Open Thread: Edison Chen

by Racialicious Special Correspondent Latoya Peterson

Edison Chen

Edison Chen is a Chinese-Canadian pop star in Hong Kong who has recently found himself in a bit of trouble.

Innocently taking his Macbook in for repair, Chen – who had announced plans to marry his long time girlfriend – found himself embroiled in a sex scandal in which the upwards of 1,300 photos of him engaging in various acts with different HK starlets were released to the wilds of the internet.

What I find remarkable about this particular sex scandal is that the American media (among other countries) noticed. That in itself is amazing, as almost all the news I get about Asian pop stars comes from specialty blogs and my friends who translate the important stuff for me. According to the Wiki, news sources like CNN, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, and MSNBC. I was reading Radar this morning and they are providing some sort of ongoing coverage.

So, my next thought is why? Why cover this scandal?

In one respect, the scandal is big news just for the sheer volume of photos. Hot damn – 1300? Was Edison Chen an amateur pornographer on the side?

And Americans love sex, but how many of them knew who Edison Chen was before the story broke? Is part of the coverage being fueled by shock? Is the idea of an Asian man bedding that many women surprising?

Third, how much of the coverage and web searching is fueled by the fetish factor? The Edison Chen photos do represent some of the hottest Asian stars of the current era.

Finally, I am interested in the fall out from the story. The majority of the punishment is falling on Chen for making the choices he made. So far, it has been reported that he is being blackmailed, lost at least one sponsorship deal and was pulled from an upcoming film. (One of the starlets involved, Gillian Cheung, is also experiencing some complaints and reportedly was pulled from a Chinese New Year celebration video.)

This is fascinating, as it stands in direct opposition to how the American media reports on scandals like this. What if a comparable male celebrity in the US had leaked this many photos? (Like, say, Wilmer Valderrama or Adrian Grenier – both of whom have been rumored to get around?) Would either man have been penalized by his sponsors? How much scrutiny would the US female starlets receive? How would the media treat the women involved in the scandal?

I’ll be keeping an eye on this one, but what are your thoughts?

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Freakonomics — Media Assassin on 04 Mar 2008 at 11:48 am

[...] never heard of Canadian-Chinese pop singer Edison Chen, 27, until a link on racialicious.com told me his sordid story. In short: Brother took a laptop in to have it fixed. [...]

Comments

Cynthia wrote:

What isn’t mentioned in this post is that the actresses involved are not exactly Lindsey Lohan/Britney Spears types, but more along the lines of Reese Witherspoon or Kate Hudson. A scandal like this would ruin their career. Also, much of the criticism isn’t coming from the west, but in Asia. I first heard about this issue on February 4 or so. This wasn’t reported on Entertainment Tonight Canada for another week or two.

I don’t know how this would be reported here, but it would probably depend on the celebrity involved. An actor involved with Britney or Lindsey? They’ll still get work, although it may be possible that they’d be banned from making appearances on certain shows. Natalie Portman or Reese Witherspoon? As I said earlier, it’s career over. As for the men, I’m not sure. I can’t really think of an actor who has some sort of innocence about him, someone who is very much a boy-next-door or even someone who looks very “distinguished” and “upper class” to the point that he could be a politician (and such a tape or pictures could ruin his career). There’ll definitely be criticism if the pictures were of gay sex though.

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 12:52 pm ¶
Allen wrote:

He only apparently bedded six or seven women. He just released a lot of photos from the same girls. Just for clarification.

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 3:01 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:

But most, if not all of the women in the pictures have clean, good-girl reputations. It’s not like they’re Lindsey Lohan types. Edison Chen has single handedly ruined the careers of all of these actresses! Honestly, if say, Zhang Ziyi were involved, people would NOT be talking about it the same way, since she doesn’t exactly have the cleanest rep in the Asian tabloid world.

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 3:44 pm ¶
Lauren O wrote:

I have to disagree with the assertion that sex photos of Natalie Portman or Reese Witherspoon would ruin those actresses’ careers. It would be more shocking than similar photos of Britney or Lindsay, sure, but they wouldn’t be pulled from movie or shows or sponsorship deals. The worst that would happen is that a higher percentage of people would think of them negatively. Ultimately, they’d probably get more attention, and it would probably have a net positive effect on their careers.

And Allen, thanks for the clarification. I was under the impression that it was 1300 women, and I was quite shocked. Maybe that had something to do with some subconscious notion of desexualized Asian men, but the number 1300 is pretty insane for anyone.

