Cartoonist Wan Wan (彎彎), Sunflower movement student leader Lin Fei-fan (林飛帆) and the Taipei MRT killing spree suspect, Cheng Chieh (鄭捷), topped the list of most-searched names on the Internet by Taiwanese netizens in the first half of the year.
Announced by the Yahoo-Kimo Web site this week, the popular searches reflect the public’s interest in news about these personalities and details of their personal lives.
The fallout from cartoonist Wan Wan’s extramarital affair continues, as she recently received death threats from netizens which prompted furious debates in the online community.
Wan Wan, whose real name is Hu Chia-wei (胡家瑋), issued a public apology after her extramarital affair was revealed on June 4 when the Chinese language Next Media Weekly published photographs of her kissing and embracing a fellow blogger, Huang Chien-ming (黃建銘).
Huang later also apologized for his actions, but netizens kept pouring scorn on him.
As she was a newlywed, the revelation of the extramarital affair have done irreparable damage to her wholesome image and led to widespread media coverage, along with heated discussion among netizens.
Many wrote to express their shock and disappointment at the affair, while others defended her, saying that the affair was Wan Wan’s private business and a misjudgement on her part, but they would continue to support her.
However, several netizens recently posted messages containing death threats against Wan Wan, according to the Chinese-language Apple Daily.
One of them, a netizen surnamed Koh, wrote: “You are a bad woman. You were fooling around outside to cheat your husband… If I meet you, I will kill you.”
Several people condemned the post.
“This is not what our society wants to see, making death threats against someone. It is not up to you to judge the rights and wrongs of Wan Wan’s affair,” a netizen with the online name “biendang man” wrote.
“People may say Wan Wan has set a bad example, calling her a loose woman. But taking such drastic action against her is not acceptable. She has already suffered enough from the ordeal, so please just let things be,” a netizen called “wei wei” wrote.
Along with people coming to her defense, some netizens continued to criticize Wan Wan, saying she has ruined the sacred institution of marriage.
Other netizens urged her to get a divorce and then marry Huang, who they said must surely be her true love.
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