), Cheung has twice threatened to commit suicide and take her baby's life if Tse dares to look at the pictures.
Gillian Chung (鍾欣桐) of pop duo Twins, however, seems to enjoy the continued support of her younger boyfriend Juno Mak (麥浚龍), who comes from a wealthy family, and is, reportedly, ready to marry her. When the photo scandal erupted during the Lunar New Year, Chung was reported to have taken refuge in Mak's mansion and chomped on abalone with his family, which is ironic since Chung, in various online polls, was voted as possessing the best "abalone" among Chen's girls.
Taking a breather from the sex-photo moral panic, the One Million Star (超級星光大道) pop idol "reality" show's bubble may have finally burst. The recently released compilation album by second season winners Lai Ming-wei (賴銘偉), Liang Wen-yin (梁文音) and others failed to make a splash in the charts.
Meanwhile, TTV's rival talent show Super Idol (超級偶像) is shamelessly following One Million Star's modus operandi by bringing back a loser for the sake of added drama. Apparently, it's now becoming customary practice to make a copycat out of a copycat out of a copycat.
Last week Joseph Nye, the well-known China scholar, wrote on the Australian Strategic Policy Institute’s website about how war over Taiwan might be averted. He noted that years ago he was on a team that met with then-president Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), “whose previous ‘unofficial’ visit to the US had caused a crisis in which China fired missiles into the sea and the US deployed carriers off the coast of Taiwan.” Yes, that’s right, mighty Chen caused that crisis all by himself. Neither the US nor the People’s Republic of China (PRC) exercised any agency. Nye then nostalgically invoked the comical specter
April 15 to April 21 Yang Kui (楊逵) was horrified as he drove past trucks, oxcarts and trolleys loaded with coffins on his way to Tuntzechiao (屯子腳), which he heard had been completely destroyed. The friend he came to check on was safe, but most residents were suffering in the town hit the hardest by the 7.1-magnitude Hsinchu-Taichung Earthquake on April 21, 1935. It remains the deadliest in Taiwan’s recorded history, claiming around 3,300 lives and injuring nearly 12,000. The disaster completely flattened roughly 18,000 houses and damaged countless more. The social activist and
Over the course of former President Ma Ying-jeou’s (馬英九) 11-day trip to China that included a meeting with Chinese Communist Party (CCP) leader Xi Jinping (習近平) a surprising number of people commented that the former president was now “irrelevant.” Upon reflection, it became apparent that these comments were coming from pro-Taiwan, pan-green supporters and they were expressing what they hoped was the case, rather than the reality. Ma’s ideology is so pro-China (read: deep blue) and controversial that many in his own Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) hope he retires quickly, or at least refrains from speaking on some subjects. Regardless
Approaching her mid-30s, Xiong Yidan reckons that most of her friends are on to their second or even third babies. But Xiong has more than a dozen. There is Lucky, the street dog from Bangkok who jumped into a taxi with her and never left. There is Sophie and Ben, sibling geese, who honk from morning to night. Boop and Pan, both goats, are romantically involved. Dumpling the hedgehog enjoys a belly rub from time to time. The list goes on. Xiong nurtures her brood from her 8,000 square meter farm in Chiang Dao, a mountainous district in northern Thailand’s