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 4:47 pm ¶
gandalf mantooth wrote:

The HK tabloid media tends to exaggerate things. A lot of reports that have come out since the story broke have been proven false. A story about Triads putting a price on EC’s head sells papers.

HK media stars (male and female) appear to have to keep up an extraordinarily high front of chasteness and purity. I wonder if run of the mill fans care less about this than the people who run the companies (entertainment as well as news)? There have been rumors for a few years about Gillian Cheung and CC’s private behavior, so maybe this isn’t as shocking as it’s being portrayed.

The US media was relatively late to pick this up, and really haven’t focused on it so much from what I’ve seen. The reason that it’s being discussed at all is because of how important “gossip” has become to MSM. Pretz (intentional typo) Hilton has his own bloody show on TV. To quote Thurston Howell III, “I mean, really.”

Anything that smells like scandal is going to be covered. And we’re really to blame.

Any “exotification” aspect of this is secondary, maybe tertiary to the fact it’s simply a sex scandal. The large amount of web coverage? The stardom of these people extends beyond HK. And it’s naked ladies.

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 7:31 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

You know…I have to whole heartedly agree with #5, GM. I think his analysis of our own MSM’s fascination with “if it bleeds, it leads” and “stars and their sex lives are the most titillating things in the world” is probably behind the coverage, with some good old fashioned racism and fetish fury thrown in.

On another note…how many of us would look like perverts, crazy conspiracy theorists, or anything else, if someone got a hold of our laptop? I think the ethics behind giving someone to what amounts to your diary in the tech age and then that person using it to damage your rep is what people world wide are also really concerned about. I mean, your doctor has ethics regarding releasing info, should your computer doc have them as well?

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 10:47 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:

Nice to see pics of a guy who REALLY knows how to put his back into it, but anyways….

One of the ladies was married at the time these pics were taken, and it’s seriously about to get ugly.

Posted 20 Feb 2008 at 10:57 pm ¶
Lisa wrote:

I can’t attest to how the Western media is covering it; in Mainland China there is a bit of cautious glee at watching the mighty fall, and I hear in Hong Kong it’s huge.

These are in fact more Britney Spears type starlets: all-round pop stars that act, sing, dance, but all rather packagedly and woodenly. Very few of them will maintain any sort of career past age 30, when they can no longer sell the cute, young, sexily fetishizable thing. They sell entirely on the kewpie eyed, innocent (with a hint of kinky) girl-next-door thing. The typical Cantopop machine.

Part of the frenzy is that Gillian Cheng has been very moralistic and preachy that premarital sex is evil, so her being involved in this is about the same as Britney scandal or a right wing politician getting busted for gay soliciting.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:09 am ¶
amparo wrote:

The thing here is Gilliam Cheung keeps on portraying that she is a good good girl, all moral and role model for school kids and everything, no pre-marital sex talks, we HK people do understand everybody has their own sex live, what they want to do during their private moments is none of our business, but she is such a hypocrite that you get to dislike her. .. unlike Cecilia Cheung (married to Nicholas Tse) she is a playing girl, so nobody is too shock after the exposure of the photo, in fact, i am a bit worried about her marriage.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 4:01 am ¶
Happy Face wrote:

Just to clarify, Edison did not manually take 1300 pictures. He simply shot a bunch of sex videos with some of the hottest women in the hk industry. The criminal, ‘Kira’, who stole all the sex files from Edison’s laptop, modified the videos to make them into 1300 still images and then distributed them. If you look at the pictures, you will see that they are all sequential.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 5:04 am ¶
LeAnne wrote:

I get what you are saying, but I think you are taking it too far. Men get bashed much more than women in the media. Period. American entertainment is pretty rough on the dudes. Remember the scruitiny Brad Pitt, Jude Law and Ryan Phillippe have gotten for the sordid past?
hairsmystory.com

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 6:52 am ¶
EH wrote:

Man I feel pretty bad for the dude.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:19 am ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

LeAnne – That’s not true at all. Jezebel has been following this in detail:

http://jezebel.com/351565/are-women-with-issues-treated-as-sensitively-as-men
http://jezebel.com/357683/us-editor-claims-women-want-covers-that-exploit-female-celebs

We may discuss what men are doing, but they are subject to a lot less judgment and a lot more respect.

Gandalf –

Yes, the stardom of these people does extend far beyond HK, but in major American papers? On an ongoing basis? I understand most outlets picking up the Chen story as a one time item of interest. But Radar and I believe one other news source is claiming to have ongoing coverage.

I just find it interesting that American pop media, with their myopic focus on D-list celebs (when the A-listers are in rehab, anyway) would actually wake up and notice that there are celebs in other countries.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:42 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:

Just a note: Edison wasn’t a CBC (Canadian Born Chinese….he’s from Vancouver), I’m not sure if this would have gotten this far. It’s not like Edison is a male Zhang Ziyi or anything of that sort. He’s done few bigger named movies in the west and only has a very small role in the new Batman movie, Dark Knight.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:50 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:

^^^ Should say “IF Edison wasn’t a CBC…

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:51 am ¶
gandalf mantooth wrote:

Latoya,

First, I’m guessing you’ve heard, EC says he will retire from “Hong Kong entertainment” indefinitely. However he’s already started his Hollywood career, and there’s always Taiwan.

Yes, stars outside HK. Not talking about the West.

Radar is not in my estimation a major news outlet. “pop, politics, Scandal, style, that’s their motto. Well, I guess they’re at least up front about it.

Besides, now that Lohan has her kit off for the camera they have other things to talk about.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 10:56 am ¶
OW wrote:

“Is the idea of an Asian man bedding that many women surprising?”

I’ve had my moments of racial/masculinist paranoia (as an Asian American man) but that’s presuming too much.

Western media loves a sex scandal, period, and in any case, American media is simply following what is a massive story in Asia. I don’t think coverage here in the States has been that heavy; it’s not as if Edison Chen will become a household name off this in America.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 11:02 am ¶
deb wrote:

Maybe that had something to do with some subconscious notion of desexualized Asian men, but the number 1300 is pretty insane for anyone.

Hey, the late Wilt Chamberlain claimed to have had sex with 20,000 women!

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 11:05 am ¶
Kaonashi wrote:

Lesson Learned: If you have ANY sort of compromising pictures at all on your computer TAKE THEM ALL OFF before you get it serviced. IT guys LIVE for this type of stuff and if you are famous watch out.

Okay, this whole thing just veered out of the “Hmmm….this is hot” neighborhood and is headed straight towards fucked-up-ville.

Apparently, Edward is now in HIDING (on top of ending his career) because a couple of these girls had “family” (as in, the sort of people you don’t want to mess with) members who are really, REALLY pissed off about the whole thing. Now it might be just rumor mill that these people put a hit out on his life, but one story that keeps cropping up is the “we’ll pay an exorbitant amount of money for Edward’s chopped off hand” one. Terrible, either way.

So now he’s in the States and might not ever return to HK. He should get a career here and piss off EVERYONE IMO.

Also, Nicolas has separated from Cecilia Cheung and is demanding a paternity test for their son. Apparently Edward isn’t the only guy she “played” with while they were together.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 12:26 pm ¶
Steven R Wingate wrote:

I have never heard of this guy ever.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 1:15 pm ¶
yan wrote:

If this is the America I live in. I find that there actually are Chinese people living who may read English papers and interested in the stars in their home town (like myself). It might be shocking to white americans but some of us DO read English, and do watch CNN, it’s not catering only to white people who don’t know who these stars are.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:14 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

You know, he is rep’d stateside by William Morris and he has an American PR firm. It could be that they could have had something to do with the coverage being so massive (comparatively speaking).

I still think that this is a combination of things. But LaToya, you are right, racism and stereotypes about Asian men so have something to do with it….although, usually with stereotypes, the MSM doesn’t acknowledge things that go against the prevailing stereotype. Usually their MO is to ignore things that blast open stereotypes….

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:29 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

Yan –

I don’t doubt that at all. I just find the coverage interesting – as I said before – because American pop coverage has such a narrow focus. I can count how many times I’ve seen a major outlet report on something happening with an international star that was not white.

It’s also fairly embarassing as the foreign news feeds tend to cover our entertainment industry very well, along with the other major world capitals. It’s just American coverage that focuses almost solely on American artists.

Gandalf & Kaonashi – Thanks for the updates. Like I said, I was shocked to hear about this – I don’t follow HK news, just S. Korea & Japan so this popped into one of my American newsfeeds.

Cynthia –

Sorry, forgot to thank you before for the perspective. My knowledge of HK film is really limited to certain stars and franchises (think crime dramas and some romantic comedies w/ Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau, Sammi Cheng, Cecilia Chung). So it is interesting to see that dynamic as well.

If Jake Gyllenhaal’s laptop leaked and there were sexy pics of Reese on the internet, would that ruin her career? Not sure on this one…she does have that whole “America’s New Sweetheart” vibe, but I don’t think she’s going for superwholesome roles that would require her to pretend like she doesn’t have a sex drive.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:36 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

Michelle – Good point. Like I said, I threw multiple possibilites in the mix, but I think it garnered so much coverage due to (1) the sheer amount of photos [but as Happy Face wrote, they were stills made from video] and (2) the general hotness of the people involved, coupled with some slow celeb gossip.

Still, it is an interesting diversion from Britney, right?

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:39 pm ¶
Hot Tramp wrote:

Since this is the first I’ve heard of it, and I’m stuck on how handsome Chen is, I’m afraid my thoughts at the moment consist of, “How much Googling would it take to find those ’scandalous’ pictures?”

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:49 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:

Hot Tramp,

Edison may be hot, but it’s in a bad boy/Justin Timberlake sort of way…

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:54 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

HT –

Google quick – I think they are trying to get the photos removed, and one person from the Chinese site who uploaded the photos got served something by the Government. Again, in the Wiki.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 2:56 pm ¶
Lisa wrote:

I dunno, it seems like America has enough dumb celebs to be pointlessly obsessed with to need to import more. If Americans are going to pay attention to Hong Kong, I’d rather it be to Legco wrangling and the struggle to preserve free press, to achieve universal sufferage, to keep developers from further destroying the place than the sexcapades of silly starlets.

Yesterday Lebanese news was making fun of the US, saying most Americans probably think Obama is the latest hip-hop star. This was in the context of saying how the US ambassador is the biggest celebrity in Lebanon (after Fairouz, of course), and Washington tries to dictact its government, but most Americans couldn’t find it on the map. Let alone have heard about the constitutional crisis in that struggling democracy.

American awareness of the world is abysmal.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:08 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

Oh yeah….they are sending the people who leaked the photos and people who are downloading (or who originally downloaded?) the photos to jail.

On CNN they had all these people rounded up in hoods sending them off to jail!

And, I think the boy is fine (as in handsome) and watch, he is about to get a nice little career here in Hollywood. Mark my words, people.

And if something like that leaked about Jake and Reese (Rake? Jesse? Gyllenspoon?) I think people would rush to her defense. Poor Reese and some bad bad man who leaked her intimate details! Now, if it was Resse and Jake, Reese and Ryan, Reese and Orlando Bloom, Reese and Juaquin, well, then she’s got a problem on her hands.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 8:16 pm ¶
jessy wrote:

he have a reputation as a bad boy/ playboy in asia so i’m not surprise at all. at least now people from all over the world know him.

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 10:28 pm ¶
Cynthia C wrote:

For people who have seen his apology video: Does anyone find it weird that he doesn’t “sound Canadian”? I’m pretty sure he spent the first half of his life in Canada, yet he sounds like he’s lost a bit of his Canadian accent (i.e. his accent sounds a little Hong Kongish).

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 11:45 pm ¶
Cynthia C wrote:

^^^ His apology video is in English, by the way

Posted 21 Feb 2008 at 11:46 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

I found it very interesting that his apology video is in English since most of his work (films, videos, music, etc.) is in Chinese, correct. Curious, no?

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 1:08 am ¶
dramelyrique wrote:

“I still think that this is a combination of things. But LaToya, you are right, racism and stereotypes about Asian men so have something to do with it….although, usually with stereotypes, the MSM doesn’t acknowledge things that go against the prevailing stereotype. Usually their MO is to ignore things that blast open stereotypes….”

But there also exists the Asian men as perverts/voyeurs stereotype “All Asian men grope women.” “All Asian men consume lots and lots of porn.” “All Asian men don’t know how to approach women so they buy blow up dolls.” and so on. I constantly hear similar statements from many white (almost always male) expats in Japan and people in the US and Europe, too.

It contradicts the Asian men as asexual beings stereotype but have contradictory stereotypes ever been problematic when it comes to racism?

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 4:14 am ¶
Cynthia wrote:

Michelle,

Edison IS Canadian born, and DID spend half his life on this side of the Pacific, which is why I’m not surprised that he spoke English. What I AM surprised about is his accent, which is NOT the standard Vancouverite speak.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 9:30 am ¶
Erika wrote:

I’m sick of the whole madonna-whore complex going on here — there are some people out there blaming the actresses for not being “pure” enough. What in the hell?
I mean, it’s not very smart to take naked pictures in general if you’re a celebrity (unless they want lots of negative publicity), but at the same time, it’s not like they were leaked as a publicity stunt, like a lot of celebrities do in the US. It’s lame that there’s such a big outcry over this.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 1:19 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:

But Erika,

Many actresses/celebs in Hong Kong are packaged by their management as being girl-next-door/pure types because they think that’s what sells to the mass market. I don’t really understand it either, but that’s the way things are over there (especially since most of the girls involved are in their mid-20s…it’s hard to believe that any woman in that age group would even BE a virgin in 2008!)

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 1:41 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

Cynthia,

It doesn’t surprise me that an Asian person can be born in Canada, and/or speak English. Let me be clear, before you jump to conclusions.

What is curious is that he builds and entire career in the Chinese language. He has a mainly Chinese audience, he is featured mainly in the HK press, the starlets that he is featured with are all HK starlets, and yet, when it comes to his apology and a statement that his career is over, he does it in English. I only bring it up because I thought it was curious, IN REGARDS to his fans, public and the people who he is apologizing to. Now, of course, many if not most, speak English, but my point is that since this is getting so much American press (comparatively speaking) it seems almost calculated to give your apology in English. I wonder if his American PR firm suggested that.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 1:55 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:

Michelle,

Do you think his US PR company made him speak with that weird accent? Because it’s DEFINITELY NOT standard Canadian.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 2:04 pm ¶
Jay wrote:

It contradicts the Asian men as asexual beings stereotype but have contradictory stereotypes ever been problematic when it comes to racism?

That “sexual but they don’t get the girl because they suck” bit has always been a stereotype.

Something like Gedde Watanabe’s character in Sixteen Candles, or Mickey Rooney’s character in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

But this case doesn’t really match that.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 2:58 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

Again,

I am in the small minority of Americans who can’t distinguish between a standard Canadian Chinese accent, a standard accent from HK, or some of the other major variations within the Chinese speaking diaspora.

My point is not how is speaking English, but why he is speaking English, given the bulk of his work is for the HK media. Now, since he seemed to be saying goodbye to his fans, the HK film industry, his co-stars, fellow cast and crew members, it seems a little calculated that he gave his “Farewell HK” speech in English.

However, your point is incredibly valid. I can’t comment with any knowledge, however, because I can’t really pick up on all the variations of the different accents throughout the Chinese diaspora.

I also wasn’t aware of the issues/stereotypes that were brought up in #34. It seems that every stereotype has an even uglier flip side.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 7:59 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:

Michelle,

As Edison was born in Vancouver and spent half his life there, his accent should be indistinguishable from a white person or a person of any race who spent his or her childhood there. I probably speak with a standard Canadian accent, and you can here it in most of my videos on Youtube

(my videos can be found at http://www.youtube.com/user/alumnagirl )

Edison’s vid: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hchAVv76_Ns (not very sharp)…he sounds mostly Canadian, but a bit of his pronuciation sounds a little off.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 8:33 pm ¶
Latoya Peterson wrote:

Mod Note:

Cynthia, Michelle can’t answer your question. Hopefully, someone who is familiar with these types of accents will come and answer. Michelle is asking a different question. Unless you plan to respond to her question, we need to drop the back and forth.

/mod

Michelle – Yeah, I was wondering the same thing. English is more widespread than we think in Asia…but this does feel more like PR than anything else.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 10:00 pm ¶
Cynthia wrote:

All I’m trying to say is that Edison, at times, sounds “foreign”….more like, say, Jackie Chan than say, some news anchor on television.

Posted 22 Feb 2008 at 10:22 pm ¶
Torontonian wrote:

Hey Cynthia,

I watched about half of Edison Chen’s apology video, and I don’t really hear any accent, except maybe when he says “Hong Kong”. I also watched half of your video, and I don’t really hear any accent either, except a little bit of a British accent. Then again, in Toronto, you hear lots of accents, so maybe there is less standardization.

Also, there is no such thing as a “Chinese Canadian” accent.

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 12:25 am ¶
LeAnne wrote:

Well, I just saw the photos.

I always thought Edison Chen was hot in The Grudge 2….hmm….
hairsmystory.com

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 12:34 pm ¶
Cynthia C wrote:

I asked my mom why she thought Edison delivered his apology in English. She doesn’t think it’s because Edison possibly wants to do more movies in the west. Instead, her response was that he might be more comfortable speaking English, despite predominantly working in the Chinese speaking media because he’s Canadian born, especially when it comes to something like an apology (no matter how much of it was written by his management). Please keep in mind though, that this is my mom’s opinion.

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 2:36 pm ¶
Michelle wrote:

I don’t know how many of you are familiar with a website called IMDB. It stands for Internet Movie Database. Anywho, it is a very valuable tool for anyone in the film and television industry. It lists credits for every actor and more importantly, rates actors on the “starmeter”, a tool that supposedly assesses an actor’s stardom.

So on the Pro version of the website (for industry “insiders”, another curious note), there is an article all about our boy, with a link to another article in the Hollywood reporter.

Now, when I first IMDB’d him, he had a publicist, an agent (WMA) and a manager based in HK. Now, it lists an American manager, who has a few big names. Curious, eh?

And! Guess whose star meter has jumped from around 6,000 to #193 in a matter of about 4 weeks. Our boy, Edison Chen.

Okay, enough Nancy Drew for me. Basically, we accuse stars of milking the system, trying to get more publicity for themselves so that they can get more roles. I don’t blame them and I am certainly not blaming Edison Chen. But, wouldn’t it make sense that if something this devastating happens, you would do whatever you could to salvage it into something positive? Lemons to lemonade…

Which, begs the question sort of previously touched on. What of the girls in this scandal? Can they make the same lemonade, or are they just stuck with lemons and paternity tests?

By the way, I hope no one gets offended by me suggesting that our homie Edison Chen might be trying to get more publicity from the American media machine. I just thought that it would be a great line of questioning given the original question of why is this getting so much attention. And apart from the “OMG, Asian men have normal sex and lots of it!” I thought that the continuing media coverage could be due to some pressure from within his American camp.

Posted 23 Feb 2008 at 8:34 pm ¶
Kaonashi wrote:

The hypocrisy in this whole situation is absolutely delicious, because the same people who are saying “Tut-Tut…that Edward Chen…and that Cecilia girl….absolutely SHAMELESS” in HK are the same ones busting their asses looking at the pics, and this includes both men and women from ALL age groups. I know someone who found out about this from her GRANDMOTHER (who wanted to know if she had seen the pictures yet, lol), and when she asked her gran if she looking at the pictures she said yes, but only to see “if they were as bad as everyone said they were!”

Everyone likes a good scandal because it makes them feel better about themselves, and for women it’s hot to see a hot guy like Edison Chen doing absolutely yummy things with a variety of different girls that they probably wished that their husbands would do. The men are looking because HEY, it’s a bunch of beautiful professional virgins doing absolutely unspeakable things (to them) with a guy they wished like hell was them.

But of course, no one will admit any of this in a million years.

Posted 24 Feb 2008 at 5:58 pm ¶
Torontonian wrote:

lol @ the grandmother.

I’m not familiar with HK media. I was wondering how HK people view Edison Chen. Do they think of him as a Canadian, Westerner playboy who is promiscuous because he’s from Canada?

Posted 24 Feb 2008 at 8:40 pm ¶
Mark wrote:

Cynthia,
His accent seems normal for a CBC, although I’m hardly an expert. In general, though, those of us who grew up speaking a language other than English (or French for that matter) at home seem to mix accents a bit. For those of us with a paler complexion we got teased about our “speech impediment” rather than a lack of English ability.

Posted 25 Feb 2008 at 12:55 am ¶
pat m. wrote:

my guess is that part of eddie boy’s “bad boy” image comes from the fact that he fancies himself a gangsta. have you SEEN his myspace? i’m not surprised he grew up speaking english because he fits in perfectly with myspace’s unwashed teenaged masses. so speaking in english is probably a way for him to try to maintain his street cred (which is probably being shot to hell by the fact that there are ACTUAL gangsters after him now).

incidentally, he looks like a horrible lay in the pictures. maybe he’s cute in a justin timberlake kind of way, but fuck, he’s having sex with some of the biggest starlets around and all he does is try and look extra hard while holding his camera. he probably warms up for sex by scowling in the mirror. i’d hate to have sex with him.

Posted 25 Feb 2008 at 8:54 am ¶
bdsista wrote:

Maybe he couldn’t get the pics/films off and thats why he was taking it to get fixed. I mean when your computer is broken, you are lucky sometimes to preserve your data. I am glad the repair and download people are going to jail and I hope someone videotapes them being boinged by some inmate and releases it on the internet. I don’t care either way about the scandal, however it is good in a way to show that Asian men have as much sex as other men, since in the US they are desexualized and neutered as leading men. But I would be mega pissed if someone stole my images. Its a violation and I can’t even describe what I might do if it was me. But this will be good for his career. He just became stud material.

Posted 26 Feb 2008 at 10:08 am ¶